Leave it to Providence

During my planning time, I’ve made reservations at a handful of gîtes along the first ten days of the Via Podiensis. Some of these make perfect sense – places that fill up quickly (e.g. the monastery at Conques), or places that are choke points (Domaine du Sauvage).

But then today, I got it in my head to have reservations at every place I plan to stay for those first ten days. There were some logical reasons for this, including a larger number of pilgrims walking the route this year, but even so it was probably excessive.

I found the perfect little place to stay overnight in Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac on day 6. I was looking at their website for an email address, when I saw this:

Google Translate gives us this:

SIMPLE AND FAMILY HOME. MEAL.
We welcome you to our little house opposite the Church. Shared meals and breakfasts. Our small capacity and our organization of life do not allow us to take reservations too far in advance. (call 1 or 2 days before your arrival or knock on the door). Let providence do it. Shared pilgrim room, shared bathroom. Washing machine and dryer available. Half-board rate 38 euros. (for meals, it’s 100% homemade).

And that, dear reader, is when I decided to stop reserving two months in advance.