Author: Thom

This morning, after a hasty breakfast, I left the gîte at about 7:15. There was enough light to walk, and the air was cool, but the sky was still that leaden color of yesterday. My goal was to get to my first village – Montcuq – no later than 9:30 so I could get a proper breakfast. My dinner last […]

This morning, I crawled up the face of a cliff. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin where I left off yesterday. I returned to the Cathedral yesterday for Mass and a pilgrim blessing. As at Le Puy and Rocamadour, the priest also gave medals to all of the pilgrims. Dinner by myself at a lovely local hole-in-the-wall mom […]

Today I thought it might be fun to have Dobbles take the lead on exploring and running some errands in Cahors this afternoon. Wait? Dobbles? Yes, Dobbles is my mascot for this Camino. He’s a little stuffed emperor penguin chick that normally lives clipped to my backpack.  I joke that he’s guarding the pack while it’s not attached to me. […]

After a lovely breakfast with Tony the gîte owner and Constance the injured pilgrim from Brazil, I left about 7:40 into a cool, clear morning. Today was going to be hot, but it was also a short day – only 17 km or so into the great city of Cahors. My goal was to get to the city before noon. […]

There were three of us in the gîte last night: myself, Bruno, and Anne. Anne runs a gîte in Moissac, but she’s taking some time off to walk. We never did actually see the gîte owner here, but she left pretty clear written instructions. Dinner options in the little town were limited, and we ended up going to a local […]

After the high that was Rocamadour, today was bound to be a bit of a letdown. Thanks to some self-inflicted problems, it was a great deal worse than it should have been. Isn’t that always the way? Last night after walking the Way of the Cross, I returned to the sanctuary of the Black Virgin to find Vespers already underway. […]

From the sanctuary level at Rocamadour, it is possible to walk uphill even further. This is the Way of the Cross. Each station is at the corner of a switchback trail going up the side of the cliff.  I walked the Way and prayed at each station. It was an incredibly moving experience, both from the stations themselves, but perhaps […]

Today started off rough. I accidentally left my clothes on the line outside last night, and it rained. So that made packing my bag this morning a little awkward. Still, are you really a pilgrim if you haven’t walked with clothes clipped to the outside of your backpack as you walked? After breakfast with the other pilgrims, several of us […]