Travels With a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson

In 1878 Robert Louis Stevenson escaped from his numerous troubles—poor health, tormented love, inadequate funds—by embarking on a journey through the Cévennes in France, accompanied by Modestine, a rather single-minded donkey. The notebook Stevenson kept during this time became Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), a highly entertaining account of the French and their country.