Peripatetic Me

Carcassonne was our next overnight stay after our castle hangout in Marseille. We stopped at Arles on the way, travelling with Caren who we met at the hostel. Arles is where “we learned the french way to eat lunch…prolonged”. I had a delicious crêpe at a snug and relaxed crêperie tucked into a narrow street. We continued the leisurely pace stopping to watch some men play Pétanque before getting on our train to Carcassonne. The board game Carcassonne looks strikingly like the real Carcassonne Cité. Look at an arial view and the resemblance is uncanny. Carcassonne is a wonderfully preserved medieval walled city. The double set of walls, an impressive…

As a backpacker, I felt part of a family of sorts: a peripatetic family. I would meet someone in one city and then run into them in another. We were all hopscotching along, making our own route, but sometimes our squares would overlap. International Youth hostels provided a common space to meet other travellers, or have surprise repeat encounters. Our first youth hostel was a castle, the 19th century Chateau du Bois-Luzy in Marseille. The three storey stone building was at the top of a hill, a large picnic area offered great city views and the grand foyer had ornately patterned marble floor. At the hostel, we met Phil, an…

Imagine a tiny village. A jumble of crumbling stone buildings. Perched impossibly high on the hillside. Clinging to the side of the rock. Higgledy-piggledy cobblestone streets. Beautiful old plazas. Ancient water fountains. This was Peille. Peille was not on our map. Not in our guidebook. There was no train station in Peille. You needed a car to get there. It was a day we did not plan. We had a guide. We stayed with Sarah’s cousin in Monaco. She was a gracious host. She and her friend drove us to the small village of Peille, a mere 17 kms away, but another world. I remember it felt unreal, like a…

We gazed at the spread of crusty bread, two kinds of cheese, yogurt, strawberries and a bottle of Sylvaner white wine in our small budget hotel room. We made it. The tearful goodbyes from the mothers, the long overnight flight, one Bette Midler movie For the Boys, the Jelly Bellies from our friends, an unexpected stopover in London, two missed buses at the Nice Côté d’Azure airport, a closed tourist office. We were in Europe. The first day of our three and half month backpacking trip. My friend Sarah and I had been planning this trip for months. With high school done, we were ready to take on the world!…