Voyage
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Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque: A Lavender Pilgrimage
My journey to Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque started several years ago and turned out to be a somewhat circuitous one. I first heard about this mecca of lavender through a bedtime story on the Calm app. And since then, I’ve often been lulled to sleep by the dulcet voice of Stephen Fry beguiling me with images of the lavender fields of Provence. Of all the delights mentioned in this story by Pheobe Smith, the charms of the Abbey captivated me most. And so, with COVID restrictions lifted this past summer, I made my way by plane, train and then automobile to les Monts de Vaucluse to finally experience the lavender…
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Saint George’s Chapel: The Final Resting Place of Queen Elizabeth II
My plan for this week had been to regale you on my recent visit to the fragrant lavender fields of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque in the hills of Provence. However, with the sudden death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, these memories have been supplanted with others. More specifically, with memories of my visit, a mere a month ago, to what will soon become the final resting place of this most notable monarch, Saint George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Along The Thames This pilgrimage came at the end of my first return to Europe since the outbreak of COVID-19. It was a journey that was planned around a week-long rowing…
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The Royal Military College Memorial Arch: Truth, Duty, Valour
This past September, as I was nearing the end of my first major rowing tour in two years, I came across a monument that reminded me of Paris’ Triumphant Arc de Triomphe. You see, I was touring Ontario’s stunning Bay of Quinte and Thousand Islands. On this particular day, we had departed Kingston, Canada’s first capital, entered the mouth of the mighty St. Lawrence river, and rowed past the historic Royal Military College and Fort Henry. The sun was shining, the wind calm and the scenery breathtaking. It was a perfect day of rowing. And as our rickety school bus returned us from Gananoque, our landing point, to Kingston, I…
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An Autumn Tour of Champagne
The late September day dawned cool and overcast. However, that did not dampen the excitement my friend and I were feeling for our upcoming adventure: an autumn tour of Champagne. We met our guide at a nearby Parisian hotel and settled in for a pleasant ride to northeastern France. In less than two hours, we arrived in Reims, the heart of the Champagne region. Here, we took a few minutes to visit the Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. With it’s twin, square towers and stunning, rose windows, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities to Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. I also found the expressions on some of the façade sculptures…
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La Sagrada Família – Gaudí’s Wondrous Masterpiece – Part 2
Having completed my tour of the Nativity façade and interior la Sagrada Família, as you can explore in Part 1, I exited this holy structure via the Passion façade. And before even stepping foot outside, it was obvious that I was in for yet another shift in design aesthetic. The Passion Façade For, where the bronze doors of the Nativity façade were covered in leafy vines of ivy and rose, these were filled with hard, blocked letters telling the story of the death of Christ. And a glimpse outside revealed a much more contemporary style of statuary. For there in front of me, stood a stylized carving of the whip-scarred…
