Walking the Camino de Santiago
Out of the forest, the Camino quite suddenly approached the village of Labastide-Murat through a lovely park beside a pond. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a manicured lawn, benches, and picnic tables. It reminded me of Wright Park back home in Tacoma, where Francine and I have logged countless training kilometers over the years. I thought that surely this […]
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About 1:30 PM, I passed through the outskirts of the village of Montfaucon. I seriously considered calling it a day here, but I realized that tomorrow me would not be very happy with that decision. And then I saw the bizarre sculptures in the gardens of several of the houses here and figured that, with just 5.5 km to go, […]
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After the highway tunnel, I began wondering when I would see my old friend Bruno again. Part of my brain was taking bets with another part of my brain on whether he would catch up to me before I reached the day’s final destination. Just after 1 PM, there was a short, treacherous, rocky decline, and it was here that […]
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The Camino is not all glamourous medieval villages, soaring Gothic Cathedrals, and beautiful scenery. Sometimes you have to go through a damp, smelly concrete tunnel under a highway. That’s just how it goes. There’s an important lesson there, I think. And eventually you get to the end of the tunnel back into the light. Date: 02 September 2023 Place: between […]
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The forest was warm and muggy, and the infrequent breezes gave delightful relief. The whole place seemed a little Entish, with trees that seemed to speak or leaned over the road with grasping arms. One even warned of something being guarded; what it was, I’ve no idea. I did not dawdle to find out. Date: 02 September 2023 Place: between Rocamadour […]
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I probably spent far too much time on that little bench. As I was packing up to go, Bruno caught up with me and sat down for a little rest. I moved on, confident he would catch up with me again. Soon, I was roadwalking, before coming to a little gate and entering a path through the woods again. I […]
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The Camino wound its way through farm and field. Just after 11:30 I came upon a small wooden shelter and a nearby picnic table with a view of the pasture, so I figured this was a good time to pull out my packed lunch. There were numerous days on the Via Podiensis where I had to carry food, as the […]
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As we all know, French sheep tend to say “beh” rather than “baa”. This little fellow wandered right up to say… something to me. He seemed very earnest about it, anyway. Perhaps he was complaining about the stifling humidity. Date: 02 September 2023 Place: between Rocamadour and Labastide-Murat, Lot Département, Region of Occitanie, France Maps! The site I’ve been using […]
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This is interior of the village church of Couzou. It’s this weird amalgam of styles from the early Gothic architecture through the Baroque furnishings right up to the 20th-century altar. You name it, it’s in there. Somehow, though, it all seems to work together. I am puzzled, though, why anybody thought that putting the altar outside of the sanctuary was […]
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When I left Rocamadour on this morning, I had forgotten to top off my water bottles. This is a rookie mistake. A violation of rule seven of my “practical rules for the Camino”. To be clear, it’s not as though I had no water. One bottle was half full, and the other had a little bit in it as well. […]
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