Daniel de Roulet decided to walk 400 miles across north-western France from Saint- Malo to Soissons in the footsteps of monks who came from Ireland in the late 6th century. One of those monks was named Gall, and in the year 612, he founded the Swiss city called Saint Gall. To honor his memory – and for the sake of adventure – the author and some friends decided to retrace the monks’ footstep, but as a relay ramble, divided into sections. The first ones left from Ireland. Others took over at Soissons, going as far as Luxeuil-les-Bains, and the last group went from there to Saint-Gall.
Once again, Daniel de Roulet takes the road less traveled by following precisely the path of monks who walked 1,400 years before… even if that now means taking the risk of walking along highways, crossing urban wastelands and abandoned rural zones, of learning the feel of different types of asphalt under the soles of his shoes, of letting life surprise him, bore him, or disappoint him, of daydreaming... It is also the freedom of connecting to the past via a ramble that is totally unlike the blazed trails indicated in hikers’ guide books.

From Saint-Malo to Soissons, Daniel de Roulet walked some 400 miles of the path taken by 6th-century Irish monks took to Switzerland, where one of them, named Gall, founded the city of Saint Gall, in 612.