La Sainte-Baume

La source

First stop after Saint Tropez was La Sainte-Baume. I have been before to St. Maximim, where I happened to arrive on the one day a year when the gold plated skull of Mary Magdalene is displayed at the cathedral. I was told that the grotto where she spent the last 30 years of her life was "up the road...nearby". On this visit I decided to find the grotto. French paysan casualness of directions never fails to amaze me. The grotto was a 45 minute drive through beautiful windy pine forests towards the coast. At La Sainte-Baume there is a reasonably priced hotel run by Dominican monks. I was directed upwards towards the grotto...a 45 minute walk. We passed, yes I was accompanied by a groaning teenager, a 'source' of holy water, no doubt where the Magdalene herself drank during her period of isolation there. Crosses and notices stating that it was a place of silence dotted the path. At the top, a chapel carved out of the white rocky mountain side, we arrived in time for mass. Two priests in white and a cardinal in red stood at the door of the church as the bells tolled, echoing over the landscape far below. It reminded me of Tibetan hillside monasteries. 

Inside, three Indian nuns clad in cream and white knelt at the pews. This shrine was an important place of pilgrimage until the middle ages. Every French king visited, some on their way to the crusades. There are plaques on the wall thanking Mary Magdalene and some declare that they have been healed at this site. During the French revolution, the shrine was partially destroyed and it fell into disuse. It was revived about a century ago.

There will be blood...

This film contains a tour de force performance by Daniel Day Lewis, who acts as if a man possessed... My theory is that anyone who dribbles on screen is automatically given an Oscar, snotty noses count too!
Spent some time in The National Gallery, where I viewed some of my old faves, The Ambassadors by Holbein fils, The Arnolfini marriage, the Wilton diptych.
The Ambassadors is intriguing in part because of the anamorphism of a skull in the lower front section of the painting. The shelves upon which the French ambassador, Jean de Dinteville, and his friend Georges de Selve, the bishop of Lavaur are leaning are split into heaven and earth. The top shelf contains an astrolabe and instruments for calculating the stars, while upon the bottom shelf rest symbols of earthly pleasure; music, writing and a drawing instrument. The green of the curtain behind them puts me in mind of another of my obsessions, Mary Magdalene, who is represented in art via her green cloak as opposed to the heavenly blue cloak of Mary the mother. Green was the colour of prostitution, in Tudor times, not red as it is nowadays. If you wore a green skirt or had 'Greensleeves' you were available for sex, the green of your skirt better able to hide the grass stains...
'Greensleeves' was supposedly composed by Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn, another one of my historical character obsessions, this time from childhood. Others include Napoleon (1992-3), the aforementioned Mary Magdalene (2005-7), Marie Antoinette (2007), Frida Kahlo (1994-5).
2005-6 I did a pilgrimage connected to Mary Magdalene, inspired by Laurence Gardner. After a visit to Glastonbury and Avebury for the solstice I moved onto St. Maximim-La Sainte Baume, Provence, where I just happened to turn up on her feast day, fortunately on the one day a year when her golden skull is on display in the cathedral. My parents had just bought a house about 45 minutes away from St. Maximim where I put my teenager into the local collège and stayed for the year. To occupy myself during that year in France I intended to do a Masters in History of Art concentrating on Magdalene imagery at Aix en Provence but the 5 hour round trip from where I was living defeated me.
I followed this up with trips to Rennes le chateau and the Rosslyn chapel, the same year. The Rosslyn chapel visit coincided with my participation in the anti-G8 camp in Stirling near Gleneagles. I took the day off from bringing down the government (lol), to do a bit of sight seeing, much to the disapproval of more dedicated activists.
Other pilgrimages: 2007 I finally made it to see Frida Kahlo's house in Mexico city. I arrived at her house coincidentally on the day of the 100th anniversary of her death. How I've sobbed for that woman in the past. Going there though does put the person into perspective...some of her seemingly strange costumes are in fact direct copies of folklore costume still worn.
The Napolean obsession was exorcised by visits to Elba and Corsica as well as parts of Paris. St Helena was a bit too far.