Category Archives: France Toulouse, France’s fourth-largest city and the capital of the southern Occitanie region, was an unexpected treat. My husband and I were stopped there for two nights in transit, and had enjoyed our time wandering through the public gardens (see: Public Art and Gardens) and admiring the narrow cobbled streets and ancient buildings. What I didn’t […]  My travel choices are often a bit haphazard: as much reliant on timing and opportunity as they are on interest and desire. I’ve found it doesn’t really matter: wherever I go, there are interesting things to see and learn, and surprising connections to my own life-so-far. Take Toulouse, in Occitania, in the south of France. […]  It was a lifetime ago. My husband and I had trudged into the Medieval town of Foix in the Occitanie region of southwestern France at the end of a 12-day walk along the Cathar Trail in the Pyrenees (see: Castles, Countryside, and the end of the Trail). As we descended through the foothills towards the […]  I love the old cobbled cities of Europe, and the historical stories they tell. I spent some of my school years living in the French-speaking parts of Eastern Canada where the historical root and ties were to France. When I was studying the history of the early European explorers and settlers in Canada, their names […]  Fog! About an hour into our trip south across the English Chanel from the Bailiwick of Jersey to Brittany, France, everything outside the ferry windows disappeared. It didn’t seem an auspicious start to our day trip to Saint-Malo, the mediaeval walled city of explorers, privateers, and pirates. But, just like magic, dolphins appeared – leaping and diving along-side the boat […] |
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