Nicolas Bouvier’s writings transmit the experience of a being wholly in the world, where the senses play a fundamental role in the exploration of foreignness, in particular the sense of smell and that of taste, which are rarely properly evaluated on their own terms. But beyond primitive, uncontrolled sensorial reactions, which befall most travellers, Nicolas Bouvier testifies to an astonishing capacity to not only put into words the most obscure sensations but also discipline his body in order to turn it into a tool in the service of the anthropological understanding of the other.