Our Moveable Feats

May 25, 2026

Pilgrimage is a loaded word, for some.

We’re almost two years out from our poignant thru-hike along the first half of the Via Podiensis in central France. The talk of continuation, so heady in the following days, faded while we’ve swatted at life’s curveballs.

Enticing our children and their partners to Provence for a week first wasn’t hard. A tangled logistical mess for a time? Yes, but sorted now.

We’re more assured with the packing, route-planning, booking and ‘training’ this time… actually, we’ve trained less, semi-deluded possibly, believing we’re now ‘veteran hikers’. Our slog up to Mt. Nikkei (above) reminded us that we’ve nice vistas here, too! (no cafés au lait to be found, however 😤)

May our “bags of holding” (a.k.a. Hermione’s purse) prove sufficient, if not somewhat organized.

This next phase will – horrors! – back-track to begin. Our inaugural walk ended in Cahors, after negotiating an improvised route from Figeac, nicknamed ‘the Silly variant’. So, now we’ll go back and attempt the much-hyped path between those cities which follows the Célé valley. This way is ingeniously known as ‘the Célé variant’.

Thereafter, we re-join the true pilgrim way for a few days from Cahors to Moissac, which adds up to 175 km and gets us 2/3 of the way to “the end at the beginning”, St. Jean Pied-de-Port.

We may never know why le chemin draws us back… it touches an essential, murky part within while being as simple as stepping forward.

We feel so fortunate to have this opportunity, this splinter of space and time. We hope it will be more awe-filled than awful! 😊✨

À bientôt…