Camino Photo of the Day: Unexpected Graces

22 April 2024 Thom Photo of the Day 2023, Via Podiensis

As I mentioned earlier, Ávila and I stopped at a wayside food truck outside Chazeaux, just 5 km from what I expected would be the end of my day. My plan was to get an Orangina and eat a sandwich. We ran into Appolina there and had a small reunion.

And then the craziness started. Crazy with grace, I mean.

So, some background.

Point one: I hadn’t been to Sunday Mass because the only scheduled Mass in Saugues was at 11 o’clock, and we’d practically be to our destination by then. Our destination, Domaine du Savage, is essentially a giant farmstead/inn in the middle of nowhere. There is no town or church anywhere near it.

Point two: Saint Roch is an extremely popular saint in France (and Spain) along the Camino. In fact, there is a little chapel/shrine dedicated to him, complete with a healing fountain, that we will be walking past early tomorrow. Every year, on the Sunday closest to his feast day, Mass is celebrated outdoors near the chapel – the chapel itself is too tiny to hold the crowds. An indulgence is granted to anyone attending the Mass, venerating the saint’s relics in the chapel, and drinking from the holy fountain.

Ávila got it in her head that she was definitely going to go, even if that meant calling for a car to get her there. So that’s what she did. I had taken maybe three bites of my sandwich and was only halfway through my Orangina when she told Appolina and me that if we wanted to go, the car would be in the little town down the hill in five minutes.

I re-wrapped what was left of my sandwich, strapped on the pack, grabbed the Orangina, and the three of us hoofed it down the grassy hill to the highway. In the scramble, I managed to spill Orangina all over my sunglasses, essentially making them useless until I got some water to clean them up.

So we got a ride – and French drivers are every bit as mad as Spanish and Italian ones – and we were there about twenty minutes before the start of the Mass.