Wednesday Dec 20. Paris.

Today was a travel day, flying Ryanair to Beauvais and then bus into Paris and métro to my new apartment. (Totally cheap air fare of $63, to which you have to add $45 to get to and from the airports).

Lake Como (I think)

The Swiss alps

What a change! From smallish cities to a huge city. From shared space in a very spartan Bologna hostel to a beautifully furnished and equipped Parisian apartment. From giving up listening to Georgia Meloni on tv because I didn’t understand enough to giving up listening to Emmanuel Macron on tv because he went on too long. Wow. If Trudeau were given that much air time on CBC there would surely be an uproar!

My last night in Italy I went to see a movie - a Japanese movie with Italian subtitles, ‘Evil doesn’t exist’. It was a meditative film about a forest in Japan that a group of likeable entrepreneurs want to improve with a new ´glamping’ site. Basically, a subtle commentary on capitalism and the environment. The Japanese forest reminded me strongly of our Canadian forests. If you are not feeling sleepy (I was!) it is a good film to see.

And here are the three Italian books I have read from cover to cover during my trip. The first is folk stories from Ischia, the second is a detective story, and the third a romance told from the viewpoint of a rather annoying lead male character. So if any of you want to practice your Italian, you can borrow a book!

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September 5

I landed at Heathrow this morning at 6 am, a very inconvenient time to get a room and rest! But my student residence accommodation includes a common room with handy couches for a short snooze. The neighbourhood abuts on Regent’s Park, complete with gorgeous flowerbeds. The Queen Mary’s rose garden in Regent’s Park. My neighbourhood wandering took me to the Wallace House which used to be one of the homes of the marquesses of Hertford. The Hertfords were fabulously rich, mainly from extensive land holdings, and in the 18th and 19th centuries avid art collectors. They obviously had Trumpian home decorating tastes. Here are two of their many clocks, all of which need frequent ‘fine tuning’, it appears. I particularly liked two 18th c British paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds in their collection: Mrs Carnac and the hauntingly strange Strawberry Girl.

Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place). All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train. I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London. On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935. So many similarities to ...

Saturday September 6

I have given myself today and tomorrow in London before starting the walk. A good thing because I’m having technical difficulties getting on to the AirB&B site that I need to access for my Monday night accommodation… Today I had a lovely walk to Canary Wharf along quiet streets bordering the Thames. The tide was high and the water a bit agitated, but the sun was warm and the strollers happy. Over 25,000 bombs fell on this area of London in WWII as the Germans fully recognised the importance of maritime trade to British resilience. Some warehouses have survived (or been rebuilt) and the extensive blocks of post-war flats are very attractive (and very very expensive.) I had a pleasant break in a sixteenth century pub, the ‘Prospect of Whitby’, where Charles Dickens would come to listen to dock folk - original flagstone floors and a pewter counter on the bar. From the waterfront balcony patrons in earlier days could watch as pirates and smugglers were hung from a gibb...

Celia Walks

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