Tag Archives: France Some cities feel like old friends. Whether you’ve visited many times or never, the streets and buildings are familiar from popular culture, pictures, and movies. Paris is like that – around every corner there is a familiar “Aha!” site. I had a couple of short stopovers in Paris during a recent rainy September. I found […]  If you Google “French” and “food” you will get chapter and verse on culinary artistry, precision techniques, high-quality ingredients, and deep cultural significance. On my first trip to France – many, many years ago – I was working for some friends at a small auberge in Parignargues. There, I was introduced to concept of the […]  It is like stepping into the past – but with artists’ ateliers, boutique shops, and great coffee! Saint-Cirq Lapopie is a heritage-listed medieval village in the southwest of France. Located on a steep cliff, 100m above the Lot River, it originally served as a defensive and administrative centre for one of the local viscomtés – […]  The charming medieval town of Cahors in the Occitan Region of Southern France was full of delightful surprises. The centrepiece of the town is the beautiful St. Étienne Cathedral, a refuge on the famous Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, and – along with the Valentré Bridge (see: A Pilgrim Pathway and a Medieval Bridge) – a […]  I always laugh when people ask me if I have walked “The Camino”. Exactly which caminino (“way”) do they mean? Most people are referring to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela – the Way of St. James – a vast network of pilgrims’ paths leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the Catedral […] |
|
