Rowan Tree Travel & Fibercraft is crossing the Channel to France, where style is practically a national pastime and wool has been quietly stealing the show for centuries. We’ll begin in Paris with yarn, neighbourhood wanderings and a decidedly pink soirée with Franklin Habit, Julie Dubreux and Enrico Castronovo, before following the thread south through the royal Merino flock at Rambouillet and the ancient woad country of Occitanie to the valleys of the Ariège.

Here, our walking shoes give way to boots for two memorable days as we join shepherds and their flocks on mountain paths to the high summer pastures—a chance not simply to watch the centuries-old tradition of transhumance, but to become part of it. And because even we can’t squeeze all of Paris between the yarn and the sheep, every traveller will receive our Insider’s Guide to Paris, packed with favourite places to stay, eat, wander and people-watch, plus practical tips for the city’s great sights—so you can discover the rest of Paris at your own pace.

This tour has been announced as a "Go!" Unless otherwise stated, our regular Terms & Conditions apply to this trip and for any cancellations.

Please Note

Rowan Tree Travel reserves the right to alter any part of this itinerary in order to address weather conditions, unforeseen circumstances or to improve the participant experience.

While our Tour Activity Level describes what to expect on a tour, our Mobility Comfort Level is personal to each traveler.

We would describe this trip as a Woolly Wander with a Mobility Comfort Level of 5+.

• This journey includes daily walking through Paris, historic villages, château grounds and local markets, often over cobblestones, uneven surfaces and occasional stairs.

• We will also make regular use of the Paris Métro, where stations frequently involve stairways and longer underground walks; taxis may be taken at your own expense if you prefer.

• The trip culminates in two memorable half-days following the transhumance in the Pyrenees, with walks of approximately 8–12 km (5–7½ miles) and 300–600 m (1,000–2,000 ft) of elevation gain on mountain trails.

• Participants should be comfortable walking for several hours over uneven mountain terrain.

• Footwear with good traction for rocky and potentially wet conditions is essential.

Rowan Tree Travel highly recommends purchasing travel insurance. You may purchase through our preferred partner Arch RoamRight here or through your own provider.  

*Arch RoamRight is an affiliate of RTTF and we will receive a small commission for policies bought through the provided link.

In order to gather easily for the tour, we provide an arrival and departure "window" at a major transportation hub - typically an international airport at your destination country. Flights scheduled outside the provided windows may result in additional transportation costs and/or missed tour activities. For this reason, we greatly appreciate your cooperation in booking travel that accommodates our specifications. 

This tour will start in Paris and end in Toulouse. Flight details will be provided upon registration and confirmed once the tour has been declared a go.

Please do not purchase airfare until the tour is guaranteed by RTTF to go forward.

Bienvenue en France!

There's no better place to begin our first French adventure than Paris—and no better way to celebrate it than in the company of fellow knitters.

After settling into our hotel, we'll stretch our legs with an easy stroll through the Marais, one of Paris's oldest and most atmospheric neighbourhoods. Medieval lanes mingle with elegant hôtels particuliers, tiny cafés spill onto the pavements, and every corner seems to offer another excuse to pause for coffee—or perhaps that first buttery pastry.

As evening falls, we'll gather for La Vie en Rose, hosted by Enrico Castronovo at Les Tricoteurs Volants. We'll be joined by special guest and presenter Franklin Habit, together with Paris designer Julie Dubreux, aka julieknitsinparis, who has created an exclusive project inspired by our journey together. There will be good food, lively conversation, a few surprises still waiting in the wings and, we suspect, very little resistance to casting on before dessert.

One small packing reminder: Bring your best pinks... and your walking shoes. You'll need both.

Paris with a Maker's Eye

Most visitors come to Paris in search of great art, grand monuments and elegant boulevards. We're certainly not opposed to any of those. But today we'll discover another side of the city—the one measured in skeins rather than statues.

We'll lose ourselves (quite happily) among the thoughtfully curated shelves of another beloved Paris yarn shop known for its beautifully dyed fibres, thoughtful selection of yarns and notions, and its warm, welcoming atmosphere, before heading to the foot of Montmartre, where generations of dressmakers, embroiderers, milliners and costume designers have shopped among the fabric merchants surrounding Marché Saint-Pierre. Long before "slow fashion" became fashionable, this neighborhood was supplying the raw materials for Parisian creativity.

This evening we'll dine together before wandering to the legendary Lapin Agile. Picasso, Modigliani, Utrillo and countless lesser-known dreamers all passed through its doors, proving that a modest cabaret and good company can sometimes leave a greater mark on history than the grandest salons.

Where the Merino Changed History

Rambouillet sheep are familiar to many knitters, but the story of how they came to be here is quite extraordinary. From a royal estate outside Paris, this flock would go on to influence fine-wool production around the world.

We’ll spend the morning at the Bergerie Nationale in Rambouillet, where that story unfolds among the historic barns and pastures—and where descendants of this celebrated flock still live today. We’ll save the details, which involve royalty, diplomacy and some very valuable sheep, for our visit.

In the afternoon we’ll explore the nearby Château de Rambouillet, a retreat for kings, emperors and presidents over the centuries. It seems only fitting that one of history’s most influential flocks should have called such an address home.

Following the Thread South

This morning we’ll leave Paris behind and fly south to Occitanie, where a rather unassuming plant called pastel (woad) once created fortunes and became known as l’or bleu—“blue gold.” At the Muséum du Pastel, we’ll discover how colour helped shape the history of this corner of France—and, naturally, there will be dyeing involved.

Then it’s onward into the Ariège and Saint-Lizier, a tiny medieval city tucked into the foothills of the Pyrenees, where Roman walls, two cathedrals and centuries of history await. Our château here will be home for the next six nights.

Every skein begins somewhere.

Today we'll meet the people who remind us exactly where that "somewhere" is. Our morning is spent with one of the Ariège's independent wool producers, where local fleeces are transformed into yarn in ways that honor both tradition and the landscape from which they come. We'll meet the hardy Tarasconnaise, perfectly adapted to life in the Pyrenees, alongside the elegant Mérinos d'Arles, whose exceptionally fine fleece has long been prized by spinners and knitters alike.

Later we'll visit Foix, where its medieval castle rises dramatically above the town on a rocky outcrop that once guarded the approaches to the Pyrenees. Home to the Counts of Foix and later entwined with the story of the Cathars, the fortress has watched over these valleys for nearly a thousand years. Fortunately, today it welcomes visitors rather more warmly than invading armies.

Following the Shepherds

For the next two days, we follow the sheep. Each spring, shepherds lead their flocks from the valleys to the high summer pastures in the centuries-old tradition of transhumance. The sheep don’t keep to our itinerary, so routes and gathering places won’t be confirmed until closer to our departure. We’ll follow their lead—joining shepherds, sheepdogs and hundreds of sheep on mountain paths, and taking part in the village celebrations that accompany their journey.

This is when the boots earn their place in the suitcase. We’ll climb steadily into the high pastures at the pace of the flock, with sheep bells carrying across the valley and the Pyrenees unfolding around us. For two days, we won’t simply be watching an old tradition. We will be part of it.

Monday Morning in Mirepoix

Every Monday, the arcaded square of Mirepoix comes alive with stalls piled high with cheeses, fruit, charcuterie, flowers, honey and every imaginable temptation the Ariège can produce. It has been this way for generations, and as we wander beneath the town's wonderfully crooked medieval timber buildings, it isn't difficult to imagine merchants greeting familiar faces much as they have for hundreds of years.

We'll have time to browse, sample local delicacies and perhaps assemble the perfect picnic before returning through the rolling countryside to Saint-Lizier, where the afternoon invites a gentler pace. Perhaps another stroll through the village, perhaps a quiet café, or perhaps simply time to knit in the château gardens while the memories of the weekend's adventures begin to settle

The Living Culture of Wool

Wool in the Ariège is very much a living tradition. Today we’ll meet local fibre artisans who are carrying generations of skill into the present—spinning, weaving, dyeing and creating with the wool of this region.

This evening we’ll gather for our farewell dinner. We’ve followed the thread from Paris to royal Merinos and on to shepherds in the high pastures. Along the way, skeins have been acquired, meals shared and friendships made. Not a bad way to follow a thread through France.

Au Revoir et Bon Voyage!

After breakfast we’ll make our way to Toulouse for our onward journeys home.

Ten days, two pairs of shoes, several hundred sheep and an entirely unpredictable quantity of yarn later, our first French adventure comes to an end.

Bon voyage et au revoir—until next time!

Sydney is a knitter, spinner, crocheter, dyer, and felter. She loves to explore how different local cultures work with fiber. At one time Sydney managed Quail Hill Farm including sheep for fiber and meat as well as pigs, goats, horses, donkeys, too many cats and dogs, plus various types of poultry. She took her sheep wool from shearing to dying, using her own dye plants, to spinning to knitted garments. Sydney grew up in NYC and Switzerland and is fluent in French, Italian, and German. She worked for many years as a French teacher and mentor in Waldorf Schools. Before that she worked as a financier on Wall Street and she now uses those skills for strategic planning at Rowan Tree.

Liz lives with her family on a smallholding in the Cambrian mountains in Wales. A keen knitter since childhood, she remembers watching her mother spin yarn from the family sheep, and she now keeps her own small flock of Shetland sheep to indulge her passion for all things woolly. Liz is also a keen hill walker, and loves to escape to her beloved mountains, seeking inspiration amongst the colours and textures of the wild upland landscape of mid-Wales. A linguist and Latin America specialist by training, Liz previously spent many years studying and travelling in southern Chile, where she was bewitched by the alchemy that rural women could perform with some roughly-spun wool and a few leaves in a dye pot over a wood fire. It was here that Liz learnt to weave. Now settled back home in Wales, she teaches weaving, whilst also running wildwoven, a woolly fair trade business, providing opportunities for rural women in Chile to supply highly-textured, hand spun yarns to discerning weavers and fibre artists.