Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

The deepest truths are found in silence, not in speech Carl Jung The 14 nuns of the Cistercian convent of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix at Castaigniers have their work cut out at the moment making chocolates and praying for world peace. I was maybe naive to have expected to encounter a merry throng of  nuns with whom I…

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Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification James Gordon Bennett The day did not get off to the best of starts. As I laid out my kit on the bed in my room in the religious retreat I was staying in at Menton I tried to extend my two Leki poles…

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It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves Katherine Mansfield In 1920, the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield came to stay in the French resort of Menton as a valetudinarian, a person seeking health. The word comes from the Latin valere, to be well, but it is easy to misunderstand the etymology…

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France is a paradise inhabited by people who believe they’re in hell Sylvain Tesson – author of Sur les Chemins Noirs Shortly after New Year, quite by chance, I bumped into a couple of old acquaintances, and faithful followers of this blog, in the Waitrose car park in Salisbury. After we had exchanged New Year…

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He flashed like a meteor across the sheepdog horizon.There never was such an outstanding personality. Adam Telfer on Old Hemp You may wonder what Britain’s greatest export to the world is. Constitutional law? Parliamentary democracy? The steam engine? The Beatles? Scotch Whisky? Mr Bean? We can debate the subject until the cows come home. But…

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Everyone who has visited the Basque country longs to return; it is a blessed land. Victor Hugo Shortly after 9am I passed a sign informing me that I was just entering the Pays Basque. Curiously it was written in both French and Basque, a language I am completely unfamiliar with. I was intrigued and spent…

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Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Tennessee Williams – A Street Car named Desire. The small things in life make the world of difference. A smile from a check out assistant: a cheery wave from a vague acquaintance; a like on a blog post. Random acts of kindness or…

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Good food is always a trouble and its preparation should be regarded as a labour of love. Elisabeth David Today was a marathon of a day – 42km or 26.2km as the crow flies or as Pheidippides ran in 490BC from the Battle of Marathon to Athens with the message of Nike (‘Victory’) before promptly…

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Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde Corinne was a saint. She could, she told me, have charged a good deal more than 25 euros a night for a room if she did AirBnB. But she didn’t because she simply preferred the pleasure of meeting genuine pilgrims and charging…

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Since most scientists are just a bit religious, and most religious are seldom wholly unscientific, we find humanity in a comical position. His scientific intellect believes in the possibility of miracles inside a black hole, while his religious intellect believes in them outside it. William Golding Do you believe in miracles? If so, Lourdes is…

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