Day 35 September 30 Miramont-Sensacq to Larreule

33.6 km 719 ascent 683 descent 8:42 hr. 28⁰C

Well whatever gave Russell an upset stomach hit me at 11:30pm and I was up and down until 2:30 am. I wasn’t happy about the lack of a good night’s sleep before a big day today.

I checked my e-mail in the morning and had message from Jim saying he had run into bed bugs at Hotel Espellet in Larceveau, just in case we were staying there too. I looked it up and sure enough that is where we were booked to stay on our last night, Oct 5, the day before we arrive at St. Jean Pied-de-Port. Wouldn’t that be just great to pick up bed bugs the last night of the Camino!

I planned to call La Pelerin later that day and tell them we didn’t want to stay at Hotel Espellet.

I also hadn’t been able to view Jim’s blog for the last several days, but managed to connect last night, and I wanted to talk to him about his latest posts. What with his leg problems and having to take a few days of rest, he had posted ‘some days you have to struggle with your own demons and doubts’. Something he said next triggered the torment and grief I have endured related to getting laid off from Bell as opposed to being able to finish out my career and retire happily. I know in my head that I wasn’t laid off because I was a poor employee, rather it was because my skill set no longer matched what the Company needed. The reality is that we live in a world now where most people will not work for the same company their entire career, but will have many different employers. Pension plans are rapidly disappearing, being replaced by individual savings plans for retirement. Still, it is hard for the heart to accept what the head knows to be true. Ultimately, you have to learn to live with the disappointment and grief.

I am firmly convinced that the Camino is a place where God puts together people struggling with similar issues. It is very healing to share with someone who understands.

We had one of those rare internet connections that allow me to both send and receive e-mails, so I sent off a message to Jim thanking him for the heads up on the bed bugs and sharing some of my experience at Bell. Between that and my having been up half the night, we were a bit late to breakfast at 7:30am. It was another bread and jam breakfast, at least with yogurt, and we were the first to leave (as usual).

Walking has become much more enjoyable again. Lots of hills now, but with the added excitement of the Pyrenees looming large in the background. Unfortunately, they still don’t show on pictures. Still, once again we have lots of lovely hilltop views of gorges and rolling hillside.

As we were exiting Miramont-Sensacq, we noticed a tall pilgrim ahead of us going at a good clip. We weren’t catching up to him. Further on, we were surprised to see him again, and noticed that he was now walking with another pilgrim, at a much slower pace.

We caught up to them at the XI to XIIth Century church at Sensacq.

The German pilgrim we met filling up his water bottle the other day was there as well. It was a very interesting church, but just a museum now, not a practicing church. The thing I found most interesting was that the church had a kitchen, as evidenced by a stone fireplace. This proves that even back in the 11^th Century, casseroles were an important part of church life.

One also couldn’t help but notice that the pilgrim the tall fellow was now walking with was absolutely gorgeous. Slender but very muscular (she must do weights and/or body building or martial arts), tanned, and blonde highlighted hair. She had a very large backpack, so carrying all her gear herself. The tall fellow seemed to be falling all over himself, and possibly the other German pilgrim was wondering about his chances, too. Can you find true love on the Camino? It seems many have, according to various testimonies. All the more power to them.

As we were leaving the church at Sensacq, I had an epiphany. The current plan was that we would walk to St. Jean Pied-de-Port on Thursday Oct 6 and then take a train to Bordeaux at 4pm and stay there overnight. Then on Friday, we would take a train from Bordeaux to Paris. This was as opposed to taking the train all the way from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to Paris on Friday. The current plan avoided a 6 minute transfer time at Bordeaux (a large train station) to the train to Paris. We can’t miss the train to Paris on Friday Oct 7 because we have to catch a 5pm flight to Nuremberg, Germany. Our Viking cruise with Phyllis and Richard down the Danube River to Budapest starts from Nuremberg on Saturday Oct. 8.

There were numerous problems with our current plan. We would arrive at St. Jean Pied-de-Port after walking 20 km, all sweaty and in our hiking clothes. We couldn’t shower, couldn’t change, and most importantly, what would we do if our bags hadn’t arrived. With respect to our booking at the Hotel Espellet in Larceveux, it was likely the best (or only) option there. Changing the hotel would almost certainly involve a downgrade, and it seemed things couldn’t get much worse.

The perfect solution now presented itself to me. Using the valid excuse of the bed bug problem, I would suggest we cancel our hotel at Larceveux on Wednesday Oct 5 and instead we walk all the way to St. Jean Pied-de-Port and stay there.

This was God’s plan unfolding. Divine intervention! It is the way things should have been arranged from the beginning. It would be lovely to spend another night in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, looking out over the Pyrenees and reminiscing about our Camino in Spain in 2013.

There was a lovely pilgrim centre at Pimbo, so we went in, ordered a coffee, and I called La Pelerin. I told her our friend had told us there were bedbugs at Espellet and I didn’t want to stay there. Before I could lay out my suggested solution, she told me she didn’t think it was possible to change the lodging at Larceveux, and she was going to go check with her colleague. After a very long pause I decided the connection had been dropped (even though our phone said we were connected). So I hung up and called again.

She said there was nowhere else to stay in Larceveux (this may just mean they have no arrangements with any other lodgings there), and then I asked if we could walk all the way to St. Jean Pied-de-Port that day and stay there. She perked up and said they could make that change, but it would be a very long 35km walk there that day from St. Palais. I told her that was fine with me. She got my e-mail address and she said she would e-mail me to confirm the change. I was feeling very excited about this turn of events.

After a mighty steep climb up to Pimbo (where there was one standing wall of an ancient church, the bell tower with two bells), there was a mighty descent out of it. At the bottom, there was a pilgrim park with plum trees planted by the Friends of the Camino (the plums were for pilgrims) and some picnic tables. We stopped and had our pre-lunch there.

Later, we came upon a cathedral path (a dugout/ditch circled in trees). We saw a fellow with a chainsaw as we entered, and he followed us for a while. 

I started having visions of a chainsaw massacre, but after a while we came upon a tree that had fallen across the path. He stopped there and started cleaning it up. We thought of Kristine, she could be the chainsaw professional the Friends call for those jobs too big for them to handle.

As expected, we arrived at Arzacq-Arraziguet, the biggest city on our route today, right around 12:30pm. As it turned out, virtually the first place we hit coming into town was a Casino that was open all day, so we hadn’t needed to worry about lunch (although we had, and had brought our lunch with us all this way). We didn’t pass any picnic tables, and asked a local if there were any, but he said no, so we sat at a bench in the centre of town and had our lunch. The German fellow passed, and came over and said hi. There was a bar/restaurant just across from the bench, and the bartender was watching us as we ate. We are very impressive, making use of our swiss army knife, pulling out our (plastic bag) tablecloth, our cutlery, our water to wash dishes, and pulling out all sorts of food from our backpacks. After lunch, I asked another local if there was a public washroom anywhere. She said not that she knew of, but why not go get a coffee at the bar/restaurant, didn’t cost much and they had a bathroom.

First we visited the church –Notre Dame de Luy, obviously well used. Then we went and got a coffee. The fellow was very pleasant and knew exactly why we were there. He told me where the bathroom was even though I hadn’t asked!

After lunch, we followed the GR65 out of town, and the first thing we passed was a park full of picnic tables. These locals have probably lived in that little town all their lives and don’t know where the picnic are. Incredible! By now it was pretty hot. We passed by lac d’arzacq, a very large, man-made looking lake. Perhaps you could swim there? We didn’t see any signs saying no, and there was a lovely sandy beach. But it looked pretty green to me, a great place to catch an ear/eye/throat infection.

Then began a series of very steep climbs and ascents. Magnificent 360⁰ views (although not all at once). I was doing pretty well until Louvigny at about 25km. After that, between the heat and the climbing I was getting a bit testy. I had suggested to Russell we arrange a ride with the baggage transfer taxi to eliminate 7 km from the walk today, but he didn’t want to. Originally, I wanted to cut 7km from the walk by only going to Louvigny, but our host for the night said he would pick us up at Larreule, and I didn’t really want to push my luck with him.

There was a very modern church at Louvigny, with a slate floor, lovely stained glass windows, and very new. There were also public washrooms in the town, always very welcoming.

It was just one steep climb after another after Louvigny (4 to be precise). Lovely views, but we were getting very hot and tired. The other discouraging thing is that since we entered the department of Landes, there is a noticeable lack of signs telling you where you are. I kept (wishful) thinking we were further along than we were, then very discouraged when I figured out where we really were.

We got to Larreule at 4:30 and called the owner at le Manoir d’Argeles. He came to pick us up in front of the Benedictine Monastery, Sainte Pierre, founded about 995AD. There was a big staircase to climb to go look at it, and I just didn’t have the energy. Of course, I wish had.

It was an interesting drive – memories of Italy. Our lodging tonight was at a very large and grand property in Morlanne. We were the only guests. The owner was a very large German, an artist and lawyer. The place needs fixing up, but it must have been very grand in its day. They just rent the property, but he said they would like to buy it. I wouldn’t recommend it. The place needs a ton of money poured into it to renovate and bring it up to an acceptable standard.

The fellow was the cook and we all ate together. He served calamari. Rather a dicey choice, I would say. I hate calamari and Russell doesn’t like it either. I barely ate any of my dinner. We had a lovely salad to start though, and a delicious plum pie for dessert, and we ate all of that.

I didn’t put my stuff in plastic, but the thought did cross my mind.

His paintings were very interesting. He has a painting in an important public place in Berlin, thought Russell and I couldn’t quite catch where from the discussion. He had a puzzle of the piece for 20 euro. I thought it would be nice to get it, but our suitcases are already over the limit, and we decided against it. I just know I’m regret that.

We told them of our plans to tour Germany after the Camino: the cruise; the bus trip up the Romantic Road from Munich to Frankfurt, with a stop in Rothenberg; and, the bus trip through the Black Forest, to Strasbourg, and Zurich. They own a house in Baden-Baden. She said it’s very small, and modern.