Jeanne in Figeac

Jeanne on the trail.

Have you ever thought about the goats that goat cheese comes from? Check out those udders!

Jeanne above Cajarc

The river in Cajarc

A prehistoric burial site.

Abandoned building along the trail.

Cahors

The famous bridge in Cahors

Carcassonne

Avignon's famous bridge.

Southern France

I'm having technical difficulties, and unfortunately am having troubles getting my photos up. I'll try again later this week--some of them look spectacular.

I loved southern France. Avignon wins the prize for city that I'd most like to live in.

After leaving Figeac, we hiked for three days through tiny little towns until we reached Cahors. I'd definitely recommend the hike that we did, or even a drive through the area. The first two days were very tough, the third almost impossible, largely because of the weather--it was 75 degrees the first 2 days, and over 100 on the third. We wandered along dirt trails and old roman roads past churches, hamlets, hundreds of cows, prehistoric burial mounds, and field after field of the most beautiful wildflowers I've ever seen.

My favorite quotes from my sister:
"This is more intense than I expected"
"I've never had a workout that made my legs this sore"

Both are quite apt. Oddly, what hurt the most for me were my hips, I think because of the weight of my pack. I also have blistered feet, abrasions on my back from the pack rubbing, and bruises on my sternum from the pack as well. It was definitely a very physical experience! I'm really glad we made it as far as we did. I feel quite proud of our efforts.

Favorite places along the way:

Faycelles: a "town of flowers." It consists of about 20 homes positively overflowing with flowers.

Grealou: about 10 houses with a stunning graveyard.

Cajarc: average town with a way-above-average river view. There's a campground right next to the river with canoe rentals, and mountain climbing right behind it. It would be a great place to spend a few days.

Varaire: possibly my favorite town along the route. It's a small farming community with 1 hostel and a great restaurant. We had dinner family style with a dozen other hikers from Germany, Spain, Holland, France, and Switzerland, all of whom had hiked other areas of the trail before. I really enjoyed talking to them. Useful pieces of information: after three days, your muscles adjust to the walking, and the spanish portion of the trail is much easier.

Cahors: the obvious highlight of Cahors is Pont Valentre, a massive bridge built in the 14th century. It's remarkably well preserved. I particularly enjoyed walking through the medieval quarter, a maze of narrow streets and ancient homes. We learned a bit about local history from a young Frenchman eager to practice his English. It was the first time that I've been told that I have a strong accent, which I suppose I do if you're used to hearing the queen's english.

On Saturday we caught a train to Carcassonne, one of the best preserved walled towns in all of europe. It's breath-taking, and extremely hard to take at the same time. After several days of being away from the tourist track, I was completely overwhelmed by the crowds. The best way to do Carcassonne? Spend the day exploring the countryside and arrive in the town after 5. The church and museum are skipable, and you could easily explore the town by night.

Below the walled city is the living town of Carcassonne, which deserves a visit as well. It's missing the castle and walls, but is equally old--the central market has existed in the same location for nearly 1000 years.

From Carcassonne, we took another train to Avignon, the city of my dreams. It has the elegance and history of Paris--it was the seat of the catholic church in the 13th century--all the charm and friendliness of a small town, and is in the curve of a spectacular river. I didn't see anyone practicing water sports, but it looked ideal for waterskiing. It's also were Cote du Rhone wine comes from, and a lot of amazing cheese.

I'm back in Paris now, and plan to stay put until my flight home on the 28th. I can't believe the journey is almost over!

The Chemin de St. Jacques, Days 1-3

I just finished the three most intense hiking days of my life. I'm a swollen, bruised mess, but am very proud of myself for making it this far.

My sister (I'll post pictures next week for those of you that don't know her) arrived in Paris on Sunday, and we took a long train ride to Figeac (it's near Cahors in southern France, if you'd like to look it up) on Tuesday. It's an ancient town--many of the buildings are over 800 years old. If you're into medieval architecture, Figeac is the place to go. The plan: hike from Figeac to Mossaic in six days along the traditional pilgrimage route. The Chemin de St. Jacques has multiple routes throughout europe, culminating at the northwesternmost tip of Spain. The route (especially the Spanish portion) has gained a lot of popularity in recent years.

We've survived the first three days, traveling from Figeac to Cahors.
Day 1: 31 km
Day 2: 27 km
Day 3: 31 km

Jeanne and I are completely exhausted. I'm actually too tired to write for long, but promise a complete update in a few days. The countryside is gorgeous beyond belief, and we've made numerous friends along the way. I think we're throwing in the towel tomorrow, and plan to take the train to Avignon for a few days to let the blisters heal.

More to come...

Bordeaux

I didn't love Bordeaux--it's very similar in appearance to Paris, just a bit more run down and with three times the dog poop on the street. I got the impression that the Bordeaux region is the place to visit, not the city itself.

I did like visiting the belfry of the Basilique St-Michel. At one time, it was a notorious prison--after the criminals died, their bodies were placed outside, for all to see. The pictures were disturbing, to say the least--dozens of rotting corpses propped against the wall. Now it's just a bell tower, but one that includes access to the inner workings of the bells. I enjoyed watching how everything works.

Paris Ville 2012

Paris is in the running for the 2012 Olympics, and getting an early start on the cleaning process. You can really see the difference on this building; the right side is clean, the left untouched. Notre Dame is almost unrecognizable; who knew that it was made of white stone?

Paris

I've spent the last 5 days relaxing in Paris. Hayden's apartment is in the 2nd, near Les Halles in a charming pedistrian-only district. There are shops right outside--cheese, wine, fruit, fish, and pastries. Getting to the apartment is a bit exhausting--it's on the 6th floor, with no elevator. Once inside, however, it's great. There's a small bedroom, a large kitchen/living room, and a great terrace on the roof that overlooks Paris. The Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou are both visible. I'm working on getting a picture of the sunset behind the tower. Saturday-Monday were gorgeous, and I lived up on the terrace. I actually managed to get a bit of a tan. I tried to escape for a few hours each day, and took a nice walk through the left bank with Kurt, the pilot I had met a few days earlier in Prague. I've been cooking quite a bit, which I have really missed. Just in case you're curious, you can't buy jack cheese here, but "tomme" works pretty well in its place.

On Tuesday, the rain set in. California definitely spoils you--I'm used to nice little sprinkles in the winter. The rain here is torrential, complete with gale force winds. I took the train to the Cathedral in Chartes, which has spectacular stained glass, was at one point destroyed by vikings, and holds Mary's veil. I was caught in a downpour for about 30 seconds on the way back to the train station, and had to ride home soaked. I might have well have jumped in a swimming pool.

I was a little more lucky today--I managed to fit in three churches, 2 museums, and the Parc Monceau between the showers. I've now spent around a total of 5 weeks in Paris, and am down towards the bottom of my list of museums to see. While some have been fairly weak (the doll museum), today's selection were great. In particular, the Musee Gustave-Moreau was excellent--a house packed with the artist's personal belongings, and then two large galleries of his work. While I'm not a huge fan, I loved this one:

The scan doesn't do the original much justice, unfortunately. It has a painted background with incredibly detailed line art over the top.

Tomorrow night Hayden, several of his friends, and I are off to London for a few days of eating fried food and visiting museums.

Relaxing on the roof of Hayden's apartment in Paris.

Paris-Milan-Bergamo-Como-Verona

I made it safe and relatively sound (definitely tired) to Milan on Thursday at 7:10 am. By 7:25, I was at Il Duomo, wandering around in relative peace. Milan doesn't seem to wake before 8 am, making it hard to even find a cup of coffee, but allowing a nearly empty tour of the interior of the Duomo. It's huge and impressive, though I far preferred the roof tour, which gave a great view of the multiple layers of construction. My guidebooks mention that there are over 3000 statues on the building, which seems believable considering that each spire has about 8-12.

I next toured the Brera and Ambrosiana museums, which were excellent. My criteria: strong, interesting collection which a few recognizable pieces, ideally small enough to be completed in under two hours (before brain fatigue sets in). Both focused on religious art, and had small collections of 18th and 19th century works, including several by Francesco Hayez that I particularly liked. He's known for "The Kiss", but also did Whistler-esque society portraits. I liked the Ambrosiana the most, because they had a restoration area right in the center of one of the portrait galleries. It was interesting to watch the people work.

Lesson for the rest of the trip: leave the most important church for the end. I saw three or four others (San Alessandro being the most appealing), but they all paled in comparison to Il Duomo.

I planned a day for all of this, but finished up around 1 pm. The train to como wasn't scheduled to leave for 5 hours, so I spent the afternoon traveling to and around Bergamo. This was a lovely little walled town in the center of a larger modern one. It's know for the extremely baroque Capella Colleoni church (which is indeed quite ornate, to the point of being gawdy). I took a bus around the outer wall, then walked through the center. This town isn't necessarily worth the trip, but would be a great place to study abroad. I assume there are several schools in the town, gaging from the fact that nearly everyone I saw was under 25 and carrying a bookbag.

Two more hours on the train brought me to Como and a nice, quiet, and clean hostel. The town was covered in fog. My next trip to Como will be a better funded one; it seemed like a great place to enjoy with a healthy budget. The hills were covered with grand villas covering the hillside.

I'm nearing the end of my second day in Verona. While you could get through the major sites in a single day, the pace is slow here and I've enjoyed wandering the streets. I've seen 8 churches (my favorite being the one devoted to San Zeno, which was originally constructed around 806 A.D.), the Colliseum and Juliet's house (unremarkable), several roman ruins, a small museum, the view from the top of the Austrian military baracks, several bicycle shops (I spent most of the day with two nice young men from a town near Shasta who plan to bike from Verona to Rome, if they can find bikes), and a few other things. Verona isn't so much about the things in it as about the town itself--it's friendly, full of beautiful, old buildings, and quite atmospheric. The kind of place where it's okay to do nothing but be there.

I plan to eat something with a lot of cheese on it tonight, drink some of the excellent local wine (very light and fruity), head off to Bologna tomorrow morning, and make it to Florence by nightfall (note to future travelers: there are few direct trains between Verona and Florence; you have to plan on a detour to either Milan or Bologna).