Award-winning writer and anthropologist Beebe Bahrami is the author of the travel memoirs Café Oc and Café Neandertal andseveral travel guides, including The Spiritual Traveler Spain and Moon Camino de Santiago. Her essays appear in BBC Travel, Wine Enthusiast, Archaeology, the Pennsylvania Gazette, Perceptive Travel, and other publications. She lives in Ocean City, New Jersey.

Prologue: Meeting the Goose xi

Part I: La Reine Pédauque: A pilgrimage in France

1 On a Goose-Footed Threshold 3

2 The Game of the Goose 12

3 Square One 19

4 The First Goose 29

5 Pigeon, Boar, Rabbit 36

6 The Bridge 40

7 The Second Goose 46

8 The Third Goose 49

9 Amber Wine 58

10 Twenty-Six Ducks 63

11 The Inn 68

12 Wild Boar, Pigs, and Pugs 73

13 The Tempest 78

14 The Recluse 85

15 The Fourth Goose 91

16 La Reine Pédauque 95

Part II: The Mistress of Animals: A pilgrimage in France and Spain

17 The Dice 101

18 The Fifth Goose 110

19 The Well 113

20 The Sixth Goose 119

21 The Ice Storm 126

22 The Seventh Goose 129

23 An Angel and a Saint 133

24 The Eighth Goose 141

25 The Serpent 146

26 The Ninth Goose 158

27 Melusine 168

28 The Rooster and the Hen 173

29 The Deer 177

30 The Tenth Goose 183

31 Red Roses and White Honeybees 193

32 Call Me Ishmael 199

33 The Labyrinth 205

34 The Ebro 217

35 Mistress of Animals 221

36 Prehistoric Pilgrims 227

37 Nirvana 235

38 Sa’di’s Daughter 238

39 Our Lady of Sarlat 240

40 The Sport of Joy 246

Part III: The Swan: A pilgrimage in France and Spain

41 Returning 251

42 The Alchemical Journey 255

43 The Gift 262

44 The Valley Way 267

45 The Eleventh Goose 276

46 Saint Martin’s Goose 280

47 The Fork in the Road 284

48 Cygnus 294

49 Saint James’s Dice 298

50 Mary’s Dice 303

51 House of the Gods 313

52 The Gander 317

53 The Tower 320

54 The Dragonfly 324

55 The Twelfth Goose 328

56 The Castle 336

57 The Castro 341

58 Death 350

59 The Thirteenth Goose 355

60 Arriving 361

61 The Lamia 369

62 Between the Setting Sun and the North Star 373

63 The Swan 378

Epilogue: Meeting the Goose, Again 383