Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes - I Have a Goad

In which the author finds himself lodged in the humble and homely auberge of Bouchet St. Nicholas, where rustic hospitality and simple fare accompany the quiet rhythms of rural life, and a kindly innkeeper presents him with a most fortuitous invention: the goad, a gentle rod that transforms both beast and master’s journey with quiet authority. From the harsh highlands the traveller descends through autumnal fields and windswept hills, crossing ancient rivers and entering the wild frontiers of Gévaudan, where the landscape and its stories breathe a sombre, solemn welcome.