Table of Contents
Introduction
Why Walk? 1
The Pyrenees
The Starr of an Adventure 11
Jacques and His Saucepans 16
No Need for Crampons 18
A Taste of the Wild 22
The Country of the Cathars
A Sanctuary for Heretics 25
The Cathars 28
From Granite to Limestone 30
Montaillou 32
An Old Frontier 34
The Languedoc
Wine and Wind 57
The Scent of the Garrigue 40
Carcassonne 44
The Cévennes and the Ardéche
In the Steps of a Donkey 51
A Struggle for Survival 57
Enter Robert Louis Stevenson 62
Hearing God's Words 64
The Rhone and the Alps of Upper Provence
A Landscape for Hermits 69
Le Grand Pays Bleu 73
A Foretaste Of The Alps 75
The Valley Of The Var 80
The Alps
Pastures and Passes 83
The High Alps 89
Les Écrins 93
Grenoble 96
The Chartreuse 98
The Jura
Forests and Frontiers 103
Unconventional Encounters 107
Switzerland's Neighbour 113
Bound to the Soil 117
Alsace and the Vosges Mountains
Facing the Rhine 121
Alsace 126
A walk in the vosges 133
From Lorraine to the Northern Plains
Woods And Water 139
Lorraine 142
A Walk Through Lorraine 147
The Marks Of War 149
The Ardennes: The Empty Quarter 156
The Thiérache 160
From Le Nord to the Channel
The Flat Country 165
Artois 170
Sand and Shingle: The Channel 177
Normandy
Chalk, Cheese and Cider 183
Walking In Normandy 184
Norman Landscapes 187
1940-44 196
Mont St.-Michel 199
Brittany
Stones, Shrines And The Sea 203
From Celtic Backwater To Prosperous Region 209
The Cost Of Tourism 216
The Vendée and the Saintonge
Marshes and Lazy Rivers 225
The Wild West No Longer 230
Angels and a Magician 233
The Saintonge: Grapes and Gargoyles 235
Aquitaine
Pilgrims and Pines 241
Bordeaux 247
Les Landes 249
The Béam 253
Lourdes 263
Postscript 267
Acknowledgements 270
Index 271
