Yesterday we saw the sunrise twice which was lovely. Our focus (at least mine), though, was all about the “moment of arrival” in St. Jean Pied de Port. It came in the early afternoon when we entered through the same city gate on Rue de la Citadelle that we walked through at the start of our first Camino on my 70th birthday, September 10, 2015. Eight years later, we have come full circle and are celebrating Dave’s 85th birthday. In…
Our travel day from Aire-sur-l’Adour to St. Palais yesterday was better than expected even though it didn’t go according to plan. The morning bus “missed us” (long story), so we caught the afternoon bus three hours later instead. It connected with a later train and the same bus to St. Palais we were originally going to take. We had no “layover” time in Puyoo that we would have had if we’d caught the morning bus – a bonus actually. Instead,…
We were back to sunshine for an easy stroll from Arblade-le-Bas to Aire-sur-l’Adour. We stopped to see the 16th century L’église Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel in Barcelonne-du-Gers and then carried on to Aire-sur-l’Adour. The first thing we did was to visit the tourist information centre. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable young lady gave us all the information we need for travelling to St. Palais tomorrow. We’ll take a bus to Pau; a train to Puyoo; and a bus to St. Palais. The total travel…
There were no big highlights today on our walk from Nogaro to Arblade-le-Bas, but a mix of everything we’ve already seen except for a couple of humungous mushrooms. There were more orange slugs, choruses of birds, corn fields as far as the eye could see, and grapevines. Some were even loaded with grapes but they were green, seedy, and sour – a late variety maybe? When we were walking through a forested area, I heard the crackle of a branch…
“What a wonderful world” was a perfect song to describe this morning. When we set out from Chez Nadine in Eauze, the rising sun was skimming the tops of the grapevines and jet trails shot across the blue sky this way and that. The fading moon was still high and followed us all morning. This world has so much beauty when we slow down and pay attention to what is around us – something we don’t do enough of in…
La Chambre d’hôtes le Couloumé is one kilometre beyond Montreal and a little “off” the Chemin, but we were back on it within twenty minutes without backtracking this morning. The trail followed a beautiful, wooded river corridor. Because of the abundance of trees, there was an abundance of birds singing – always a joy. Then we heard a gunshot off in the distance. Last night’s host told us that he had shot a wild boar earlier that day. Wild boar…
Our hosts, Corinne and Philippe, looked sad when they were saying their goodbyes to everyone when we were leaving Au Plaisir d’Etape – Gîte in Condom this morning. We were sad, too. Their hospitality is incomparable! In 2019 they discovered a pretty stone building “to shelter the aromas of generous and shared cuisine, the clinking of glasses filled with friendship, stories from everywhere to tell the beauty of the world ….where it is good to smile at each other, to…
We couldn’t leave La Romieu this morning without a photo of our hosts at Chambre d’hôtes du Perrouet and two of their many cats. Marie Hélène and her husband came on vacation to La Romieu from their home in Versailles for years. They decided to move here when they retired ten years ago. What a delicious breakfast Marie Hélène served with her own homemade jam, lemon cake, and so much more. She and her husband generously sent us on our…
The view overlooking rolling hills and low lying fog was gorgeous when we set off from Lectoure this morning. The Chemin leaving town goes down a set of stairs through the old Castle of the Counts of Armagnac. The high walls of the castle built on a limestone cliff were imposing from a hundred metres below. Roosters announced their presence as we passed. Soon we noticed a couple of signs. One was a road sign indicating that Condom-en-Armagnac is 21…
We loved our stay at Chambre d’hotes La Petite Inde (Little India) in Auvillar yesterday. Our hosts, Lashmir and Yvann, obviously love what they do. They work as a team, equally sharing all cooking and cleaning responsibilities. We would have happily stayed for one more meal, but we were off to Miradoux today, 18 kilometres away. Today was a blank slate as far as expectations are concerned. All we knew was that there would be some manageable ups and downs…