Category: Via Podiensis

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 […]

Today began my diversion from the main route towards the great Marian shrine of Rocamadour, which I hope to reach on 01 September. Most of the day, I climbed up to the Causset de Gramat, a limestone plateau. Unless I indicate otherwise below, just assume that every step was part of a gentle, but inexorable, uphill walk. This morning was […]

We had a delightful breakfast in the gîte, complete with a bit of a piano performance by Andrea, our host. I ended up not leaving until about 8 o’clock in the morning. The weather was clear and cool. The path out of town was clearly marked, and soon it was back to roadwalking by open fields. After passing through a […]

Last night was the first time I sang “Ultreïa” on this Camino. It was in the darkened church after compline, and we processed around the interior of the church singing it before ending up before a carving of the blessed Virgin Mary. And then we sang the Salve Regina. This morning I stayed for breakfast in the refectory. I continue […]

Today was a half day, and I got a late start, not leaving the grandma house gîte until a quarter after seven. It has been raining most of the night and into the morning. Although it wasn’t raining when I left, out of an abundance of caution I donned, for the first time on the Camino, my strawberry troll. On […]