In this paper we address the problem of accessing text information by text navigation. We present an approach to text navigation conceived as a cognitive process exploiting linguistic information present in texts. We claim that the navigational knowledge involved in this process can be modeled in a declarative way with the Sextant language. Since this language refers exhaustively to specific linguistic phenomena, we define a customized text representation. These different components have been implemented in the text navigation system NaviTexte. NaviLire, an application of NaviTexte is described.