GoAhead Tours describes the “Marian Shrines and the Way of St. James” tour as:

Trace the route devout pilgrims have walked since the middle ages. Follow in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims as you make your way through France, Spain, and Portugal on this immersive tour. As you go, admire some of the holiest sites in Christendom and step inside soaring churches where people have prayed for centuries. From bustling Toulouse and historic Lourdes to the ancient streets of Santiago de Compostela, spirituality comes to the forefront on this memorable journey.

Wherever I travel, I specifically look for churches and cathedrals to visit. It’s the architecture, the furnishings and of course, the pipe organs I like looking for. I thought I could find all that in this tour … and more.

I first signed up for this tour back in 2018, but due to insufficient enrollment, the tour was cancelled. I signed up again for the tour in 2019, but I figured that the only way it would become a reality was if I could convince enough people to travel with me. Then of course, COVID happened, and the tour was postponed a couple of times.

It’s finally 2022 and there are 7 people in my little group, out of 15 travelers total. Our tour director is Manuel who says not to pronounce his name like an instructional manual, but a “man – well.” He has conducted this tour several times before, which someone nicknamed “wine, dine and shrine.”

This is what everyone was looking at — beautiful, right?

Last night we had a Welcome Dinner where we met the other travelers in our group. We had choices for a first course, entrée and dessert so I chose the pumpkin soup, pork roast, and fruit tart.

On this 14-day trip, we will stay in a total of 8 hotels for one or two nights, so last night we stayed at the Hotel Mercure Wilson where we’ll be for two nights. One thing I like about the GoAhead hotels is that they are all four stars, meaning they have a definite comfort level with modern furnishings and bathrooms.

This morning we embarked on a walking tour of the city center of Toulouse, meaning that we revisited several places we stopped at yesterday. However this time we had Sara, a local guide who gave us a more comprehensive explanation of what we were seeing.

Our first stop was at a specialty food market where we saw many stalls of sausages, fish, and meats. There was even a whole stall devoted to foie gras, fattened duck liver. (Sue Haas, I thought about you!)

One of the most important pieces of information we learned from Sara was that the great basilica here housed relics of Saint Sernin, a 3rd century martyr who was dragged through the streets by a bull. So many pilgrims came to worship the relics which led to the construction of the basilica, a project which took 250 years. The apse (behind the altar) had many elaborate reliquaries on display.

Here are some of the reliquaries housed in the apse.

For me, one of the most interesting stops was our visit to a shop called La Maison du Pastel which is located very close to Hotel d’Assézat, a grand building which once belonged to the wealthy pastel merchant, Pierre d’Assézat (c. 1515-1518—1581)

The dye is made from the woad plant, and undergoes a lengthy process to create a blue dye. In the old days, a special human liquid (“pee”) was used in the process!

We took the opportunity to take a selfie in front of the shop.

Tomorrow we’ll drive to Lourdes.