Travel Journal

Michel de Montaigne

4 ideas

1. The Vatican censors review the Essays

   When Montaigne entered Rome in 1580, customs officials seized his copy of the Essays, and the Master of the Sacred Palace later returned it with objections. The objections covered his use of the word 'fortune', his praise of heretical poets, his defence of Julian the Apostate, and his view that any punishment beyond simple death is cruelty. He was told to correct the book according to his own conscience, and he left most of it unchanged; the same Rome soon granted him honorary citizenship.

2. Treat your own body as experiment

   Montaigne logs each spa cure like a trial. He records how many glasses of water he drank and when, what his urine looked like, and the size, shape and colour of each kidney stone he passed. He compares the waters of Plombières, Baden and Bagni della Villa by their effects on him rather than by the doctors' claims. Close daily observation of one's own symptoms becomes the only reliable test of a remedy when medical authority is contradictory.

3. Travel by immersion, not by insulation

   Montaigne insists on eating local dishes, sleeping in local beds and following local table manners. He mocks fellow Frenchmen who travel in clusters, demand French food and scorn foreign ways. Exposure to other customs is the point of travel, because it reveals that one's own habits are just one arbitrary option among many.

4. The deliberately purposeless itinerary

   His secretary notes that Montaigne refused a fixed route. If a road looked ugly on the right, he went left; if he had missed something, he doubled back. He said he was not going anywhere except where he happened to be. Removing the destination turns every detour into the journey itself and dissolves the fatigue and impatience of arriving.

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