I’ve been back in the UK for a couple of weeks and am still reflecting on the 3 week journey around Europe.  I realise I didn’t provide an update on Carcassonne: it’s a wonderful town, built in 3 stages.  The castle on the hill you can see from a lot of angles in lower Carcassonne is the oldest part – the Roman settlement, becoming a mediaeval old town and restored in in the 19th century over the course of 50 years.  The castle and old town are stunning – well worth a day at least to explore if you’re not staying in the old town and definitely worth going up on an evening to take in the sunset.  The restoration work was planned incredibly thoughtfully: the original Roman rampart and look-out towers have been preserved as far as possible, then the castle is largely the 17-18 century version, which was part garrison and defence, and part home for the Duke.

The lower town, still referred to as the new town, is from the 18th century onwards, arranged in a hexagon, with 19th century spread thereafter.  Carcassonne is also on the Canal de Midi and in view of the Pyrenees so there is excellent cycling and walking locally.  I took off on Betty the Brompton bike for a day to take in the countryside and local villages, one of my favourite things to do – there is always something of interest and the feeling of freedom on a bike is always something I savour.

After a couple of days in Carcassonne, it was an afternoon in Toulouse before taking the high-speed train back up to Paris.  I visited an old monastery in Toulouse – last year when I was in town, I remember walking round the outside but didn’t go inside for some reason.  The cloister and the church are wonderful; the church is gothic loveliness and holds the relic of Thomas Aquinas, still a popular pilgrim destination.  The cloister was calm and build for pacing, so I did exactly that, taking in the quiet and the opportunity to just think.  In the old refectory, there was a temporary exhibition on pilgrimage, specifically Santiago di Compostella, a route for which runs through Toulouse.  It was an excellent exhibition – interactive if you wanted to play along, spinning a Game of Life Wheel to be given a pilgrimage character at the beginning and following the main aspects of pilgrimage – who was allowed to go, the stocks and supplies, the risk of high-jack, but also the reward.  I would love to follow a long-distance route and follow routes of hospitality and pilgrimage dating back many centuries – rather than the Santiago di Compostella, I would love to follow the Via Dolomite, part of the Via Francigena, an old route from France through Italy to Rome and Vatican city.  It’s a route less travelled but still supported by pilgrim’s accommodation and hospitality and would very much suit my love of going through small French and Italian villages and town, because they are there.

I might have sent my boss a postcard from Toulouse and the cloister, indicating a wish to push off at some point on pilgrimage.  He asked to see me when he received it – I knew I would be back at work by the time he received it.  I didn’t scare him with any definite plans, but one day . . . .

And so, to bed with traveling for a little bit.  There will be more next year.