Category: Cities and Towns along the way
-
Chemin du Puy: Navarrenx to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
From Navarrenx, we headed to Saint-Palais, where we would spend the night. We traversed the bucolic French countryside on a trail with few hills, which was nice for a change. Soon we began to catch glimpses of the Pyrenees in the distance, a particularly bittersweet sight as we would end our 2025 journey there. Saint-Palais:…
-
Chemin du Puy, Condom, France
A small medieval town of 6,500 people, Condom sits at the confluence of the rivers Gèle and Baïse. Contrary to what our less-cultured friends might want us to believe, the name derives from the ancient Condote-o-magos, which meant “market of the confluence”. Its similarity to the English word of the same spelling is pure coincidence.…
-
Chemin du Puy – Agen & Lectoure, France
Agen: Agen was the French launching point for the final stage of our epic Chemin du Puy journey. From Barcelona we took three trains to arrive in Agen, only to have to take a bus the following day to Lectoure, where the walking actually began. Clearly, we are visiting some off-the-beaten-track places! The charming city…
-
Abiquiú, New Mexico
As we prepare to leave New Mexico, we’ve decided to visit some iconic places that we have yet to see. Abiquiú (pronounced Ab-i-cue) is one such place. Map of north-central New Mexico showing Santa Fe, Abiquiú, and several Indian Pueblos. Fifty-three miles north of Santa Fe, Abiquiú is nestled in the Piedra Lumbre Valley along…
-
New York and Trip Home
June 23 – 24 – NYC Arriving at JFK on Thursday, we collected our bags (one hour) and headed into Manhattan (1 ½ hours). On Friday, I was able to catch up with an old friend who I hadn’t seen for years. I’m trying to do more of that. Life is short, and I don’t…
-
Sitges, Spain
June 10-21 – Sitges Sitges is a cool beach town 30 minutes south of Barcelona. Originally a fishing village, it was the birthplace of Rusiñol, a renowned Catalan painter, who brought his friends to the area (including Picasso). The town became a gathering place for artists and art history lovers, including Charles Deering, the wealthy…
-
Girona, Spain
June 7-10 Straddling the Onyar River, Girona is an inland city in Spain, about 30 minutes north of Barcelona. A university town, it has an excellent intact historic center, with churches galore, a cathedral, ancient Arab baths, and beautiful gardens along the town walls. It is easy to reach by high speed train from Barcelona…
-
Carcassonne, France
Sunday, June 4 – Carcassonne Dominique’s chardonnay recommendation was… interesting. Unfiltered, so loaded with terroir (literally), it had a bit of effervescence and tartness. Not one to remember. On the other hand, the Domaine des Quatre Pierres Les Mômes red, whose winemaker’s approach she described as “intellectual”, was a winner. A little rough around the…
-
Toulouse, France
Saturday, May 27 – Canal du Midi: Toulouse to Ramonville-St-Agne Good walk today ~9 miles. The Canal du Midi is an engineering wonder, and the French are to be admired for their foresight in building it. The walk beginning in Toulouse is pretty urban. Parts are pretty; parts are not. The Toulousians use it fiercely,…
-
Conques, France
Tuesday, May 23 Good news! Our Covid-afflicted Camino friend is recovering and we dodged it! Today, we played tourist. We visited the abbey-church Église de Sainte Foy, a gem of Romanesque architecture begun in the 11th century and finished in the 12th. The church is known for its austere and very tall interior, its tympanum…
-
Córdoba to Montpellier to Le Puy en Velay
Tuesday, May 9 Today, after returning to Granada to retrieve our luggage, we grabbed a quick lunch at a café on one of Córdoba’s many parks. The image below, in addition to our usual soup and salad, included a Cordobés specialty: eggplant marinated in beer then lightly battered and fried and topped with a honey…
-
Granada, Spain
Sunday, April 30 An uneventful 2-hour drive to Granada. Dropped off the car and got a cab. Oh no! We realized Dave had left his hat in the car. Twenty minutes later, we had retrieved the hat and arrived near the luggage storage site in Granada. “Near” because, inexplicably, it is in the pedestrian-only center. …
-
Marbella, Spain
Monday, April 24 Today we drove the three hours from Cádiz to Marbella so not a lot to report other than some general observations. First, driving in Europe is dumb. We only did it because there is no train service and only infrequent bus service between Cádiz and Marbella. Between picking up the car (rarely…
-
Cádiz, Spain
Friday, April 21 After a leisurely morning, we headed to the train station, Atocha, to board a train to Cádiz. The scenery in Cádiz, couldn’t be more different than Madrid. Located on the southwest coast of Spain, it is directly south of Sevilla and southeast of Portugal, on the Atlantic Ocean. From high mesa and…
-
Madrid
When we land in Madrid we usually head into Retiro Park for a long walk. We took advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather and made a little video to share our experience. We think it turned out pretty well given that it was our first ever. Kudos to Dave – our newly minted tech wizard!