I had my headphones on and was listening to a Podcast when I heard a loud noise. After hearing it the second time, I took off my headphones only to discover that the loud noise was from a snoring man sharing our four bed semi-private room. His wife was asleep in the bed next to him apparently oblivious to the noise. It was earth shattering! Ol and I looked at one another and couldn’t help but laugh. It all began with our two hour lunch the day before. Because of our gluttony,

We were finally on our way, on our 1,000 mile walk on the Chemin de Saint Jacque, as the French call the Camino de Santiago, or the journey to the shrine of Saint James. The sky was a beautiful serene blue and we both glanced back to see Chapelle Saint Michel d’Aiguille up on the hill. A true inspiration, built in 951 after the Bishop of Le-Puy-en-Velay returned from his first pilgrimage across the Pyrenees, to Santiago, Spain. To celebrate his return, he had the chapel built

As we boarded the train to Le-Puy-en-Velay we could feel the excitement for our pilgrimage hike, the Way to Santiago de Compostela. Many fellow pilgrims boarded the train, including nuns in their habits. The modern pilgrims were easy to spot with their hiking boots, backpacks and walking poles. We blended in perfectly. Everyone seemed to be around our age or older. After visiting with a few of our fellow travelers we learned they were only doing the French section of the hi

We said goodbye to Paris and took the train to Lyon where we were to meet up with Ol’s French sister (exchange student) Laurence (Flo) and her husband Thierry. Ol and I had already made arrangements to stay in a small bed and breakfast called “Chambre de Styliste” in the historic center before Flo and Thierry invited us to stay in their home. Our host was a dressmaker named Dominic who previously worked with Christian Dior. The nondescript building was constructed in the 16th

Our second day in Paris was just as wonderful as the first, we spent the day at the Palace of Versailles the principal royal residence of France from 1682 until the French Revolution. A UNESCO World Heritage site for over 30 years, the palace is famous for its opulent gilded King's Grand Apartments, the Hall of Mirrors and symmetrical gardens with stunning fountains. Louis the XIV installed the court and government there in 1862. A series of Kings expanded the 2300 rooms unt

“We have always talked about hiking the Camino de Santiago, why don’t we do it now? We can fly to Paris and make our way to Spain from there.” Ol said to me as we were talking about our next adventure. We were scrambling to decide on another adventure since our planned Caribbean cruise on our friend Bill’s boat was failing to materialize as planned due to mechanical and logistic problems. “I always knew that leaving on a Caribbean boat trip during hurricane season was a bad i