Day 7 of Walking, and the subject of the day is the countryside through which we're travelling;

We started in Le Puy-en-Velay Region, which was very mountainous - not Rockies-type mountains but older and lower, more like the Laurentians. So up and down a lot, sometimes on the roads, sometimes on paths through the woods.

Villages, which are either on the top of hills or down in the river valleys, were initially  all of fieldstone with clay tiled roofs - no buildings apparently newer than a couple of hundred years. Recently there have been some of cut stone or plaster, but they all have slate roofs.

The only economic activity seems to be farming - cows and chickens - but it seems quite prosperous overall. 

We subsequently walked through Gévaudan - the main claim to fame of which seems to be the legend of "The Beast of Gévaudan" - and now we're into Aubrac.  More hilly than mountainous now, so a little faster walking, but one still has to stop for a rest periodically ....

Along the way, beautiful centuries-old churches to explore and frequent wayside crosses of infinite variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And everywhere green countryside full of beautiful brown cows. 

 

 

 

That's it for now.

à tout à l'heure

Rick



So, we're 6 days walking today.

Le Puy en Velay, where we started, was much like St Jean Pied de Port from whence we launched last time: a medieval town with beautiful buildings, focussed on pèlerins (pilgrims) and, in this case, hikers setting out toward Santiago.

So; Saturday morning, up with the sun to climb to the 12th century cathedral for the 7:00am Pilgrim Mass .....

 

 

 

 

and then out the western door and down the stairs towards Santiago once more.

 

The first signs and symbols appeared in the market square where all the locals were doing their shopping,



 

 

 

But off uphill we went, packs on our backs (ouff!) walking sticks in hand and the sun warming the road through the green countryside.

 



 

 

That's it for this post; I'll try to catch up anon,

 

cheers

Rick



 

 

Hallelujah!  Finally got onto my blog - seems to be impossible from my tablet,- huge frustration after I made such a production about doing it. :-(

Anyway, we're starting Day 5 of walking.  Some ups and downs, both literal and figurative, but so far, so good overall.  Very rural, very beautiful villages, locals and other pèlerins (almost all French) great.  Weather very sunny, which is excellent in the mornings but hot slogging in the afternoons.

Will try to write again soon, with pictures, now that I understand what we've got to do to get online.

Rick

Here we go again ...

 

Fast forward four years and it's time for Camino Part II, a portion of the Via Podiensis that pilrims from Germany and Switzerland would have followed for 800 km from Le Puy-en-Velay southwest across France to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, where the Camino Frances (the route we did in 2011) begins.

Pauline and I won't go all that way; our hope is that our time and my knees will allow us to make it the 400 km from Le Puy to Moissac.

We fly in 4 days.

Postscript: Peregrinos

One of the most wonderful aspects of the Camino is the people you meet and the friendships you make along the way.  The days spent walking, talking, eating and, yes, sleeping together in the same rooms with folks from all over the world create a warmth and closeness that normally one would develop only over a period of years.

So, here are some of our new friends and fellow pilgrims:

Brida and Terry, both from Ireland

Robert from Hamburg

Michelle from New Zealand

Andrew from York (UK), Tsang-Li from South Korea, and Karina and Paul from Chicago, collectively aka "The Snail Team"

Joe and Denise from Rhode Island and Penny from Australia

To all of these folks and to the hundreds of other pilgrims we met we offer a final, heartfelt, "Buen Camino!"

RP

Day 41 - Sunday October 30th: Finistere

Sunday day trip by bus to the end of the (medieval) world.

Day 39 - Friday, October 28th: Santiago de Compostela

We made it!