spotted a couple of deer bouncing across rolling hills of wheat fields before the morning mist had burned away. just the birds and i. very peaceful.
stopped for the night in the old vicarage of lectoure, yet another superb little town with a grab-bag full of architectural goodies dating back to the middle ages. not much is open though. this is typical of villages and small towns in france. i'm guessing it's because they tend to cater so much to tourists on weekends that they need the extra day off. marie-claude, ai-je vise juste?
Monday, June 30, 2008
hike day 14: saint-martin
sunday...another steamy hot, sunny day in le midi and an anniversary to celebrate as i look back 14 days and over 430 km ago to my first steps out of le-puy-en-velay. hard to believe how quickly the time and mileage have blown by, almost as surprising as the vastly different scenery from one region to the next.
stopped in the town of moissac in the morning for un grand bol de cafe au lait and a croissant only to find the cental square buzzing with the most enormous market filled with temptations to sway even the staunchest of resolves. of course, it didn't take long before the cheese merchants captured my attention with their ginormous barrels of every lip-smacking cheese imaginable. the moissac cathedral is simply stunning.
the path wound down to the real first stretch of flat ground since i began my trek. it was a riverside stroll along la garonne lined with endless rows of magnificent giant platane trees. i eventually hung my hat at a spectacular midieval vicarage turned reno'd inn high in spectacular auvillar. the heart of the village is a triangular area of XIIIth century arcade-style buildings where the birds and shadows have plenty of nooks and crannies in which to play games. also featured is a type of midieval gazebo construction dominating the elegant triangle. those midieval urban planners really had it going onnnn! now take all of this art, history, beauty...then erect a double-stacked mother of a nuclear plant a mere 10 km away and you have one of the oddest cultural and geographical juxtapositions imaginable.
stopped in the town of moissac in the morning for un grand bol de cafe au lait and a croissant only to find the cental square buzzing with the most enormous market filled with temptations to sway even the staunchest of resolves. of course, it didn't take long before the cheese merchants captured my attention with their ginormous barrels of every lip-smacking cheese imaginable. the moissac cathedral is simply stunning.
the path wound down to the real first stretch of flat ground since i began my trek. it was a riverside stroll along la garonne lined with endless rows of magnificent giant platane trees. i eventually hung my hat at a spectacular midieval vicarage turned reno'd inn high in spectacular auvillar. the heart of the village is a triangular area of XIIIth century arcade-style buildings where the birds and shadows have plenty of nooks and crannies in which to play games. also featured is a type of midieval gazebo construction dominating the elegant triangle. those midieval urban planners really had it going onnnn! now take all of this art, history, beauty...then erect a double-stacked mother of a nuclear plant a mere 10 km away and you have one of the oddest cultural and geographical juxtapositions imaginable.
mum's the word
the french countryside offers up a cornucopia of wafting aromas worthy of a king's ransom. as me mum used to remark when i was but knee-high to a grasshopper, "now breathe in deeply children." my brother and i never figured out how a skunk in full fight or flight could elicit the identical response from her. i have long since ceased asking why and resign myself instead to the reality that mom's standards of olfactory excellence rest on a different plane than the rest of we earthlings! :^}
Friday, June 27, 2008
hike day 12: cahors
had a dining experience in cahors fit for the gods last night. the meal started with a generous platter of the most scrumptious cold cuts followed by a delish braised chicken with mixed veggies on the side. now all of this was going down quite nicely with the local trappist monks' beer but the bar was raised a few notches with the arrival of the cheese platter. a half-dozen of the most phantasmagorical cheeses of various shapes and sizes landed at our table. num num num...some local sweet melon capped the meal nicely. ohhhhhh yeahhhhh baby!
took my leave of lovely cahors through its spectacular bridge and began a fairly arduous hike up up and away. half way up the cliff, i discovered another hiker who had somehow fallen over and the weight of her bag had wedged her in a rock gully on the edge of the cliff! precariously perched, to say the least. she was in such a tizzy that it hadn't occured to her to unsnap her knapsack to get herself out of her bind. such was my good samaritain move of the day.
after a steamy but much less mountainous day of hiking, i reached my evening destination. me voici maintenant, les deux pieds fermement plantes en plein dans montcuq. trust me, i am certainly not the only person deriving perverse and juvenile pleasure in the knowledge that without pronouncing the letter "q", the name of the place literally turns into "MyAss"!! thus the translation for the above: here i stand, both feet firmly planted in MyAss!! noone seems to pronounce the "q" in the village, honestly! everyone is walking around here talking about their own asses. what up??
took my leave of lovely cahors through its spectacular bridge and began a fairly arduous hike up up and away. half way up the cliff, i discovered another hiker who had somehow fallen over and the weight of her bag had wedged her in a rock gully on the edge of the cliff! precariously perched, to say the least. she was in such a tizzy that it hadn't occured to her to unsnap her knapsack to get herself out of her bind. such was my good samaritain move of the day.
after a steamy but much less mountainous day of hiking, i reached my evening destination. me voici maintenant, les deux pieds fermement plantes en plein dans montcuq. trust me, i am certainly not the only person deriving perverse and juvenile pleasure in the knowledge that without pronouncing the letter "q", the name of the place literally turns into "MyAss"!! thus the translation for the above: here i stand, both feet firmly planted in MyAss!! noone seems to pronounce the "q" in the village, honestly! everyone is walking around here talking about their own asses. what up??
Thursday, June 26, 2008
hike day 10: marcilhac-sur-cele
some days you so badly want to put your bag down that you know you can't...for it will be twice as heavy when you put it back on again. somehow my brain got stuck on a loop of that sarah silverman spoof "i'm f---ing matt damon3! thanks for that lisa!
1, 2, 3 spiders gliding across my cheeks...no this is not the intro to some freakazoid arachnophile story. that is typically the number of spikders that landed on my face before i got around to wiping them off. because this part of the path is so little traveled (no doubt due to its difficulty), it was like a cobwebs shooting gallery where they came at me in rapid-fire succession. itsy bitsy spider up the nostril spout...
in the end, i was rewarded with some spectacular vistas over saint-cirq-lapopie, a midieval throwback to the brutal days of the french revolution when "les oubliettes" were cast into the mountain dungeon that still towers over the village to this day. "les oubliettes" zere "the forgotten ones" or prisoners who were sent careening to their death into the dungeon pit full of guillotine-like blades. this little nugget was delivered with such good humour and reverence by a local that i gave him my best "eeee-yewww" look. to this, he responded "mais alors quoi? on est en france. on tranche les tetes des rois pour un rien! (translation: what?? this is france after all. even kings' heads will roll on a dime!" ahhhh ces francais. zut alors!
1, 2, 3 spiders gliding across my cheeks...no this is not the intro to some freakazoid arachnophile story. that is typically the number of spikders that landed on my face before i got around to wiping them off. because this part of the path is so little traveled (no doubt due to its difficulty), it was like a cobwebs shooting gallery where they came at me in rapid-fire succession. itsy bitsy spider up the nostril spout...
in the end, i was rewarded with some spectacular vistas over saint-cirq-lapopie, a midieval throwback to the brutal days of the french revolution when "les oubliettes" were cast into the mountain dungeon that still towers over the village to this day. "les oubliettes" zere "the forgotten ones" or prisoners who were sent careening to their death into the dungeon pit full of guillotine-like blades. this little nugget was delivered with such good humour and reverence by a local that i gave him my best "eeee-yewww" look. to this, he responded "mais alors quoi? on est en france. on tranche les tetes des rois pour un rien! (translation: what?? this is france after all. even kings' heads will roll on a dime!" ahhhh ces francais. zut alors!
hike day 9: beduer
what a gorgeous deviation along the gr651. on one side are stunning rocky cliffs of dizzying heights and on the other the meandering cele river with its sweet lullaby. a group of peregrine falcons rode the thermals a dozen metres away and aside from the gaggle of rabbits, i had the whole place to myself. ahh, que de beaute.
made my way through rugged mountain terrain to st-sulpice with nary another pilgrim in sight. this quaint little village's claim to fame is the half-dozen "troglodyte" houses that levitate between heaven and earth as they hang off the high cliffs. it is as though someone or something got down to the task of carving them out of the cliffside, then in a 3 century fit of procrastination left them half finished. consequently, they look like half houses precariously perched on the cliffs. also, the houses have been modernized with all manner of architectural trills so the clash of eras is striking against a backdrop of charcoal and rust coloured cliffs. what an extraordinary feat of engineering.
to cap the day, i threw together a simple pasta with the most divine blue cheese sauce. if heaven is the kingdom of cheese, then i'd best start making good with my maker now!! of course rumour has it that the camino cleanses you of all sins. i figure since this is my second year in a row hiking it, there's a heavenly cornucopia of curd somewhere out there with my name on it!
made my way through rugged mountain terrain to st-sulpice with nary another pilgrim in sight. this quaint little village's claim to fame is the half-dozen "troglodyte" houses that levitate between heaven and earth as they hang off the high cliffs. it is as though someone or something got down to the task of carving them out of the cliffside, then in a 3 century fit of procrastination left them half finished. consequently, they look like half houses precariously perched on the cliffs. also, the houses have been modernized with all manner of architectural trills so the clash of eras is striking against a backdrop of charcoal and rust coloured cliffs. what an extraordinary feat of engineering.
to cap the day, i threw together a simple pasta with the most divine blue cheese sauce. if heaven is the kingdom of cheese, then i'd best start making good with my maker now!! of course rumour has it that the camino cleanses you of all sins. i figure since this is my second year in a row hiking it, there's a heavenly cornucopia of curd somewhere out there with my name on it!
sainte-eulalie
yesterday morning i followed a red herring near sainte-eulalie and found myself inauiring for directions of a kindly madame breakfasting in her garden. quite aside from setting me straight, she generously insisted i pull up a chair and join her for coffee. once she realized i hadn't yet eaten, she pulled out a veritable shmorgasbord of homemade breakfast gateaux and jams and a spectacular platter of cheeses! what a feast and a lovely chat as well.
if connections such as these are what it's all about, then maybe i've found a small part of what i came here looking for.
if connections such as these are what it's all about, then maybe i've found a small part of what i came here looking for.
solo?
few are fellow pilgrims whom i meet that have undertaken this voyage solo. many local folks look behind me, past me, searching for another backpacker before asking incredulously "mais vous etes seule?" my stock reply is that you are never really alone for you meet so many locals and other pilgrims along the way. they can't believe it and often suggest i must be very "couragious".
that kind of comment must come from a somewhat cynical view of the world where one must have someone else on whom to rely in the event of a mishap. seems to me if you live in anticipation of a shitstorm, then it shall be served up on a silver platter. anyway, people are by nature helpful and so i believe perfect strangers can be relied upon in an emergency.
another frequent question that comes my way is "don't you get lonely?" truth be known, i am only too happy in my own company during the day, occupying my thoughts with everything and nothing, working hard to reign them in to focus on the present. if i meet people along the way or in the evening, that is enough socializing to sustain me. call me weird if u will (a little touch of quirk never hurt anyone!)
that kind of comment must come from a somewhat cynical view of the world where one must have someone else on whom to rely in the event of a mishap. seems to me if you live in anticipation of a shitstorm, then it shall be served up on a silver platter. anyway, people are by nature helpful and so i believe perfect strangers can be relied upon in an emergency.
another frequent question that comes my way is "don't you get lonely?" truth be known, i am only too happy in my own company during the day, occupying my thoughts with everything and nothing, working hard to reign them in to focus on the present. if i meet people along the way or in the evening, that is enough socializing to sustain me. call me weird if u will (a little touch of quirk never hurt anyone!)
everybody hurts...someplace
funny thing this pilgrimage business. you leave with the vague notion of disconnecting, elevating your soul yet the first thing you discover is your body. shoulders, a pair of arms, toes and an incalculable number of bits and bobs that suddenly begin to make themselves heard. everyone doesn't hurt everywhere but everyone has at least one ache, one sore, one challenge.
young guys are the worst as their unshakeable self-confidence and sense of competition pushes them to greater speeds and distances and ultimately straight into tendonitis or the biggest blisters known to mankind.
most pilgrims look upon any extra mileage off the waymarked path as heresy , their arch-enemy. whether as a result of getting lost or intentionally detouring, i view it as part of a richer experience for it is that extra km that leads you to some of the rarest gems, be it a cheese farm, a hidden valley or a heartwarming exchange of cultures.
young guys are the worst as their unshakeable self-confidence and sense of competition pushes them to greater speeds and distances and ultimately straight into tendonitis or the biggest blisters known to mankind.
most pilgrims look upon any extra mileage off the waymarked path as heresy , their arch-enemy. whether as a result of getting lost or intentionally detouring, i view it as part of a richer experience for it is that extra km that leads you to some of the rarest gems, be it a cheese farm, a hidden valley or a heartwarming exchange of cultures.
Monday, June 23, 2008
hike day 7: cheesy kingdom
just before hitting figeac, i turned a km off the beaten track upon spying a sign for a cheese farm. the maitre fromagier (read "the big cheese"!) led me through a taste tour of her dozen cheeses, each with its own distict flavour and texture.
while i presented a polite, inquisitive and attentive front, somewhere in the deepest recesses of my lizard brain screamed "gimme Gimme GIMME NOW!!!" honestly, can you think of a better way to kick-start a monday morning?
while i presented a polite, inquisitive and attentive front, somewhere in the deepest recesses of my lizard brain screamed "gimme Gimme GIMME NOW!!!" honestly, can you think of a better way to kick-start a monday morning?
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