adventures - more

Students on tour - adventures

During his time as a university student in Paris (1859-1964) the young Leo Dehon dedicates his long university vacations to extended journeys with his friend Leo Palustre: 1861 and 1862 to Great Britain and Ireland, 1863 to Germany, Austria, Scandinavia.
Though writing his memoirs more than 20 years later, the description of these journeys gives us an impression of the youthful temperament of the two Leos. Thus we get to know some aspects of a developing personality, that remain often unknown.

"I had planned a new journey with Palustre. We wanted to visit Germany. Due to my successes at the university, my father agreed. On August 12 I left Paris to meet Palustre in Strasbourg. I had not foreseen that our passion for travel would lead us as far as Norway..." (NHV II/21r)

From the middle of August until November the two students were touring Central and Northern Europe. Thus they went so far beyond what was temporally and geographically agreed to by their parents, that it's hardly surprising to see the family becoming increasingly concerned:

"In Stockholm I found some letters, which were painful for me. My family began to worry about our passion for travel. They had agreed to a journey to Germany. Norway and Sweden had been completely out of the question. I hadn't thought of this when we began our journey. My mother was concerned for all kinds of possible accidents in these far away countries." (NHV II/43v)

Later on Dehon describes what he calls an "adventure" for the two 20 year old students. One evening Dehon and Palustre got into a controversy with their driver, who wanted too much money. After both the justice of the peace and the hosts agreed with the driver, Dehon continues: "Dissatisfied with our hosts, who were in favour of our driver, we didn't want to honour them with our presence. Thus astonishing them all, we went off at 10 o'clock in the evening, with clear moonlight, on foot and our rucksacks on our backs. That was juvenile rashness! We hoped to quickly find a farm. But providence punished us. We had to walk the whole night. Our strength diminished with the frost coming up... Did we have to go to the right or left? Our compass was our only leader, these paths were not registered on our maps. Only at eight o'clock in the morning did we find a farm... Thanks to God, that our health didn't suffer a lot." (NHV II/39v s.)