Day 12: Bovine Hair Styles and Ancient Stone Houses
We saw our first caselle yesterday, an ancient round, stone hut yesterday. Today we saw more—and were able go inside one. They look like they are “dry-laid” which means the stones are stacked one atop each other without mortar. We saw similar, but much smaller structures, in Ireland. We still spend most of our days […]
Day 11: Settling Into the Life
Our feet and other body parts seem to have given up their more serious protests and given into the fact that we intend to make this trek. Despite all our prep and training, my feet were giving me some pain on the first two days and Laurie had some tightness in the tendon and muscle […]
Day 10: Back on the Chemin (Trail)
Day 10 of our pilgrimage was much less dramatic and difficult. After the 22.5 miles of day 8 (the longest day of hiking or backpacking ever for either of us) we took a full day off in Conques. Because it was a small city, we were almost forced to relax. The cathedral there is amazing […]
Day 8: A Quiet Walk with a Little Adventure
Today started on a variant route which would hopefully cut some mileage and since it was high would provide beautiful views. Cutting some mileage was important to me, Laurie, because in yesterday’s wet walk the back of my knee started acting up. It was a humbling reminder to me that we do this by the […]
Day 7: A French Spring
“There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.” Danish Proverb Spring has sprung in France which means, rain. Based on the proverb above, our clothing is…wanting. Our gear is water resistant, not proof, which means it eventually soaks through. Happy to be in our gîte for the night where everything is drying out. Our stay […]
Day 6: A Day of Extremes
Today started out with high winds and ended with a thunderstorm. In between we crossed huge expanses of pasture and had our longest day yet—nine hours with only short breaks. The wildflowers along the trail and in the fields have changed from one resembling a daffodil to smaller, yellow ones. We got to our gîte […]
A Milestone
The dismal weather of Wednesday and Thursday gave way to sunny skies. And it shows in the photos. We passed the 100 Kilometer mark today. We’re anticipating this will be over 1600 km total—over a thousand miles. Tomorrow is scheduled to be a ten hour day—our longest yet. Sunnier shots in the video www.relive.cc/view/v26MXjVyr3O
Wildlife Makes an Appearance
We haven’t seen any wildlife so far other than birds—we don’t count slugs or raw escargot—not even rabbits or squirrels. So it was a surprise to see two deer bounding across a field. Another drizzly day. But we do get to sport our customized backpack covers. Art courtesy of our friend Julie. She used acrylic […]
Day 3: Cool and a Bit Wet
“A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles” Tim Cahill Today was one of those drizzly days where we donned our rain gear and then thirty minutes later took it off. Fortunately, it wasn’t bad enough to require rain pants, which are a real hassle. Just jackets and the rain covers for our […]
Day 2: Farm Country
Last night we had a communal dinner at our gîte (French for pilgrim hostel) with a dozen other pilgrims. Fortunately, we were seated next to English speakers: a young woman from Belgium, a grandmother from Quebec, and a French mother who was walking for a week with her husband, son, and daughter. They go home […]
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