On the Wandering Paths
On the Wandering Paths

Author: Sylvain Tesson

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2022-08-02

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1452967482

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A walking journey through France’s vast interior becomes a meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the present—more than 425,000 copies sold in France After a free-climbing accident lands him in a coma and a hospital for four months, the French writer Sylvain Tesson makes a promise to himself: if he’s ever able to walk again, he will traverse the entire country of France on foot. Part literary adventure, part philosophical reflection on our contemporary consumer culture, On the Wandering Paths takes us deep into the heart of what Tesson terms France’s “hyperrural” zones. Tracing the obscure paths peasants once followed throughout the countryside, Tesson embarks on a three-month journey of solitude and personal contemplation as he walks along vast stretches of mountain ranges and rivers, encountering ancient Roman stone bridges and walkways, the French Foreign Legion, pagan prayer sites, Provençal villages, and the majestic Mont-Saint-Michel. Connecting deeply with the places he visits, his experiences inspire reflection on the essential need to disengage from the digital and immerse oneself in natural beauty. Rich with humor, historical insight, and literary power, On the Wandering Paths is both a meditation on the act of recovery and a potent recognition of the traces of our past in the present. Asking us to reassess our values and our relationship to the land, Tesson’s exquisite chronicle through landscapes that continue to resist urbanization and technology is a thoughtful—and thought-provoking—glimpse into a poet’s adventurous life. Les Chemins de Pierre, a film based on the book starring Jean Dujardin, is due to release in 2022.

The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography

Author: Graham Robb

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2008-10-17

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 039306882X

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"A witty, engaging narrative style…[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing." —New York Times Book Review A narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. A New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, Slate Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice.

Mountain Lines
Mountain Lines

Author: Jonathan Arlan

Publisher: Skyhorse

Published: 2017-02-14

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1510709762

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A New York Times best summer travel book recommendation A nonfiction debut about an American’s solo, month-long, 400-mile walk from Lake Geneva to Nice. In the summer of 2015, Jonathan Arlan was nearing thirty. Restless, bored, and daydreaming of adventure, he comes across an image on the Internet one day: a map of the southeast corner of France with a single red line snaking south from Lake Geneva, through the jagged brown and white peaks of the Alps to the Mediterranean sea—a route more than four hundred miles long. He decides then and there to walk the whole trail solo. Lacking any outdoor experience, completely ignorant of mountains, sorely out of shape, and fighting last-minute nerves and bad weather, things get off to a rocky start. But Arlan eventually finds his mountain legs—along with a staggering variety of aches and pains—as he tramps a narrow thread of grass, dirt, and rock between cloud-collared, ice-capped peaks in the High Alps, through ancient hamlets built into hillsides, across sheep-dotted mountain pastures, and over countless cols on his way to the sea. In time, this simple, repetitive act of walking for hours each day in the remote beauty of the mountains becomes as exhilarating as it is exhausting. Mountain Lines is the stirring account of a month-long journey on foot through the French Alps and a passionate and intimate book laced with humor, wonder, and curiosity. In the tradition of trekking classics like A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The Snow Leopard, and Tracks, the book is a meditation on movement, solitude, adventure, and the magnetic power of the natural world.

Walking in France
Walking in France

Author: Gillian Souter

Publisher: Interlink Publishing Group

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13:

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When and where to look out for people with guns during hunting season. The authors take good advantage of France's extensive network of walking clubs and walking facilities. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Walking Across France
Walking Across France

Author: Kerry Shoemaker

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2020-08-13

Total Pages: 107

ISBN-13: 1728306183

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This is a tale not only about a long walk but also about the day-by-day evolution of our mental and physical transformation during one memorable month in France. This story is about our walk across southwestern France from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean in September and October of 1995. This adventure was so special to both of us that when we excitedly related incidents to friends and family, they encouraged us to write down our memories before they faded into the inevitable, unreliable, and irretrievable gray matter, details lost forever. Most of the text comes from the journals that we maintained daily. Sometimes, however, depending on how tired we were or how much local wine we consumed, the journals were not as complete as they could have been and we probably have lost some details. In spite of that, we think that we have accurately captured most of the adventure.

A Walk Through Paris
A Walk Through Paris

Author: Eric Hazan

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2018-03-27

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1786632616

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A walker’s guide to Paris, taking us through its past, present and possible futures Eric Hazan, author of the acclaimed Invention of Paris, takes the reader on a walk from Ivry to Saint-Denis, roughly following the meridian that divides Paris into east and west, and passing such familiar landmarks as the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pompidou Centre, the Gare du Nord and Montmartre, as well as forgotten alleyways and arcades. Weaving historical anecdotes, geographical observations, and literary references, Hazan’s walk guides us through an unknown Paris. With the aid of maps, he delineates the most fascinating and forgotten parts of the city’s past and present. Planning and modernization have accelerated the erasure of its revolutionary history, yet through walking and observation, Hazan shows how we can regain our knowledge of the city of Robespierre, the Commune, Sartre, and the May ’68 uprising. Drawing on his own life story, as surgeon, publisher and social critic, Hazan vividly illustrates the interplay and concord between a city and the personality it forms.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher: Cosimo Classics

Published: 1879

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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On 23 September 1878 Stevenson set out from Le Monastier in the Haut Loire, to tramp through the wild region of the Cevennes. His only companion was a small donkey to carry basic necessities, and a commodious "sleeping sack". In the next 12 days, at a pace dictated by the donkey and carrying most of the supplies himself, he travelled 120 miles across rivers, mountains and forests. His stylish and witty account was published in 1879.

Walks Through Lost Paris
Walks Through Lost Paris

Author: Leonard Pitt

Publisher: Counterpoint Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781593761035

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A full-color traveler's volume outlines four walking tours through some of its most significant historical areas, offering insight into how specific regions and buildings have changed, in a resource that provides specific coverage of the work of Georges-Eugne Haussmann. Original.

A Walking Tour in Southern France
A Walking Tour in Southern France

Author: Ezra Pound

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9780811212236

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Rummaging through his papers in 1958, Ezra Pound came across a cache of notebooks dating back to the summer of 1912, when as a young man he had walked the troubadour landscape of southern France. Pound had been fascinated with the poetry of medieval Provence since his college days. His experiments with the complex lyric forms of Arnaut Daniel, Bertran de Born, and others were included in his earliest books of poems; his scholarly pursuits in the field found their way into The Spirit of Romance (1910); and the troubadour mystique was to become a resonant motif of the Cantos. In the course of transcribing and emending the text of "Walking Tour 1912", editor Richard Sieburth retraced Pound's footsteps along the roads to the troubadour castles. "What this peripatetic editing process...revealed", he writes, "was a remarkably readable account of a journey in search of the vanished voices of Provence that at the same time chronicled Pound's gradual discovery of himself as a modernist poet...".

France on Foot
France on Foot

Author: Bruce LeFavour

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780966344806

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It is possible to walk from any village in France to another without ever boarding a car, train, or bus. This is a guide to the more than 110,000 miles of well-marked and maintained off-road footpaths and to the gracious accommodations, wonderful restaurants, and sights along the way. Vineyards, caves, chateaux, and other beauties of the countryside are highlighted in colour photos. The book provides explanations of trail markers, equipment advice, packing tips, and a pocket-sized English-French walker's vocabulary.