Day 34 September 29 Aire sur L’Ardour to Miramont-Sensacq

19.9km 307 ascent 128 descent 4:20 hr. 30⁰C

Another lovely breakfast and on the road around 8am.

The food at this hotel was really excellent. The room was okay, but had a few problems. It was carpeted, which is not desirable; the pillows had a sham rather than a pillow case which isn’t what we’re used to, so a bit annoying; there was no sheet – just a way too heavy (aka hot) comforter, which made it hard to sleep because you were engaged in an endless dance of putting on then taking off the comforter; we had a lovely window with excellent air flow, but we were right over the D931 with a lot of truck traffic whizzing by every hour of the day. So you either had air (made more necessary by the carpets etc that smelled) or you had noise; and finally, the shower had a water saver feature, which made it a very slow and tedious operation to get the dye out of my hair.

Life is a series of compromises. Nothing is ever perfect. You always have to make the best with what you’ve got. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. All things considered, we very much enjoyed our stay here. It was a beautiful town, more or less on par with Niagara on the Lake. It was not a medieval town, except for the churches, rather it was quite modern.

Leaving town we stopped at the Casino for some provisions. There was a young student outside smoking.  We got in the line and there was a woman at the check-out who was obviously out for her social interaction of the day, taking an immense amount of time. I said to the student, who was now behind us in the line, that he could go first. I thought he might be in a hurry to get to school, and he only had a coke. Then I said, you’re not going to take forever, are you. He seemed to understand. Outside, he waited for us to come out, and thanked me for letting him go first. I noticed as he walked away that he probably had gotten polio as a child. He may not have been used to being treated with respect, and really appreciated it.

On the exit from the town, along the Avenue des Pyrenees, we passed the ‘La Halle’. This was the commercial grain market of Aire-de-l’Adour, reminiscent of the ‘La Halle’ of Auvillar where we had our last rest day.

I was very excited to visit the church of Saint Quitterie. 

When we got there, there were a lot of students sitting about around the church. The church was closed. A lot of the students were smoking. I asked one group of young people if the church was open. One of the girls said ‘I can speak English’. The others all laughed at her. She led me up to the church and pointed out a sign with the opening hours. Also, the crypt was presently closed for renovations. It appeared that after Sept 26 you had to make an appointment to visit the church. I was very disappointed. But I thanked the girl profusely for helping me, and her friends all laughed. She too appeared to have had polio as a child, and I wondered if there had been an outbreak in that town a while ago.

Shortly after leaving the city, we walked along a path that circled Lac du Brousseau.

It was a beautiful trail, like a trail through a provincial park in Ontario. A sign said there was cyano bacteria in the lake, so not to swim. That is the blue green algae that will kill you. The lake was home to carp, sunfish, and bass. Not sure you would want to eat anything out of there, what with the bacteria, and all. Anyway, it was a beautiful walk around the part of the lake we traversed. There was lots of incredibly beautiful driftwood. My favorite. During our walk we met a fellow out walking, who proudly showed us a giant mushroom he pulled out from a pouch he had made from his jacket, obviously brimming with quite a few more. Hopefully he knows his mushrooms!

We crossed the A65 via an underpass, then passed sunflower, corn, millet, and soybean fields. We passed another duck farm, lots of chicken farms, and a cow meat processing plant.

We are in the department of Landes now, and they don’t seem to like to post a sign of the village you are passing through, although perhaps some of the places on the Micheline map are not ‘villages’. Anyway, I never really had a fix on where we were with respect to the Micheline map today. At least we were always following Russell’s GPS.

Much like the Camino in Spain, we were in a steady procession of pilgrims all day, and ended up passing everyone we came upon. We passed a lady from France from Limognes, who started at Espalion. We passed a fellow that seemed German. He had just filled up his water bottle and pointed to the l’eau potable, but we had lots of water. We passed an oriental couple that had dinner at our hotel last night, and mentioned how good the food was, and they agreed. He was very tall, and she was very short. We passed three other pilgrims from France, just as they were knocking figs out of a tree on private property and eating them. We’re not the fig police.

Our lodging tonight is 1km off the GR65. It is like a setting from a Sergio Leone movie. You expect Clint Eastwood to walk out into the courtyard. There is even a fountain in the middle of a horse trough.

The grounds are beautiful, there is a pool, and the room is perfect. We arrived at noon, and our bags were here and our room was ready.

Had a shower, did the laundry, went for a lovely swim. 

The water seemed really cold at first, but I think it had more to do with the fact it was 30⁰C. The water was perfect when I finally got in.  I was hoping the chlorine would bleach some of the black out of my hair, but it didn’t seem to work.

I put curlers in my hair and we’re sitting out in the courtyard blogging. At 5pm 4 other pilgrims arrived, looking totally exhausted. I asked where they started from, and they said Barcelonna-de-Gers. That is 2 km from Aire-sur-l’Adour. They must have spent a lot of time sightseeing in Aire-sur-l’Adour.

The owner has several cats and a pet pigeon. It’s rather remarkable to watch the cat sitting with the pigeon, looking at it like a good meal, but not trying to eat it. I mentioned this to the owner, and she said basically that it was pretty dicey.

Dinner was a communal event with 8 pilgrims, 2 from France, 4 from Belgium, and us from Canada. French wasn’t the first language for 6 of the 8 of us, so we had an easier time following the conversation. Some of the Belgians spoke English as well, which made it easier for us, and they did some translating into French. Everyone is shocked and horrified at Trump. No one can understand who on earth would support him. We all think we are witnessing the fall of the mighty American empire.

Dinner consisted of a lot of vegetables from the lady’s garden. A lovely salad with a separate tray of various colored and various varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and red onions; rice, ratatouille, and cubed turkey in mushroom sauce; apple pie. There was loads of food, and all very delicious.

Russell has an upset stomach. We’re not sure from what, perhaps the 3 day old cheese we put in the refrigerator at Aire-sur-l’Adour? I also haven’t mentioned that he has had a problem with his back since day 1. It goes ‘out’ every now and then, and he has to go through some contortions to get it back ‘in’. Leaning over with his backpack on usually always makes it go ‘out’ and I have suggested every time he leans over with his backpack on that perhaps if he has to fish a rock out of his boot, he should first remove his backpack. To no avail. I just hope the day doesn’t come when he can’t get his back ‘in’ if it goes ’out’.

Day 33 September 28 Aire sur L’Ardour

4 km 24⁰C

Breakfast was between 7-9am, so being our day off, we slept in as late as possible without missing breakfast. When we got there, there were two fellows, we assume from Africa, grandly bedecked robes and head pieces of their culture. One was a brilliant blue, the other a more monkish looking beige. As we sat eating a steady parade of pilgrims passed. We didn’t recognize any of them. Note that by now it around 9am, so they must have been coming from Barcelonna-de-Gers, or places even farther. We also noted that they weren’t actually following the GR65, although the markings through here are very scarce and confusing.

After breakfast we followed the actual GR65 from our hotel through to the centre of Aire-sur-l’Adour. The picturesque city lies along the Ardour River. 

From our hotel we passed down to the river, through a park full of stone picnic tables, and up via a ramp to get onto the grand bridge over the river. There were many shops of all kinds you’d expect in a relatively large city that was a tourist destination.

From a tourist point of view, its’ main attraction is being a village along the rue de Sainte Jacques with two churches that have a UNESCO heritage designation.

We visited the Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste d'Aire, a national monument of France with UNESCO heritage status. It was abolished as a cathedral during the French Revolution but restored in the reforms of the early 19th century.

The cathedral dates to the 11th and 12th centuries, but was subject to much alteration between the 14th and 17th centuries and its present appearance shows a variety of styles.

The painted murals were restored in the XIXth century, and provide a remarkable example of the art of religious buildings of the period.

The church had inspirational sheets in both French and English at all the chapels in relation to the Chemin de Misericorde (Holy year on the Way).

One said: When you open up to God you receive the gifts of the holy spirit-wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord

Another one quoted Pope Francis ‘Forgiveness is the way which has been put into our weak hands to reach Peace in our hearts. To give up bitterness, anger, violence and revenge is the essential condition for happiness’.

Amen to that.

The Cathedral hosts a pilgrim meet and greet between 3 and 6pm on Tuesday to Saturday, and we went back around 5pm and got our passports stamped. Interestingly, the stamp says Sainte Quitterie. This is the other church in Aire-sur-l’Adour with UNESCO heritage status. We plan to visit it tomorrow as we leave the city. It is further out of the city along the GR65.

To make a long story short, Quitterie was a young virgin Visigoth warrior princess who was beheaded in the 5th Century because she refused to marry an Arien prince. It is said that the place where Quitterie's head fell, a spring of fresh water miraculously sprang forth which can be found on the church grounds today.

The modern site of the Church of Saint Quitterie was famously built over an older Roman temple dedicated to Mars, which is where Quitterie was executed. Years later, the temple was demolished & rebuilt as a Benedictine Monastery when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, then later still rebuilt as the Church of St Quitterie. One original feature from the Roman temple that has survived to the modern era is a stone alter which was used to sacrifice animals on when it was a Roman temple dedicated to the god of war.

There is a very long but interesting story about Saint Quitterie at: 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1727247-d9986624-r350800805-Eglise_Sainte_Quitterie_d_Aire-Aire_sur_l_Adour_Landes_Aquitaine.html

We wanted to get Russell a shirt and went into several men’s clothing shops, but 50 to 100 euro for an ordinary shirt seemed a bit steep. I got a few things I’ve run out of at an Yves Rocher, one of my favorite stores in Europe.

We had lunch at the picnic tables along the river. There is a campground on the other side, full of camper vans.

There is a cat at the hotel that often seems to be imprisoned in a room across an atrium in the hotel. It looks so forlorn.

We are experiencing a definite lack of spiritual experiences on this Way, compared to other pilgrimages we have done. It might be because we aren’t journeying toward a spiritual center, like Santiago or Rome. I also didn’t have a spiritual quest as an underlying motivation to embark on this pilgrimage, like I did on the other walks. That isn’t to discount how moving the scenery and the interactions with the other pilgrims is.

It is a bit depressing to witness the decline in the churches along the Way. This decline is quite more noticeable than it was 3 years ago, although the churches in France may be suffering more than those in Spain due to pillaging and destruction associated with the French Revolution. It is very heartening to go into a church that you can tell has a thriving congregation, but that is the rare exception here.

The dinner tonight was excellent again. We both had a steak with a grand assortment of vegetables and a pineapple/coconut/bing cherry baba. Way too much food.

We got a note from our friend Jim, the Irish pilgrim. He has been having a problem with shin splints, and had to advance by cab for a day or so. We are praying for his speedy recovery. He is walking all the way to Santiago, and then going on a walking holiday in Machu Picchu, so he has many more kilometers ahead of him.

I called the hotel we stay in on Friday. The arrangement was that we walk to Pomps, where they pick us up and take us to Morlanne, and then they return us to Pomps the next morning. I had a speech all translated into French. First I said a few words in French to the lady, who said, ‘wait I’ll get my husband’. Then the husband, who told me he spoke a bit of English (and had a very thick German accent) got on the phone. First he thought I had already stayed there, then he thought I wasn’t coming until October 30, then he went to his book of reservations. Long pause. Finally he found I was coming on Friday, Sept 30. I told him we were coming from Miramont, and right away he said ‘oh, that is very far’. It is 38km. I told him it was too far for me, and he said he would pick us up at Larreule instead. He said to call when we got there and to wait in front of the church for him. I was going to ask him to pick us up 7km before that, but decided it was better to simply agree. So we walk 30km on Friday, instead of 38. Hopefully that will be okay. It is forecast to be 30⁰C tomorrow, 29⁰C on Friday, and then cool off again. Great timing for another heat wave!

Day 32 September 27 Arblade Le Haut to Aire sur L’Ardour

25.2km 199 ascent 272 descent 6:00 hr. 24⁰C

The breakfast was interesting. There were 8 pilgrims spread over 6 tables in a room not much bigger than our kitchen. It was almost impossible to get to the buffet table, which had all the food, as well as the coffee, tea, hot chocolate. But it was a nice breakfast, and although we were the last to arrive, we were the first on the road. I think everyone else went up to their rooms after breakfast to get packed. We came down with our suitcases and backpacks all ready to hit the road.

Breakfast was at 7am and we were on the road a bit before 7:30am. It was still dark. It really didn’t get totally light until around 8am. I think from now on we will go to breakfast at 7:30 and leave at 8am. Walking in the dark is no fun, and it would be too easy to twist something.

We walked to the end of the historic road and hit the D931, a very major highway with a steady procession of very large trucks passing by. You really have to stop and brace yourself when those big trucks pass, they almost knock you over. All that truck traffic reminded me of the 401, except the D931 is only 2 lanes. It was also where we got back on the GR65, so even if we had not deviated from the GR65 yesterday, we would have been walking along the D931. There was, thankfully, some effort to have us behind guard rails, or tramping through fields. We walked about 1km along that highway, and made it alive to the junction of the D6 and D931, where we turned on to a country road. Russell said we were about to do 3 sides of a box to get off the highway, and I said ‘hallelujah’.

I’ve noticed over the last few days we have walked along a lot roads, as opposed to being on paths though fields or woods. Plus, there is less opportunity to walk on a soft shoulder. Either there is no shoulder, or it is on too large a slant, or the ground is so uneven you risk twisting your knee or ankle. This is having a cumulative effect on my foot, and it is getting to be quite sore, to the point of keeping me awake at night. But it is still not unmanageable. I have never yet resorted to wearing my heel protector.

Again today we experienced a deviation in the route of the GR65. Our Micheline guide indicated there were no services along the Camino today. However, we deviated shortly after Lanne-Soubiran and ended up passing through Lelin-Lapujolle. Russell noticed that the GR65 indicators were taking us off his GPS tracks, causing a bit of distress, but the signs said there was a public WC this new way, so it was the hands down winner. It was a lovely little village, with picnic tables, a beautiful church, clean and lovely public washrooms, and a restaurant-store. The proprietor of the store reminded us of the train-man in the Matrix.

He was standing outside as we went by, with dread locks and a big welcoming smile. I said something to him in French, and he responded in excellent English. I said ‘oh, you speak English’ and he said ‘not at all’. I think he’s an American in France. We got two pieces of pizza for lunch, which he was explaining to us was all vegetables. Then I noticed this lovely cake he had, and I asked what kind it was, and he went on about how it was a fruit cake, with no eggs or milk, totally vegan. I asked him if he was a vegan and he said ‘you can’t make a body like this being a vegan’. He was quite the character. Perhaps whoever prepares all the food for the store is vegan.

Around Manet we got back on the GPS GR65 track. It was all along roads from then on in that you could see going on and on (I hate that).

We were walking through Saint Mont vineyards today. Large clumps of ripe grapes were hanging off the vines, looking very ready to be picked. They had several large signs saying: Dear traveler, taking the Via Podiensis you cross the vineyards of Saint Mont. Ancestral local grape varieties originating in the Piedmont Pyrenees have been handcrafted by our winemakers for generations.

We then turned onto a road running right along a railway track (although separated by trees), that you could see going on and on for kilometers. However, there was quite a production of bins, tractors, and trucks working up ahead. They were harvesting green beans. Once again, other than the drivers of the machinery, no humans were involved.

A bin had just been filled up with beans, and a tractor loaded the bin onto a carrier and then hauled it down to a waiting truck, and transferred it to him.

We stood by and watched all this, because the road was narrow enough that there was no room to pass by. It was very entertaining though, so we didn’t really mind the delay.

We also saw a very interesting tree along there. It is an evergreen, but most unusual. Perhaps someone can identify it.

Finally, we crossed over the train track, at a point with a house right beside the track. I said to Russell it reminded me of the movie The Triplets of Bellville. He said it was probably the crossing guard’s house. I turned around for another look at the house, and saw in caste iron letters the word ‘Costefort’ on the house. This was a ‘place’ on our guide.

I was having a difficult time reconciling the Micheline guide distances with the GPS. I wasn’t too happy to think that we were at Costefort, because the guide showed another 8 km to go, and the GPS was saying we had already gone 19.

Shortly after the turn at end of the railway road, we crossed the D935 highway. I was a bit concerned we might have to walk along it for a while, but we carried on into a field, and then turned and walked along another long straight road through the field. This time we were passing through red cattle corn, which had just been picked, and there was a huge bin sitting there full of corn.

We got to Barcelonne-de-Gers, a big city, just after 12:30pm so everything was closed for siesta. We had brought our lunch though, and stopped at a set of picnic tables as we entered to eat. It just would have been nice to be able to get a cold Perrier, but we survived.

There was a covered water trough there. 

This was something we had seen in many places in France, and we didn’t really know what it was. It turns out that is a Lavoir. This is a place where people would do their laundry in the day. Many of the picnic sites we have had our lunch at have had a Lavoir. Now we know what that is!

It was very creepy walking through Barcelonne-de-Gers, there wasn’t a soul around. Every restaurant in the area was permanently closed, and everything else seemed to be for sale. It was like a ghost town. We walked for a while through the deserted town, then ended up on a rather grand boulevard. Al least that seemed a bit more on the up and up. We were diverted onto a foot path through a field, passing behind a residential area that looked quite nice, so we must have just hit the ‘bad’ part of town coming in.

We crossed a highway, got back on the big boulevard, which was the D931 running into Aire-sur-l’Adour. We then walked past a large Carrefour. Today was the day I was planning to dye my hair, and this looked to me like my only opportunity to buy the dye. It was closed for siesta until 2:30pm. It was 1:30pm. I had no idea how much farther to our hotel, and I voted to camp out there for an hour. Russell insisted we didn’t have too much farther. We had already gone 24km. Taking the distance from the Micheline guide, from the Costefort sign we might have had 3km more to go. I really didn’t feel like walking 3km and then having to walk another 6km to get back here for hair dye. Russell won out and we kept going. Thankfully, the hotel was only 1km further on. Russell, who was determined not to sit around waiting for the Carrefour to open, was way ahead of me and went sailing past the hotel. I was calling to him, but with all the truck traffic he couldn’t hear. He finally heard me and turned back. Our hotel was well before the Aire-sur-l’Adour city centre.

The bags were here and our room was ready, so we got all settled in, and I had a shower. At 2:30pm we went back to the Carrefour. We passed the separate pilgrim that had been at the Gite last night arriving. We never did see the other 5 pilgrims again.

I wanted medium brown dye, and there wasn’t anything with medium brun on the box. I asked a lady, and she said I wanted Chatain. So I bought that. My hair turned out pretty much black. I looked chatain up on the internet and it said ‘dark blonde’. Oh well. I felt like I had gone into a hotel and disguised myself. Ohh. No one will recognize me now.

The restaurant here is a gourmet restaurant. Not only was our meal last night the best we’ve had on the Way, but one of the best we’ve ever had in a restaurant. Everything was in a lovely position on the plate.

We had chicken, crusted with sesame seeds, and there was a grilled tomatoe and all sorts of other vegetables. Delicious! For the first time in my life he wanted to know what we wanted for dessert when we ordered our meal. He said the desserts were very time consuming to prepare. I had a an almond and rhubarb cookie with a liqueur laced pudding. Russell had a cake with various berry coulis and raspberry sherbet. It was really sophisticated.

We also blew the wad and ordered a 25 euro bottle of Saint Mont ‘lost vines’ white wine. It was unlike any wine we’ve had before, so very difficult to describe. Maybe like a cross between pinot grigio and gewürztraminer, but really, really nice. Well worth it, and hats off to Saint Mont. 

Day 31 September 26 Eauze to Arblade Le Haut

25.5km 395 ascent 451 descent 6:00 hr. 25⁰C

I didn’t sleep very last night, the place was very quiet and we were able to leave the window open, so the temperature in the room was good and the ventilation was good, but the bed only had a rather heavy comforter on it, not a sheet. I was too hot with the comforter, and find it hard to sleep with no covering at all. It’s just not cozy that way.

The breakfast was A1. Lovely fruit salad. Often, if they have fruit, it is the whole nectarine or pear, so I always haul out my Swiss army knife and cut it up to mix with my yogurt. That makes a bit of a mess, and then you have to go wash your hands, blah blah blah. A fruit salad is very civilized.

After breakfast, as I was standing there waiting for Russell to be ready to leave, I picked up and started reading a pamphlet about the Henry IV Hotel we had stayed in last night. Our room didn’t look like any of the rooms shown in the pamphlet! I decided we must have gotten the naughty room. Maybe it was because we were bad and crossed the forbidden bridge the other day. Either that, or we got the mistress suite. We do have two different last names – who would know we are married?

Early on out of Eauze, we followed and then passed a group of 5 pilgrims we had passed yesterday. They are very French, and we never got past Bonne Chemin with them, as far as conversation goes. One of them must be very competitive. Yesterday, he kept us with for quite a distance after we passed him, and then he almost passed us on a very steep ascent. At the moment of being in a position to at least pass me, he fell back. Presumably to wait for his friends. However, he did manage to make it clear that we weren’t faster than him, he just had the constraint of his friends holding him back.

It really isn’t a contest. We don’t purposely race past other pilgrims to show off. We just walk at our own pace. We get passed too!

At one point we came across two fellows standing beside a parked car (out in the middle of nowhere) and seemingly getting their backpacks on and figuring out where to go on their map. I wondered how long they planned to leave their car parked there.

Today we passed by two duck farms (all that canard confit must be coming from somewhere). The ducks were all looking very well fed.

We also passed a very major fish farm, Etang du Pouy. There were a lot of ponds.

We met up with a couple of pilgrims that looked very clean. Their backpacks were also very clean and new looking. I said to Russell, ‘they must have started at Condom’. Their backpacks were big and heavy looking, so they were obviously carrying all their gear. I talked to the lady for a while. They had indeed started at Condom. They were doing the Camino in stages. Two years ago they walked from Le Puy to Figeac (about 250km). Last year they walked from Figeac to Condom (about 252km). This year, they are walking to Roncesvalles. When we did the Camino in 2013, we walked from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. It seems that French people like to do Le Puy to Roncesvalles, and then Roncesvalles to Santiago. Roncesvalles is the dividing line between France and Spain.

Once again today we mainly walked through vineyards, but we also passed fields of cattle corn.

When we entered Manciet (a fairly large town along the Way although it wasn’t really denoted as being too much of anything in the guide), we witnessed a grape harvesting machine in action.

 It was a self-propelled grape harvester, which went along a row of grapes and vibrates the grapes off the stems. Any leaves and other refuse was separated and discarded. Then there were dump trucks sitting at the end of the rows, waiting for this machine to dump the grapes into their dump truck. This machine was replacing dozens of manual workers.

We stopped at Manciet for a public WC break and a stop to buy lunch materials. We met a pilgrim in the store we said hi to, and he left before we did.

After leaving Manciet, we walked along a very busy highway for a bit. Large trucks were speeding by, and they just about knocked you over from the wind they generated passing by. Thankfully we eventually turned off the highway, and Russell said, this is an example of where we walk 3 sides of a box to avoid the highway. I was fine with that. I just had that feeling that this deviation was going to involve a steep climb, and I was right.

We passed a Wine Chateau, which had bottles of wine for sampling on top of several barrels at the entrance. It reminded me of a monastery in Spain, with a spigot to taste the red and a spigot to taste the white wine. We didn’t check it out, it seemed a bit dicey because of the bottles. Spigots were okay.

Later along the Way, we passed L’eglise de l’hospital. The pilgrim we saw in Manciet was there, taking pictures for a bunch of Chinese students that were there. Not sure what they were all doing there, but they did seem to be on a hiking excursion, they all had backpacks.

Shortly after, the pilgrim taking the pictures caught up to us. He walked with me for a few minutes. He’s from Strasbourg and has two prosthetic knees. He walked from Strasbourg to Le Puy and is now walking to Roncesvalles this year. He’s coming back next year to walk to Santiago. He has to take it easy because of his knees (what he’s doing didn’t sound overly easy to me). He then leaped forward and walked with Russell for a bit. He then said ‘bonne chemin’ to the two of us and disappeared down the road.

We got to Nogaro, at km 21 on our guide (but it doesn’t account for where we started). Coming in to the city we passed a winery with a multitude of very new and clean looking, refrigerated fermentation tanks.  

I was on the lookout for a public WC, which we found, but it was disgusting and I passed it by. That says a lot about a town. We were looking for some picnic tables to eat our lunch, and at the church there was a sign saying there was a Municipal Park with picnic tables, etc. etc., which was 400 meters off the GR65. That’s not very pilgrim friendly. That would amount to about a 1km detour. We settled for a bench outside the church, and had our lunch there. It was a very annoying bench, because the slats were all off at varying and uneven angles, so things really had difficulty sitting on the bench. Anyway, we had lunch with a minimal amount of stuff being sacrificed because it rolled off the bench.

The road we were on, which went right through the center of old city, was a very busy road. There was a steady stream of large transport trucks whizzing by on the narrow street. There was also a bunch of motorcycles that came roaring into the town, and later went roaring out of the town. I was beginning to understand why we were staying at a Gite 2 or 3km out of Nogaro, rather than staying in the big city.

I would have liked to go to a bar and get a Perrier or something before we carried on, so I could use their WC, but there was no bar anywhere in sight, so we just pressed on.

Today, we are going off the GR65, and taking an historic old road to our Gite in Airblade Le Haut. Tomorrow, we will carry on along this historic old road, and eventually get back on the GR65 before we reach Aire sur l’Adour, where we stay for 2 days (our last rest day of the Camino).

We weren’t too sure where to deviate from the GR65. Russell said, ‘okay, we will use your map’. That puts a lot of pressure on me!

I was trying to figure out from the map where to go, when the Strasbourg pilgrim caught up to us after lunch in Nogaro. Someone at the Gite he had stayed in last night had told him that the GR65 out of Nogaro is not very scenic, and suggested he should take the historic old road instead too. How convenient. Together, we all figured out where to go. I noted that the map he had was way better than the Micheline guide we have. The problem with our guide is you never know from what point the distances are taken from. His map showed that.

Leaving Nogaro, we saw a truck full of grapes, emptying their load into a hopper at the winery. We got the impression that grapes from all the farms in the region were being emptied there, not just grapes from a specific farm.

The Strasbourg pilgrim kept in the lead along the historic road, but not by too much, and when we got to L’Arbladoise, our Gite, he stopped and waited for us to catch up and said ‘here is your lodging for tonight’. He said he was going 8km further on, but we might pass again tomorrow. I thought, not bloody likely, but we all said good-bye. He is obviously walking by himself, and I think he enjoyed the brief comradery with us. He didn’t seem too impressed with the wine making practice in this region. ‘Table wine’, he said.

It is another lovely gite. The sign said to wait in the garden until 2pm if you arrived early. It was 1:57pm and the fellow arrived right away, as promised. He gave us cool water with a mint syrup. These syrupy drinks seem to be very popular here. The fellow said this Gite was closing at the end of the week, and he was going to spend the winter in Vancouver, or Toronto. We said, we’re Canadian, from Ottawa. I think he knew that, and was just joking.

It is a very large room, the biggest room we have had yet. Very nice. They have a washing machine, and the lady took our laundry and did it for us. I went for another lovely swim in their pool. This time the water was a perfect temperature. 

They have a beautiful flower garden, big vegetable garden, and a greenhouse.

Dinner was a communal event again. We ate with the 5 French pilgrims we have passed for the last two days, and another French pilgrim.

It was a very nice dinner. Butternut squash soup to start, rice and pork in a prune sauce for the main, and apple bread pudding for dessert.

Of course everyone was talking French, and then Christian, the Gite owner, starting telling us about the history of the region and the historical road in particular, in French. Russell and I understood maybe the odd word, but not much. I wanted to leave and come back up to blog, but that would have been rude.

It was a good day, and I’m looking forward to getting to Aire sur L’Adour tomorrow, and having another day off.

When we got here today, they had a sign saying we had walked 555 km from Le Puy. That is a bit more than walking 540km to my parents’ house in Grimsby. However, according to our calculations, we have walked 627km. This includes sightseeing distances, and about a good 2km per day when you take into account walking to and from our lodging to the GR65. Quite a difference. But a lot of days!

Day 30 September 25 Montreal de la Gers to Eauze

18.8m 252 ascent 173 descent 4:20 hr. 21⁰C

We had a lovely breakfast and wished all the best to Christian and Marilyn on the next phase of their lives. They have a camper trailer, and have picked out a new home which would be suitable for a B&B (it’s not on the Camino).

It only took about 5 minutes to get back on the GR65. We mainly walked on old roads through a cathedral forest today. 

Some time was spent walking through massive vineyards, we passed several fields of cows, one field of gigantic black bulls, and one mixed farm with geese, goats, donkey’s, sheep, and barking dogs.

It was a Sunday, and they were forecasting rain. We walked for a good 8km stretch along an old railway line, passing by people out for a walk, joggers, bikers, pilgrim’s and even one car. We walked with 3 women pilgrim’s for a bit that are from Orleans in Ottawa. Interestingly, when I first caught up to them, I asked what country they were from and they said ‘Quebec’. I said I was from Canada, too. Then it turns out they live in Ottawa/Orleans, Ontario! Brother.

We were both sort of dragging our tails today from drinking too much last night. The rain held off until we passed a sign saying 1km to Eauze.

We arrived at the hotel around 12:30pm, soaked. The room was ready, our bags were here, and we had carried our lunch. The fellow got us to take off our boots and wash them in this small utility cupboard. We also left our poles there and hung up our raincoats to drip dry.

We were both tired. My foot was not too happy about all the road walking, so we just napped and relaxed all afternoon. Kristine called on skype, and we had a good internet connection this time so talked for about an hour without ever losing the connection. She showed us her silver forestry ring. We’re so proud of her.

We also listened to the church service on the internet today. Interesting. Doesn’t money make the world go around? Too much money can cause real problems, but no money causes real problems too. Balance. Trying to avoid ‘going turtle’.

We are staying in Hotel Henry IV. I guess he had a lot houses around France to keep all his mistresses. Our room has 4 paintings of nude women, a curvy coat rack in the shape of a nude female, and a faux fur comforter. Wow. But it is a really nice and spacious room.

The dinner was really good too. Salad, steak, baked potato, green beans, and a chocolate Sundae. Excellent. It started raining again after supper, which killed any thoughts of walking about. We are right beside the Cathedral. Tomorrow

Day 29 September 24 Condom to Montreal de la Gers

18.4 km 294 ascent 251 descent 4:0 hr. 30⁰C

Kristine tried to call last night on Skype. It was really nice to hear her, but we kept losing the connection. Our internet connectivity is really rather minimal in most places, if they even have wifi.

We made a big deal yesterday about how nice it was that the breakfast started at 7am. It’s supposed to be really hot today, so we wanted to get going early. However, we forgot to set the alarm, and we both slept in. This city is very quiet and it was very dark in the room.  It was okay anyway, we could do with the sleep and it wasn’t very far walking today.

It was an excellent breakfast. Lots of fruit, yogurt, cereal, assorted individually wrapped cheeses, etc. etc. When we left Russell said it was a good breakfast but it would have been nice if they had some cheese. He thought all those cheeses were butter, I guess.

His GPS was telling us how to exit the city, and he is very married to that GPS. I insisted on following the brass shells implanted in the sidewalk, and contented myself with just having to put up with his whining about what is the point of having gps tracks if you don’t follow them. I was pretty sure the shells would be the scenic route, and it was very scenic.

After dinner last night we went into the Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Condom, which was open, surprisingly. We were really lucky because the choir was practicing. It sounded heavenly, even though the choir wasn’t singing in the actual choir location. It was a very beautiful church, and you could tell that it was well used, which is nice to see.

The cathedral dominates the town, which sits on a hill above the Baise River. 

It was designed at the end of the 15th century, and erected 1506-31, one of the last major buildings in the Gers region to be constructed in the Gothic style of south-west France. The church has buttresses all around and there is a 40-metre square tower over the west front. The west front door has the Four Evangelist's symbols in the tympanum, and the south nave door in the Flamboyant Gothic style still has 24 small statues in the niches of the archivolt (courtesy of Wikipedia)

There is a statue outside the Cathedral of the three musketeers and d'Artagnan, which was created in 2010. Really nice!

There is no relationship between the English word condom and this town. Condom comes from the Gaulish words condate and magos combined into Condatomagos, which means "market or field, of the confluence". It is where the river Gele flows into the river Baise.

So of course there were lots of bridges with great views. Shortly after we crossed the bridge which brought us back on the GPS track, hallelujah, we turned onto a gravel path running alongside the river. I was busy looking at the theatre as we walked past it, and tripped on a manhole that was raised above the level of the path (: Unfortunately I was carrying my poles because we were in the city (the click click annoys the natives, so not using them in cities is one of the ten commandments of a pilgrim) so I couldn’t try to right myself with my poles. I did try to correct my balance but by this time the weight of my backpack had created a downward force not be reckoned with.  My arm/elbow was the first to strike the gravel, followed by my lower leg. Russell rushed over to haul me up, but I wanted a few seconds to assess the devastation first. No real injuries to complain about other than my pride. This is what we pilgrims call ‘going turtle’.   

We mainly walked through vineyards today. 

We had seen signs warning us of a 2.5km deviation on the GR65 since coming into to Condom. A bridge was under repair at Pont-d’Artigues over the river Ruisseau de Bazet. We were lucky it was a Saturday. There was a lot of heavy equipment sitting idle at the bridge, and a lot of fences, warning signs, and red tape to go around (aka, break through), but we made it over the river on scaffolding constructed along the sides of the bridge, and avoided the 2.5km detour. The bridge itself had a big hole in the middle. As I watched Russell approach the damaged bridge (before going to the trouble of breaking through the fence myself), I saw two pilgrims on the other side survey the detour and decide to walk around.  Why?

They say troubles come in threes. The next fiasco was, seeking to not walk on tarmac, I walked up on a lovely path through a vineyard and didn’t notice there was no path off of it further on. The vineyard came to a rather unceremonious end and turned into an overgrown field of soybeans with nowhere to walk except on the soybeans because there was no space between them and a majorly steep slope and deep ditch to cross to get back on the road. That is the price you pay for avoiding 500 meters of tarmac. I just about went turtle again.

There was some steep climbs today, and as promised it was very hot. We got to Montreal right around noon, but that was okay because we didn’t really need anything. We passed a picnic table just before a gas station, so went to the gas station and got two drinks (1 euro each, as good as the Casino), then went back to the picnic table and each ate a piece of our leftover pizza. We threw the rest of it out, because when would we have been able to eat it? What a waste.

Montreal was a real tourist town. We visited the Church (of St Germaine again, they must really love her around this part of France) and then accidently discovered Mont Royal park. Hmmm.

Our Gite was out of the town on the road to Villa Galla Romaine, a roman archeological site. We stopped in, and Marilyn was very welcoming. She gave us a cold beer and we had a great conversation for about an hour. She is British. She asked what we thought about Trump, and that led to a lively discussion. The rest of the world is just watching in horror as this nonsense unfolds.

Our bags hadn’t arrived, so we walked the 2km down the road to the Gallo-Roman Villa de Seviac. On the way I took a short cut through a field and was rewarded with lots of blue butterflies. I usually only see them in a field, in the afternoon, when it is hot.

The site is part of the Elusa ancient capital. A luxurious residence of the Roman Empire, Villa Séviac restores the living environment of a family of landed gentry in the fourth and fifth centuries. Of special interest was the thermal baths and the beautiful mosaics. 

It said the mosaics were created by Africans.

The bags were there when we got back and although it was getting late, we did a lot of washing, because it was hot outside and Marilyn had a clothesline we could use.

She said to come for aperitifs at 6:45pm. She was a school teacher and came to France from England, and her husband Christian was a postman. That was how they met. They retired and bought the gite, which they planned to run for 10 years, and this is the 10^th year. At the end of the month, they will list it for sale.

We were the only guests today, so she said it was a holiday. They are full tomorrow. Christian does all the cooking. The aperitif was Pousse Rapier of Gascony, France. Very nice. This was followed by rose wine, and then red wine.

The supper was delicious. We had nibblies with the aperitif, a tomatoes/mozzarella cheese/basil appetizer, grilled pork chops and boiled potatoes, some cheese, then eclairs with ice cream and chocolate sauce and coffee. Dinner was accompanied with rose wine and red wine. It was a lovely dinner, with really interesting company, and too much to drink!

We waddled off to bed and slept like logs.

In the morning we remembered the laundry, and thought, ‘oh dear that will be all damp from being out all night’. Thankfully, Marilyn brought it in.

Very nice lodging.

Talking about the pilgrim’s commandments, here is the list:

To those who give, return your smile and thank you
Don't use your poles in the village
Respect private property
Keep your good humour
Drink at the fountain
Eat at the picnic site
Do your needs at the public toilet
Discard your refuse in the garbage can
Share happiness on your walk
The locals will thank you if you do all this