Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of The Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among many other perhaps less well-known but equally fascinating texts, was also an indefatigable great traveller. From the north of Scotland to the Pacific islands where he ends his life, in the territories he has crossed, on foot, by canoe, with a donkey or by boat, communities and associations are trying to enhance the memory and the work of the writer and to promote his humanistic values.
In 2013, associations from Edinburg hand the Lothian region in Scotland, from Bristol, the Highlands, the canals of the north, from Brussels to Pontoise, the country of Fontainebleau and the Cevennes came together to create a European network “On traces of Robert Louis Stevenson “. In April 2015, this network was certified Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, a program launched by the Council of Europe in 1987 with the Declaration of Santiago de Compostela and which in 2018 included 33 itineraries, each of which they are crossing at least three countries.
This certification, which must be re-evaluated every three years, is a guarantee of excellence and the implementation of innovative activities and projects in five priority areas:
- cooperation in research and development;
- valorization of memory, history and European heritage;
- educational and cultural exchanges for young Europeans;
- contemporary culture and artistic practice,
- cultural tourism and sustainable development.
If obtaining this certification shows the interest of the project and the dynamism of the team that carries it, its renewal shows the success of its implementation and its development.
Since 2013, the associations that make up the network have developed many activities and the three countries behind this creation have been joined by Germany (city of Bad-Homburg). At the end of the demanding evaluation procedure, the Council of Europe has decided to renew for three years the certification of the network “In the Footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson” as a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.
This European association is thus reinforced to continue its joint actions in the direction of young people, actors of cultural and heritage tourism, artists, actors of the literary world, researchers and academics, by mobilizing all its members and partners, associations and communities local and regional The next important meetings will be around a festival of poetry and literature in Bad Homburg (Germany) next June, a literary stroll from Puy en Velay to Alès (Cévennes, France) in June 2020, and a cultural event around the memory of the slave trade in Europe and its abolition in Bristol in 2021.