A thousand-year-old pilgrimage route and food traditions stretching back 'de toda la vida' – since forever. These are what Dee Nolan set out to experience on her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – through the rich farming lands of southern France and northern Spain.

A thousand-year-old pilgrimage route and food traditions stretching back de toda la vida - since forever. These are what Dee Nolan set out to experience on her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - through the rich farming lands of southern France and northern Spain.

Foods along St. James Way in Northern Spain

The road across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in the northwest was one of the three major Christian pilgrimage routes during the Middle Ages, leading pilgrims to the resting place of the Apostle St. James. Today, the system of trails and roads that made up the old pilgrimage route is the most popular long-distance trail in Europe, winding from the heights of the Pyrenees to the gently rolling fields and woods of Galicia. Hundreds of thousands of modern-day pilgrims, art lovers, historians, and adventurers retrace the road today, traveling through a stunningly varied landscape which contains some of the most extraordinary art and architecture in the western world. For any visitor, the Road to Santiago is a treasure trove of historical sites, rustic Spanish villages, churches and cathedrals, and religious art. To fully appreciate the riches of this unique route, look no further than The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago, a fascinating step-by-step guide to the cultural history of the Road for pilgrims, hikers, and armchair travelers alike. Organized geographically, the book covers aspects of the terrain, places of interest, history, artistic monuments, and each town and village's historical relationship to the pilgrimage. The authors have led five student treks along the Road, studying the art, architecture, and cultural sites of the pilgrimage road from southern France to Compostela. Their lectures, based on twenty-five years of pilgrimage scholarship and fieldwork, were the starting point for this handbook.

"'A donkey?' blurted my family as one. For a moment it didn't seem they'd ever be able to list all the reasons that made this so entertainingly ludicrous. . . .Yes, I'd never ridden a donkey on a beach or petted one at a city farm, never even pinned a cardboard tail to one's throat after the cake and ice cream....A donkey would be my hairy-coated hair shirt, making my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela a truer test of the will, a trial." With these words, having no knowledge of Spanish and even less about the care and feeding of donkeys, Tim Moore, Britain's indefatigable traveling Everyman, sets out on a pilgrimage to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela with a donkey named Shinto as his companion. Armed only with the Codex Calixtinus, a twelfth-century handbook to the route, and expert advice on donkey management from Robert Louis Stevenson, Moore and his four-legged companion travel the ancient five-hundred-mile route from St. Jean Pied-de-Port, on the French side of the Pyrenees, to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, which houses the remains of Spain's patron saint, St. James. Over sun-scorched highways, precipitous bridges, dirt paths shaded by leafy trees, and vineyards occasionally lashed by downpours, Moore and Shinto pass through some of the oldest towns and cities in northern Spain in colorful company, both past and present. Pilgrims real and imagined have traveled this route throughout the ages, a diverse cast of wayfarers spanning Charlemagne, St. Francis of Assisi, Chaucer's Wife of Bath, and New Age diva, Shirley MacLaine. Moore's present-day companions are no less florid or poignant. Clearly more interested in Shinto than in Moore, their fellow walkers are an assortment of devout Christian pilgrims, New Age spirituality seekers, travelers grieving over a lost love affair, Baby Boomers contemplating the advent of middle age, and John Q. Public just out for a cheap, boozy sun-drenched outdoor holiday. As Moore pushes, pulls, wheedles, cajoles, and threatens Shinto across Spain toward the crypt of St. James in a quest to find the spiritual pilgrim within, the duo overnights in the bedrooms, dormitories, and---for Shinto---adjacent grassy fields of northern Spain's hostels, inns, convents, seminaries, and farmhouses. Shinto, a donkey with a finely honed talent for relieving himself at the most inopportune moments, has better luck in the search for his next meal than Moore does in finding his inner St. Francis. Undaunted, however, Man and Beast finally arrive at the cathedral and a successful end to their journey. For readers who delighted in his earlier books, Travels with My Donkey is the next hilarious chapter in the travels of Tim Moore, a book that keeps the bones of St. James rattling till this day.

An informative book to the tastiest destinations in Europe showcasing the finest culinary treats that Europe has to offer. Appealing to both food obsessed travelers and travel obsessed foodies, this book takes you on a visual taste tour of 25 European countries, before focusing in on their most exciting gourmet destinations. Picking out local specialties, the most highly-rated farmers’ markets, and a selection of the best restaurants for all budgets, this title showcases national dishes, regional delights, and classic recipes. With a range of things to do in each destination, from food festivals and events to foodie sights and attractions there are a host of delicious new discoveries to be made, from San Sebastian to Salzburg and from Cornwall to Croatia. This book awakens sensory memories from past European trips and inspires new adventures.

A story of mid-life and second chances from Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project, and his wife Anne Buist Soon to be a film produced by Ellen DeGeneres Two misfits walk 2,000 kilometres along the Camino de Santiago to find themselves and, perhaps, each other along the way. Zoe, a sometime artist, is from California. Martin, an engineer, is from Yorkshire. Both have ended up in picturesque Cluny, in central France. Both are struggling to come to terms with their recent past—for Zoe, the death of her husband; for Martin, a messy divorce. Looking to make a new start, each sets out alone to walk two thousand kilometres from Cluny to Santiago, in northwestern Spain, in the footsteps of pilgrims who have walked the Camino—the Way—for centuries. The Camino changes you, it’s said. It’s a chance to find a new version of yourself. But can these two very different people find each other? In this smart, funny and romantic journey, Martin’s and Zoe’s stories are told in alternating chapters by husband-and-wife team Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist. Two Steps Forward is a novel about renewal—physical, psychological and spiritual. It’s about the challenge of walking a long distance and of working out where you are going. And it’s about what you decide to keep, what you choose to leave behind and what you rediscover.

Roads to Santiago is an evocative travelogue through the sights, sounds, and smells of a little known Spain-its architecture, art, history, landscapes, villages, and people. And as much as it is the story of his travels, it is an elegant and detailed chronicle of Cees Nooteboom's thirty-five-year love affair with his adopted second country. He presents a world not visible to the casual tourist, by invoking the great spirits of Spain's past-El Cid, Cervantes, Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Wise, the ill-fated Hapsburgs, and Velázquez. Be it a discussion of his trip to the magnificent Prado Museum or his visit to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Guadalupe, Nooteboom writes with the depth and intelligence of an historian, the bravado of an adventurer, and the passion of a poet. Reminiscent of Robert Hughes's Barcelona, Roads to Santiago is the consummate portrait of Spain for all readers.

Kevin A. Codd's previous book, To the Field of Stars, has been hailed as a contemporary classic of pilgrim literature and introduced a fresh voice to the world of both travel and spiritual writing. In Beyond Even the Stars, the reader is invited to join this peripatetic American priest as he takes up the Way to Compostela, this time in Leuven, Belgium, and follows it south through much of France. His vivid descriptions of the natural world and the people he meets along the way are delightful, just as his profound reflections on life and death, love and faith, God and grace, are inspiring.

This guidebook describes the Way of St Francis a 550km month-long pilgrimage trail from Florence through Assisi to Rome. Split into 28 day stages, the walk begins in Florence and finishes in the Vatican City. Stages range from 8km to 30km with plenty to see, including ancient ruins, picturesque towns, national treasures, and stunning churches. This comprehensive guidebook fits in a jacket pocket or rucksack, and contains information on everything from accommodation and transport in Italy, to securing your credential (pilgrim identity card), budgeting, what to take, and where to do laundry. Stories of Francis of Assisi's life are also included. Although the route includes climbs and descents of up to 1200m, no special equipment is required - although your hiking boots and socks definitely need to get along. Following the steps of heroes, conquerors and saints on this pilgrim trail is manageable all year round, but is best done from April to June and mid-August to October. Route maps are given for every stage, and basic Italian phrases are included in the guidebook.