I had quite a tussle with myself over whether or not to issue this post. Let’s be honest, nobody likes the person who forces holiday snaps on you and bores you to death with images which have no meaning for you – even though they’re clearly of beautiful places! But actually, it’s more than that, since this is the trip that was supposed to take place a few years ago to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, but didn’t happen because Covid and health issues intervened. So, I decided to post it anyhow, as it clearly has huge significance for me and also, of course, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think there was some real benefit in here for whoever might read my comments.
So, this is Carcassonne, a most beautiful mediaeval city and one of the many stunning places I visited for the first time on my recent holiday to France. The trip began in Bayonne, deep in the Basque region, and from there to a tiny little village high in the Pyrenees, where high passes were still closed due to snow. Next came Carcassonne itself and other notable places with Roman influence, such as Nimes, Avignon and Orange, as we started our journey up the Rhone Valley to Beaune, the famous capital of the Burgundy wine region. From there we headed back up to Calais for Le Shuttle home, but with a final stop outside Reims to create some more sustaining memories, buoyed up by bubbles of champagne and enduringly fabulous French cuisine.
The road less travelled
Apart from it obviously being an absolute privilege to be able to make this trip, it was also a fabulous opportunity which I tried to exploit to the full – and in which I feel I’m justified in saying, I was massively successful. Namely, the opportunity to meander and depart from the itinerary whenever and wherever a discovery presented itself along the journey. Deliberately heading off the beaten track on occasion is for me the ultimate way to enjoy the practice of sharpening curiosity. It can’t possibly be justified, as you don’t know what you’re going to find – and yet very often that is when you make your rewarding discoveries and make your deepest connections.
Meandering doesn’t always equate with getting lost or dilly-dallying. The shortest route between two points may be the obvious one, but definitely also the one most people will take. Therefore, it is not the one offering the benefit of serendipity or rare insights afforded by unusual perspectives that the meanderer may and (in my opinion) will almost always see.
Let the answers find you
Don’t spend your life looking for answers in the obvious places – occasionally stop if you can and consider the possibility of letting the answer find you for a change. It may take a little tenacity or patience, as you swerve around what life throws at you – stick with it, as the results are all the sweeter for that perseverance and willingness to change.
Also, by the way, I had the best damn cassoulet of my life by meandering into a tiny little restaurant in the Pyrenees (called le Kairn, as they were only really targeting the ramblers’ market), which looked unprepossessing, but clearly could have satisfied more demanding clients up the road at the swanky restaurants in Carcassonne!