Elodie Tabur believes in stepping up to whatever challenges may come her way, always with her watercolour paints and paintbrushes in hand. It’s only with that kind of an attitude that the young French architect and traveller could possibly have walked the famous St James’ Way pilgrimage, trekking 1,600 km.
She didn’t just walk it. Elodie, a skilled artist, has documented the sights, sounds and the people she met during her 70-day journey in 2015, in a series of watercolours and notes, which she has brought out as a travel diary, Pèlerin vers l'océan (Pilgrimage to the Ocean). “I came to India 10 years ago and spent some time here (including Thiruvananthapuram) working as an architect. Fifteen days after I landed back in France, I decided to undertake the pilgrimage. People go on the pilgrimage for various reasons – faith, as a retirement journey, as thanks for recovering from an illness and the likes; I am a woman of all faiths and my journey was because I was beginning a new chapter in my life, as I had planned to quit architecture and start writing books,” explains Elodie, who is in the city to talk about her experiences at an event at Alliance Française de Trivandrum.
“At first I could cover only 20 km a day, then gradually I walked about 40 km from sunrise to sunset, passing quaint villages, water points, homes and churches. I walked through the cold of Le Puy to the heat of the Spanish countryside and the balmy ocean weather of Finisterre, through rain, storm and the sun. It was just me and my thoughts with nature for company, stopping occasionally to capture my thoughts on canvas. It was a spiritual journey,” she adds, with a faraway look in her eyes, as our eyes go to her beautiful travel diary.
Pèlerin vers l'océan has imprints of some of her watercolours with each picture accompanied by anecdotes, notes or incidents from her journey, beginning with a page full of credencial stamps (similar in appearance to immigration stamps) from various places along the route that gives travellers access to various facilities.“Magic happens everywhere you go on the trail. Villagers go out of their way to help you and fellow pilgrims from all over the world that you meet on the way become part of this large family where everyone is equal. We all have badges in the shape of shells pinned on our backpacks, which almost guarantees safe travel,” says Elodie.
She reels off instances of “little bits of magic” on the trail, like how a good Samaritan café owner gave her a pair of walking shoes for free after hers fell apart from wear, of how an innkeeper offered her free room, of how a farmer opened up his home to her when she got caught in an early morning thunderstorm... “People were extremely generous and helpful,” she says.
Elodie is now back in India to realise a new travel diary. “Last time I was here, I didn’t get much opportunity to travel. I’m making up for it now.” Travelling by bus and train, she set off on her epic journey in Puducherry. Thiruvananthapuram is her fourth pit stop in her journey north, all the way to Rishikesh and the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas, passing via Mattancherry, Thrissur, Dharwad, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Varanasi, among others. “I hope to undertake the Hemkund Sahib Pilgrimage and also trek to the Valley of Flowers,” she explains. Accompanying her for most of the journey will be city-based architect Lisa RS, with whom Elodie worked under all those years ago.
Elodie will present Pèlerin vers l'océan at an event at Alliance Française de Trivandrum on June 10, 6 pm
Walking the talk
Elodie walked from Le Puy en Velay in south central France to the shrine of the apostle St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in North-western Spain and then a further three days to lands’ end at Cape Finisterre to watch the sunset.
