Paris

Flew over American desert, Canadian ice, and the great night sea, and voila – Paris! Slept off jet lag in a room behind Shakespeare & Company before a blessed evening at the Louvre – a pilgrimage of its own to see old favorites. Strolled back along the Seine to find a small marching band playing raucous versions of Taize chants by Notre Dame.

20140404-234452.jpg

20140404-234514.jpg

20140404-234527.jpg

Eve of departure

Gil de Siloe (Burgos, 1489-93)

Gil de Siloe (Burgos, 1489-93)

Tomorrow morning I set out for Paris, en route to St. Jean Pied-de-Port in the Pyrenees mountains, where I will begin a 565 mile pilgrimage walk: to Santiago de Compostela, and beyond that, the “end of the world” on the shores of the Atlantic. This beautiful alabaster image of Saint James dressed as a pilgrim was carved by Gil de Siloe, one of the great Baroque Spanish artists, whose work I hope to see when I arrive in Burgos on Holy Saturday. I had planned to leave a year ago, but broke my leg a month before departure. So 2014 became the year of pilgrimage, and God willing I will persevere for nearly 40 days and 40 nights. While part of the walk’s intention is to slip out of the modern and be immersed in the journey, I will attempt dispatches and photos when I can. I hope you will join me, dear reader, along the Way.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

  1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
  2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
  3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.