Back to School: South of France Edition

Adios Summer, Bonjour Côte d'Azur

Packing suitcases with bathing suits and summer dresses isn’t usually a back to school tradition, but for this wild year of world schooling, it’s ours.

I’ve been preparing our September curriculum for most of July and August, knowing that we were going to board a plane first week of September and travel from Toronto through Amsterdam and on straight to Nice to join family on my mother’s side for seven days of blissful immersion in the peaceful southern French alps.

We’ve been reading French books and practicing our small talk. “Parlez-vous Englais?” “Ah no…Un petit peu…” "Où sont les toilettes?"

It isn’t my first trip to southern France. When I graduated from University, my mother took me to France to celebrate. We spent half the time in Paris and half the time in Nice, taking the high-speed train south and wandering cobble streets to discover delicious food, wine and culture. I fell in-love with Nice. I fell in-love while in Nice, with a gorgeous waiter who swept me off my feet. On one of our last nights, my mother agreed to let me join the wait staff for drinks after work and meet her at the hotelier later. I stayed out all night and had the most incredible experience with locals in a tiny, hidden pub. The stone walls and crumbling architecture made Nice feel that much more exciting and old world to me. All the French girls wore jean shorts with black tights and heeled mary jane shoes. They danced on the tables and drank red wine and smoked cigarettes with red lipstick. It didn’t really matter that I couldn’t speak French fluently: I was there, soaking it up, and it was enough.

Image Credit: Pinterest

After that trip, I was eager to return. A year later, I had an opportunity to Au Pair for an American-French family in Marly Le Roi, a small village about an hour’s train ride from the heart of Paris, not far from Versailles. I lived there for a few months, teaching the children English and taking the train to the city on weekends to drink in Parisian culture. It was a joy-filled and life changing experience for me. My French language skills improved slightly (I could now ask for a light and a croissant), but overall I made due with broken French and good style.

Fast forward to 2024, my glamorous cousin Charlotte and her sweet husband Michael rented a villa in the southern French alps to baby moon and enjoy her maternity leave. Charlotte called a few months back to tell me excitedly about the trip, and explained Michael has to return to work for the last week of their month-long stay… She casually asked, “Would you and Zazie want to come stay for free and help with the new baby?” — I jumped at the chance.

Next, Charlotte asked her family and friends, saying it was “first come, first served”; whoever was available and could buy the plane tickets were invited to come and stay.

My mother and my mother’s sister had been dreaming of a sister trip to France forever. After many phone calls cajoling, convincing and inspiring them to make this investment, they agreed to join.

Mostly our plan is to explore the local medieval village, buy fresh produce, wine and cheese from the markets, cook delicious food and generally lounge about. We aren’t going for long, but when I asked my mom what she wanted to do while we were there, she mentioned a visit to the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in the town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baum…and I got to researching.

In the gnostic tradition it is believed that Mary Magdalene was more than just a devotee to Jesus. It is believed Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife and most devout disciple. After his death in the Holy Land, legend has it Mary Magdalene fled to the south of France, travelling slowly from village to village, before building a sanctuary in a grotto chiseled into the side of the mountain of Sainte-Baume.

Here she lived for the last thirty years of her life, largely in isolation. It is said she was visited seven times a day by angels, and survived by eating the roots of trees and drinking the sacred waters of Saint-Baume mountain, until she passed.

Image Credit: Bridget Samantha, Atlas Obscura

Image Credit: Bridget Samantha, Atlas Obscura

This mountaintop cave is now a hidden monastery called the Sanctuary of Mary Magdalene, and it is located 25 kilometers outside of St. Maximin, at the top of a 90-minute hike through an ancient forest. On the edge of the forest is a modest restaurant and a hotel which is run by the Benedictine Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Montmarte. From the dirt parking area, you can see the forest, and above it, what almost looks like a Manitou cliff dwelling. It feels a million miles and a world away. When you begin your pilgrimage, there are two paths to choose, but all paths lead to the grotto.¹

Image Credit: Atlas Obscura

For my mother, who has been battling significant health problems and who is very spiritually devout, this is an opportunity to check major items off her bucket list: a trip to France with her sister, daughter, grand-daughter and nieces AND an opportunity to retrace the foot steps of Mary Magdalene’s final years.

For many, Mary Magdalene has come to represent the Divine Feminine. In the Gospels of Mary Magdalene and Thomas, a fundamental message of Jesus is transmitted: the rediscovery of the “Feminine Principle”.

For no love, peace and compassion is possible in a world where only the word and will of the male is expressed.

Mary Magdalene was the comforter of the apostles, the Reformer; she represents the feminine world and its values buried in submission by the patriarchy. It was Mary Magdalene who finally overcame the male gaze to express herself, taking the floor to reveal a message of peace and compassion.²

In France, the devotion to Mary Magdalene runs deep. Mary Magdalene is the patron saint of Provence, and the second patron saint of France. For the past 744 years, on the 22nd of July, the village of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume honours Mary Magdalene with a festival organized in accordance with King Charles II’s wishes, who dictated guidelines when Mary Magdalene’s remains were discovered in 1279.

Many alleged relics attributed to Mary Magdalene are held in Catholic churches in France, but here in the church of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in the basilica dedicated to Mary Magdalene, under the crypt is a glass and golden reliquary where a blackened skull said to belong to her is on display. The skull is widely regarded as one of the most precious relics in all of Christendom.

The skull was last analyzed in 1974 and has remained inside a sealed glass case ever since. Analysis suggests that it is the skull of a woman who lived in the 1st century, died at around 50 years old, had dark brown hair and wasn’t originally from Southern France. There is no scientific way to accurately determine whether it is Mary Magdalene’s, however. On the saint’s name day, July 22, the skull and other relics from other European churches are paraded around the town.³

Image Credit: Enciclopedia1993, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

You can watch some pretty incredible footage of this past summer’s Mary Magdalene Festival, where villagers carefully lift the heavy gold and glass Skull from the crypt and tour the village:

Now, this village is quite far from where we’re staying, closer to the city of Nice. I’m hoping I can get my mom there. I’m hoping that my daughter will feel comfortable staying with her aunties and the weather will cooperate and I can remember how to drive on the opposite side of the road. Right now, it’s calling for thunderstorms and rain most of the week, but I’m hopeful. I feel called to journey to this village, to hike through the ancient forest and climb the 150 step stairs to arrive at the grotto of Mary Magdalene. I feel called to return to the French mountains and feel their vast stillness and maybe, just maybe, find the ‘Cave of Eggs’….a second cave hidden even higher than Mary Magdalene’s grotto, that looks like caves I’ve entered only in my dreams.

First things first, let’s get on the plane…

1. The Skull and Bones of Mary Magdalene https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/marys-house-in-provence

2. Mary Magdalene and the Feminine Principle https://www.magdalenesacredjourneys.com/mary-magdalene-and-the-feminine-principle/

3. The Mystery of Mary Magdalene’s Skull and Relics https://www.historyhit.com/the-mystery-of-mary-magdalenes-skull-and-relics/