Walking the Camino de Santiago
Yesterday, I broke out my rain jacket for the first time in France. I wore it to the grocery, and then to my trip to the center of Nogaro. I returned to the church of Saint Nicholas. It is a solid Romanesque structure with enormous supporting pillars. It projects a feeling of strength, solidity, and permanence. The church was consecrated […]
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I had quite the adventure trying to find a place for dinner last night. I was staying in the Gîte Communal, so there was no dinner there. And it turns out that nearly every restaurant in town is closed on Mondays. I ended up going to a small hotel restaurant. The food was out-of-this-world fantastic, but it definitely put a […]
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Jacopo and I spoke last night about today’s route. It was planned to be a long one, more than 33 km, but the possibility exists of breaking it in half. Doing so would be the first major change I had in my planned schedule, but especially given the heat, I have been thinking about it for some days. The truth […]
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This morning, I overslept. After breakfast with Jacopo in the Presbytery refectory, I didn’t make it out the door until about 6:40 AM. Jacopo was running just a little behind me. Slept like a baby. I definitely needed the rest. The streets of Lectoure were dark, and there was very little in the way of street lights. I could find […]
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Yesterday evening, I returned to the church of Saint Pierre to pray vespers. Mass for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary began at 6 PM. The priest was a young, dynamic African immigrant, apparently responsible for a large number of the churches in this area. Afterwards, there was a small reception hosted in the parish offices for the pilgrims. […]
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Today was a lesson in listening to your body. Or, rather, a lesson in listening to your foot and not your stomach. Or perhaps, today was a series of lessons that I need to learn, or remember. Jacopo and I shared dinner last night with a Canadian couple, Etienne and Colleen. I immediately noticed that both of them wore the […]
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Serge sure puts on a spread! Dinner with the other pilgrims in the gîte was enormous, and enormously fun, even if most of the conversation was in a language I can’t understand. Breakfast was similarly generous, and I had a hard time getting out the door. We finally left about 7:00 AM. My goal today was the city of Moissac, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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