He did not like to plan, but he did not like to miss things either. His secretary, accompanying him and (for a while) keeping his journal for him, remarked that people in the party complained about Montaigne’s habit of straying from the path whenever he heard of extra things he wanted to see. But Montaigne would say it was impossible to stray from the path: there was no path.8 The only plan he had ever committed himself to was that of travelling in unknown places. So long as he did not repeat a route, he was following this plan to the letter.
