In an interview Claude Lévi-Strauss described himself as a philosopher of voyage. The excursions which lasted sometimes several months to live with indigenous people and study their languages, habits and culture became a scientific field of its own called social anthropology. He travelled with his wife and wrote down hundreds of notes and collected items. Only years later the concept of stuctural theory became evident to him. A voyage might go on after the end of traveling. It might start well before departure as well, not the least due to all the preparations. Colette, the French writer and polyartist, coined the phrase “ce qu’on sait faire, au fond, c’est de la route, ce n‘est pas du voyage ” in the novel « La chatte ». In the pre- and immediate post 2WW years “taking to the roads” often had a gendered view of this with women being rare to hold a driver’s license. To “find meaning through voyages” or “the voyage is the meaning” fill whole libraries. For better or worse, travel books are still best selling books in a shrinking overall book market (less print books sold, but still higher value of sales).
