Walkingman

We breakfasted early next day. Breakfast was a do-it-yourself affair. The food and everything else were there, but just had to be prepared and brought to the table. Then the crockery had to be washed and put away, and that was it. We were soon ready to get on the trail again. It was a…

We had agreed with the proprietor of the gite that we would have breakfast at seven o’clock in the morning. We arrived down to find the two ladies we had met the previous afternoon. Shortly after us came the two younger ladies that we had met over dinner in Le Bouchet-St-Nicolas. We had not seen…

The hotel only served breakfast from seven-thirty onwards, and we were down early, waiting to go into the dining room. The hotel proprietor was no more affable in the morning than he had been the previous day and did not hesitate to tell us that we were too early. But the breakfast when it came…

Stevenson mentions having to share his room at the inn in le Bouchet-St-Nicolas with a French couple. His Victorian attitudes come to the fore. He mentions being abashed at the experience and keeping his eyes to himself to avoid looking at the woman. In the modern world of gites the accommodation is in dormitories, and…

Stevenson, in his book, describes in detail his leaving Monastier. How he got to Monastier is not described. One can only assume that he came from Le Puy by some conventional means of the time. After taking several days to buy the donkey, get the pack harness constructed, and acquire all his supplies of the…

The following morning, with the weather looking good, we had an early breakfast and filled our water bottles before setting out again for the train station in St. Etienne. Our plan was to get to Le Puy and start walking immediately. We wanted to buy some food in St. Etienne, but on the Sunday morning,…

Like so many things in this life, the decision was made over a pint of beer. But first, let’s go back a little while. In 2019, business brought me to the little town of Alès in Provence. While I was there, one of the people I was meeting mentioned that Alès was at the southern…

There are some walks that stay long in my memory. Sometimes it is a particularly long walk, that I feel a real sense of achievement in doing that walk. Sometimes there is an event on the walk or people I meet, that makes it memorable. Sometimes, there is particular scenery that I remember for a…

Having made the ascent of Säntis a few weeks ago, I decided that this years walks should include some more high level outings, perhaps not the highest in Switzerland, but higher than the Jura, which are my local mountains here in Basel. And so I chose to make the walk from Schynige Platte to First.…

I have not written here in a long time. It is not a case that I have given up walking or traveling, but I have had some distractions during 2022 that have meant I was not posting here. However, sometimes, there is something that just has to be posted on this blog, and that is…