Montaigne embarked on a journey to free himself; he gives an example of freedom throughout the whole journey… He always goes in the direction his nose points. It doesn't make any plans. The place to go is the place where the road is long and the pleasure you want. In other words, he does not travel, he leaves himself to the flow of a journey. He doesn't want to know where he wants to go in a week. Independence gradually turns into a passion at Montaigne. Sometimes, even knowing where the road leads while on the road can cause a slight discomfort: “I was enjoying the journey so much that I hated even just getting close to a place I was planning to stay.”
Montaigne is not looking for sights on a journey; everything different is worth seeing for him, on the contrary, if any place is very famous, Montaigne prefers to avoid seeing it; because many people have seen and told about it… The more different the destination is from other places, the better.
Montaigne wants to see the foreign in foreign lands. What he wants is to be able to make judgments, not prejudice. As with many things, one can learn how to travel from Montaigne.
Stefan Zweig
