What do you think?
Rate this book
Chemin faisant
" Rien ne me paraît plus nécessaire aujourd'hui que de découvrir ou redécouvrir nos paysages et nos villages en prenant le temps de le faire. Savoir retrouver les saisons, les aubes et les crépuscules, l'amitié des animaux et même des insectes, le regard d'un inconnu qui vous reconnaît sur le seuil de son rêve. La marche seule permet cela. Cheminer, musarder, s'arrêter où l'on veut, écouter, attendre, observer. Alors, chaque jour est différent du précédent, comme l'est chaque visage, chaque chemin.
" Ce livre n'est pas un guide pédestre de la France, mais une invitation au vrai voyage, le journal d'un errant heureux, des Vosges jusqu'aux Corbières, au coeur d'un temps retrouvé. Car marcher, c'est aussi rencontrer d'autres personnes et réapprendre une autre façon de vivre. C'est découvrir notre histoire sur le grand portulan des chemins. Je ne souhaite rien d'autre, par ce livre, que de redonner le goût des herbes et des sentiers, le besoin de musarder dans l'imprévu, pour retrouver nos racines perdues dans le grand message des horizons. "
J. L.
" Ce livre n'est pas un guide pédestre de la France, mais une invitation au vrai voyage, le journal d'un errant heureux, des Vosges jusqu'aux Corbières, au coeur d'un temps retrouvé. Car marcher, c'est aussi rencontrer d'autres personnes et réapprendre une autre façon de vivre. C'est découvrir notre histoire sur le grand portulan des chemins. Je ne souhaite rien d'autre, par ce livre, que de redonner le goût des herbes et des sentiers, le besoin de musarder dans l'imprévu, pour retrouver nos racines perdues dans le grand message des horizons. "
J. L.
- GenresNonfiction
296 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 1977
2 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Lacarrière
106 books10 followersFrench writer. He studied moral philosophy, classical literature, and Hindu philosophy and literature. Professionally, he was known as a prominent critic, journalist, and essayist.
A passionate admirer of ancient Greece and its mythology, Lacarrière wrote about it extensively. His essay L'été grec (Greek Summer) was an immense popular success. His classical works Maria of Egypt and Dictionnaire amoureux de la Grèce (Dictionary for one who loves Greece) were also successes.
Of interest to ethnographers and ecologists is his Chemin faisant: Mille kilomètres à pied à travers la France 1974, (On the way: One thousand kilometers by foot across France). It was based on his walking across France in 1971, when he kept to small roads and byways, stopping at villages. Beginning in August, he traveled from Saverne in the Vosges, reaching Leucate in November, which is located in the Corbières. It was reprinted by Fayard in 1997 with a postscript entitled "Memory of roads," and addition of selected letters from readers. It was released again in 2014, again by Fayard.
Lacarrière's 1973 literary essay, Les Gnostiques, is well respected for its insights into the early Christian religious movement of Gnosticism. The writer had met English author Lawrence Durrell in 1971, who had been studying some Gnostic texts since the early 1940s. Durrell featured Gnosticism as a plot element in the novels of his The Avignon Quintet (1974 to 1985). He also wrote a "Foreword" to the 1974 English translation of Lacarrière's essay.
For the whole of his work, in 1991 Lacarrière was awarded le Grand Prix de l'Académie française (the Great Prize of the French Academy).
He died in Paris on 17 September 2005, following complications from orthopedic surgery. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in Greece, in the waters off the island of Spetses.
A passionate admirer of ancient Greece and its mythology, Lacarrière wrote about it extensively. His essay L'été grec (Greek Summer) was an immense popular success. His classical works Maria of Egypt and Dictionnaire amoureux de la Grèce (Dictionary for one who loves Greece) were also successes.
Of interest to ethnographers and ecologists is his Chemin faisant: Mille kilomètres à pied à travers la France 1974, (On the way: One thousand kilometers by foot across France). It was based on his walking across France in 1971, when he kept to small roads and byways, stopping at villages. Beginning in August, he traveled from Saverne in the Vosges, reaching Leucate in November, which is located in the Corbières. It was reprinted by Fayard in 1997 with a postscript entitled "Memory of roads," and addition of selected letters from readers. It was released again in 2014, again by Fayard.
Lacarrière's 1973 literary essay, Les Gnostiques, is well respected for its insights into the early Christian religious movement of Gnosticism. The writer had met English author Lawrence Durrell in 1971, who had been studying some Gnostic texts since the early 1940s. Durrell featured Gnosticism as a plot element in the novels of his The Avignon Quintet (1974 to 1985). He also wrote a "Foreword" to the 1974 English translation of Lacarrière's essay.
For the whole of his work, in 1991 Lacarrière was awarded le Grand Prix de l'Académie française (the Great Prize of the French Academy).
He died in Paris on 17 September 2005, following complications from orthopedic surgery. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in Greece, in the waters off the island of Spetses.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 28, 2019
Nicht zuende gelesen... Ich fand es langweilig und etwas selbstbeweihräuchernd.
May 3, 2020
Livre des années 1970 contant le long voyage à pied de l'auteur depuis les Vosges jusqu'aux Corbières et la Mediterranée. Erudit, émouvant, drôle, triste, vous présentant une France proche et lointaine à la fois. Une découverte !
January 13, 2015
A lyrical and occasionally erudite account of a solitary walk across France in (I think) the 1970s; considered a classic of French walking literature. He writes beautifully, poetically, but I found it got a bit samey if you read a lot of it, and it was best to read it in small doses. I have to say that it is extremely rare for me to need to look up words when reading in French, but he used quite a number of words I didn't know :)
Interesting contrast with the ghastly It's Not about the Tapas, a similarly solitary journey. Lacarrière engages with people he meets, relies on kindness and spontaneity to find beds for the night in barns, spare bedrooms, community centres, is happy to stop and chat for a whole morning with a chance-met shepherd or woodworker, because he's not in a hurry and for him the experience of the journey is what matters, not the destination.
Interesting contrast with the ghastly It's Not about the Tapas, a similarly solitary journey. Lacarrière engages with people he meets, relies on kindness and spontaneity to find beds for the night in barns, spare bedrooms, community centres, is happy to stop and chat for a whole morning with a chance-met shepherd or woodworker, because he's not in a hurry and for him the experience of the journey is what matters, not the destination.
September 1, 2013
Excellent field guide to la diagonale vide, it's language and landscape. Suffers from a predictable nostalgia for country life, and too much overt etymological philosophizing. But these are in part what make it so French.
January 13, 2020
Jacques Lacarrière, amoureux de la Grèce et qui l’a parcourue en long et en large, écrit cette fois-ci sur ses 4 mois de marche en France. Cette évocation de la nature et des villages traversés est un livre fort intéressant pour qui a fait Compostelle.
February 25, 2014
aventure magnifiquement racontée mais le ton pédant de l'auteur use à la fin.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews