Summary Biography of Alexandra David-Néel (2d Part).

At the age of 5, Alexandra did it again, this time setting off to explore the wood of Vincennes near Paris. Unfortunately, at nightfall, a guard, alerted by her family, dragged her to the police station, terribly upset at the outcome of her first great adventure.
She was most certainly not discouraged by this disappointment ! She dug her little nails into the hand of the policeman who led her back to her parents' home, swearing revenge one day on the vile grownups who kept poor little children from doing what they wanted... She would go away, and no one would stop her. Alexandra was 6 when her family moved to Ixelles, south of Brussels, where she spent much of her youth.

Ixelles, Belgium.
During the holidays the David family did their best to kill time, while Alexandra regretted the "uselessness of such a massacre" : "I cried bitter tears more than once, having the profound feeling that life was going by, that the days of my youth were going by, empty, without interest, without joy. I understood that I was wasting time that would never return, that I was losing hours that could have been beautiful. My parents - like most doting parents who have raised, if not a large eagle, at least a diminutive eaglet obsessed with flying through the air - could not comprehend this in the least and, although no worse than others, they did me more harm than a relentless enemy." In spite of her dreary youth, Alexandra never forgot her main objective: travel ! It would be impossible to recount how many times the incorrigible Alexandra ran away from home and she did not wait to grow up to keep her promise. Every chapter in her long life would start with "She left!" and finish with "She will leave again"...

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Although travelling for her meant chasing the horizon, contemplating nature - preferably unmarred - hers was above all a religious and philosophical quest.

At the age of 6, she never went to sleep without having read and meditated on a verse from the Bible.

At 12, her young brain was tormented by the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

At 15, she was particularly influenced by Epictetus and the Stoic philosophers. She was almost an adult when she went to England alone in 1883, and returned only after having spent all she had in her purse.

At 17, she accomplished what she called a real journey: on a foggy morning, in a frilly dress and dainty boots, she boarded a train from Brussels to Switzerland. A few days later, her mother went to the shores of Lake Maggiore to collect her daughter, who was penniless, had crossed the Saint Gotthard pass on foot and visited the Italian lakes carrying nothing more than a raincoat and a copy of "Epictetus' Manual".

In 1886, Alexandra was 18. On a heavy fixed pinion bicycle, her belongings on the handlebars, without a word to her parents, she left her home in Brussels to visit Spain.

Alexandra David teenager.

On the way there, she made a detour to the French Riviera and another through Mont-Saint-Michel on the way back ! Alexandra must have been the first woman to run the Tour de France bicycle race !

To get from one place to another, all her life she chose the longest itinerary and the slowest means of transportation.