Adios and au revoir

Hi all,

Well, I am heading off in a few hours, as some of you may know, to take a trek around Europe. And, to best help with keeping in touch over the next 6 weeks, I thought I would start a blog that you can check as you like. There may also be a mass email or two to keep you up to date. I do apologize if you would rather not be on this list and i included you.....i guess you can just ignore my blog. :)

My plan is to fly to Paris today (June 15), arrive tomorrow and spend the jet-lagged day in a coffee shop before I stay at Basilique de Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre that night.

Then, up to Brittany, to St. Nazaire, I go to visit dear friends, Cecile and Dominique and their two darling children Frederique (7) and Marc (4). They have big plans for me, which include a trip to the salt flats, the birthday party of a 70 year old Frenchman and a visit to a french middle school to be the "guest speaker." I arrive loaded with Disney paraphanelia (per request) and several other typically American items as gifts.

From, there I begin the true journey by hiking El Camino de Santiago (check it out: http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/) , an ancient pilgramage route that begins in St. Jean de Pied (in Southwestern France), which crosses the Pyranees Mountains, the Basque country, the dry, arid meseta, wine country and into lush Galicia. I plan to take the train all the way to the Atlantic Ocean so that I can stick my feet in, look across the sea and think of home. This trek takes about a month and I will be staying in refugios (hostels) with hoardes of other pilgrims, carrying my gear on my back and eating at bars/from cans of tuna along the way. I do plan to do some thinking, reflecting, adventuring and relaxing; to have my own retreat away from life and to meet some awesome people.

At the end of the trip, I finish in Santiago de Compostela where I hope to receive my official certificate of pilgramage (thank you, Pope), burn a dirty sock to celebrate, buy a scallop shell (the symbol of El Camino) and hop in the fountain there. Then, I make my way back to Paris (though Madrid? Barcelona? Taize Community?) to catch a flight home on July 27.

As always, I welcome your thoughts/emails during this time, but can make no promises about how much email access I will have. Love to you all.

Au revoir,

Lindsay