The Road Less Travelled: A Modern Pilgrimage in France

“Under the dappled Provençal sunshine filtering through a thick canopy of beech trees, my pilgrimage buddy and I make the easy uphill hike to the grotto where Mary Magdalene (yes, that Mary Magdalene) spent the last

30 years of her life. Few visitors to Provence, French or otherwise, know that the saint supposedly arrived at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in the nearby Camargue, on a rudderless boat and spent the latter half of her life as a lone ascetic in a dank, dark cave. The sheer walls of the dramatic massif we’re heading towards, about 40 miles northeast of Marseille, also shelter a church and a Dominican abbey. In the welcoming inn on a grassy plain below, pilgrims can spend a comfortable night and tuck into a nourishing meal.”