First of all Pierre, are you a golf lover?

As a former sixty-eight member of the revolutionary communist youth, I must say that until now I have not really had the opportunity to take an interest in golf and its world. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in Ireland, a country that I particularly love, children can play golf for a ridiculous price as soon as they have a free moment. They are often so good that they even manage to do the whole course with one club. It is really a very accessible and popular sport there, just like rugby or Gaelic football.

Chronicles vagabonds, after 39 years at the head of writing the Guide du Routard was it time to make a first assessment?

At some point, we feel that we have to take stock. In addition I am in semi-retirement. So all of a sudden, instead of making 10 trips a year, I was only making 5 trips. That left me with significant freedom. At the start, I had selected 200 chronicles and I was told, you only have 340 pages of text. We had to make choices. I integrated the adventures that touched me the most in terms of rich memories and emotions. I also had to strike a balance between countries and periods. One of the chronicles may surprise. It was that of my passage into the working class when I worked four years in the printing press as a rotativist. I told myself that this is part of my approach and my psychological and professional construction.

Before returning to the Routard, you had an atypical route to say the least. Can you tell us about it?

I am bac-3. School was not suited to my personality. I immediately started working and did my military service very early at 18. Before taking part in the Routard, I was in turn altar boy, decorator-window dresser, student at the Free University of Vincennes, teacher in prison, printer worker, press corrector for dailies, the Official Journal and Guides blue. I even thought I could be an executive ...

Photo: DR

When did you meet Philippe Gloaguen, the boss of Routard?

At the Blue Guides, when I was asked to technically lead the collection of the first “Guide du Routard”. After being refused by 19 publishers, Philippe Gloaguen, the co-founder and current director of the collection, had succeeded in publishing in April 1973 a first guide at Gedalge. But barely launched, the Routard almost perishes: a bus crushes the publisher and causes the bankruptcy of his small publishing house. A discount store buys back the 1500 unsold guides and sells them easily. He then contacted Philippe and put him in touch with Hachette, editor of the Blue Guides. After a few months, I meet him in a hallway and he tells me that he is very happy with my work, that I am really involved in the correction, even making proposals, which he likes a lot. The problem, I tell him, is that I'm sick of traveling by proxy, I'd like to go out into the field a bit. At that moment, he falls into my arms, telling me that he is all alone and that he is just looking for someone to help him. At first, I must admit that it was not very profitable because there were only 6 guides. So I continued my corrector activity. In 1981, the Official Journal suggested that I be hired definitively with the salary, dual status, state and printing worker, social protection and the possibility of exercising trade union activities. What the dream thing! On the other side, I had taken a liking to travel. Philippe Gloaguen left me complete freedom. I could give free rein to my biases and my rants. I realized that writing, sharing my passions with readers, was really what I wanted to do. So I had a real state of mind. What do I do ? Choose safety, or the unknown, but with Mexico, Brazil and many more to come. Finally I chose the road ...

Do you think you need to be politically engaged to be a real traveler?    

No, but it is on the other hand necessary to express at least through the guide its solidarity with those left behind in society and the oppressed. You cannot visit a country ignoring social, political and human conditions. Since I was very little, all the things that I experienced and which deeply affected me were always linked to the fight, to the fight for elementary rights, to have a home, the right to eat enough, the access to education. I think the Guide du Routard was built against the older generation of travel guides who claimed to develop an objective and neutral vision of the societies described. In these guides, we came to talk about Portugal or Spain without talking about the dictatorship of Salazar or Franco. When you visit a country, even a European country, you have to leave your prejudices, your clichés, your buckets of shit in your head at the border. And above all, we must try to understand. The Routard readers recognized themselves in this process. And that is certainly largely why they have been loyal to us for over 40 years.

How do you view the success of the Guide du Routard?

Backpacking is a fact of society. It is a nomadic object that has carved out its place in society because it has understood its evolution. If we had not understood the new ways of thinking about travel, the new techniques, we would not have survived very long. We were able to take account of our mistakes, under the blows of our readership who gave us tips and advice. It's a story of perpetual elevator dismissal. We bring them information, they confirm to us in a fraternal way, whether we have everything right or wrong. We take it into account and everyone evolves like that. One of the assets of Routard is also to be intergenerational. Over time, he has been able to respond to readers' criticisms and move forward with him.

What do you say to those who believe that the Backpacker has gentrified?   

I give them an affectionate smile telling them that they are basically right. But I also tell them that gentrification is not the right term. I prefer to say that the backpacker has evolved. The average backpacker, the broke student of the 70s, the hippie in a flowered shirt, bandana in hair and scratching in the back, when I see one I run after and take a picture of it. The backpacker's symbol is no longer that. In a hike in the Vanoise, today there may be a working class from Renault behind a banker from Rothschild. In fact, the Backpacker is above all a state of mind. It's a look at travel that's totally independent of social class and wallet thickness. But, sometimes it's the trip of a lifetime and you have to give people the opportunity to experience great things while avoiding outrageous prices. I am thinking of the palaces of Maharajahs in the Shekhawati in India. It's less than $ 100 a night in an 80 square meter room with livery waiters and four-poster beds. Why deprive yourself of it?

Is there a trip you would like to repeat and a destination that you still have to discover?     

I still have two or three dreams. It is first of all to complete my Asian fantasy with South Korea and Mongolia since, in particular, I saw Nikita Mikhalkov's film Urga. And then Ethiopia too. A trip that I would like to do again, Yemen. I think I experienced the shock of civilization and the most profound change of scenery during my years on the road. A people who devote 30% of their national income to chewing Qat, this so-called euphoric kind of weed that gives their consumers pretty dilated cheeks, it is simply incredible. The whole country is armed while the architecture of the cities is absolutely splendid. I think Saana is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And then the traditions, the ethnic groups, the desert… I would like to go back there, but I think I will have to wait a few centuries, because at the moment there is not a square centimeter that is affordable. So I will have to temporarily shift my hopes to another country.

Interview by David Raynal

Wandering Chronicles: Small dictionary of the unusual itineraries of a Backpacker

400 pages - € 19,90 - Hachette Tourisme