The tides around Mont Saint-Michel rank among the biggest in Europe, and the story of how people once tried to outsmart them holds a lesson about living with nature. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded at the foot of the abbey, I look at what happened when a causeway let visitors reach the island at any hour, and what it took to undo it.

Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. The causeway kept the sea from flowing through the bay, silt piled up, and the island slowly stopped being an island. Restoring the tides took about twenty years of work and a new bridge that lets the water move freely beneath it.

The Stoics asked us to live in accordance with nature, which covers both the world around us and our own nature. We reflect on what happens when we bend a place, or ourselves, to our standards and desires instead of working with how things are, and how much simpler a modest life becomes once we stop fighting a rhythm that was already there.

This is a short, reflective stop on a trip through France, and an invitation to ask where you might be rushing something that only needs time.

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Produced by: Badmic.com

Michel de Montaigne’s tower in the Dordogne is where he withdrew to read, think, and write his Essays. In this episode, I visit the Château de Montaigne with guide Pauline Gonzalez and walk through his library, his bedroom, and the rooms that shaped his thinking.

Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Montaigne was no academic, and he read the Stoics as a man looking for a way to live, which is why his tower belongs on this show.

Pauline shows me the beams of his library, where he had quotes from the ancient writers painted so he could meet them again while he walked. We talk about his strict Latin upbringing, his deep friendship with Étienne de La Boétie, the family wine business, and why he chose to write in French. Montaigne took nature and his own life as his material, and he asked what it means to be human rather than what a philosopher should say. His Essays still read like a conversation with a friend, which makes them one of the best ways into philosophy as a practice for ordinary life.

If you have ever wondered what a life of reading and reflection looks like in practice, this visit gives you a way in. Step inside Montaigne’s tower with me, and tell me in the comments which room stays with you. Come back to the Via Stoica Podcast for more conversations on living philosophy.

Visit the Château de Montaigne
24230 Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, Dordogne, France, about 20 minutes from Saint-Émilion and 1 hour from Bordeaux. Open every day, with visits to the tower and the 19th-century château. Opening hours, prices and tickets: https://chateau-montaigne.com/en

Guide: Pauline Gonzalez, Guide at Château de MontaigneDrone footage: Déclic et Décolle (@declic_et_decolle_photo)

Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaChâteau de Montaigne: https://chateau-montaigne.com/enProduced by: Badmic.com

What do the Carnac stones in Brittany have to say to us? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded as I walked among the long rows early one morning, I follow the questions these Neolithic stones raised about purpose, problems, and the simple life.

Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Farmers raised these stones thousands of years ago, and nobody knows for certain why, whether for ritual, burial, a landmark, or a map of the stars. Their silence sent me back to my own reasons for what I do, which people around me often cannot see but which can still be worth doing, especially when they help others.

The stones also gave me a picture for how we handle our own problems. A challenge has a real core, and we tend to pile extra weight on top of it with our thoughts and stories. We ask which stones you actually need to carry, which ones you added yourself, and how to focus on the core of an issue instead of making it bigger than it has to be.

We also ask whether the people who lived here stood closer to nature than we do, or whether what we lost is the connection to our own nature, which we find by listening to our values and principles.

This is a short, reflective walk rather than a lesson, and a reminder that life can be simpler than we make it.

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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com