Walking the Camino de Santiago
Today was my latest start yet. Breakfast did not begin until 8 AM, which was fine as today was meant to be a relatively short and easy day. I took advantage of the extra time this morning to contact some of the places I’d like to stay a few days out to see if I could book them. I finally […]
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Between yesterday afternoon and this morning, I basically ate through almost my entire food stash. I may need to rethink how I’m doing this. A cool, crisp, cloudless morning. I left the gîte sometime after 7:30 AM in no particular hurry. The little lake looked lovely in the morning light, and I passed several fisherman as I retraced last night’s […]
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Scattered and unfocused this morning. It took me way too long to pack up. One year ago, sometime close to midnight, after the great Easter Vigil, we took Francine to the emergency room. I knew the day would come. That doesn’t make it any easier. It’s hard to remember now, but at the time I was certain the doctors would […]
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I was up early, but we let breakfast drag on a bit too long. Wim, Judith, and I set out after 8 AM. We were further distracted by a house in the town decorated like a cake. Finally, though, we managed to find the route. Soon enough, we were roadwalking in the French countryside. And it was only at this […]
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Missing so many people and things this morning, Francine most of all. It was already after seven by the time I left my room, and I was keenly on the hunt for breakfast – not to mention the Camino route. Breakfast was café crème and a banana at the little Tabac across the street. The owner seemed genuinely pleased to […]
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Noel is the very epitome of a hospitalero. Breakfast was amazing, and at one point we spontaneously broke out singing “Ultreïa!” He apparently is a friend of Jean-Claude, who wrote the verses and music to the song. He also gifted each of us with a small wooden Camino shell which I will treasure is a symbol of true hospitality. Francine […]
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Last night, I actually slept through the night. In fact, I somewhat overslept, not leaving until almost 7:30 AM. The air was crisp, but nothing like as cold as the past few days. The skies were overcast, though there was no rain predicted. Yesterday’s socks had not quite finished drying after last night’s washing, so I had them hanging on […]
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This morning as I prayed lauds, Maas read over a letter written by a friend of his to him before he left for Camino. It is a fairytale about a man who lost everything and so went for a long walk. He said he read it again every morning, like a prayer, because it was so moving for him. He […]
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At breakfast I reconnected with Judith, who also stayed at Espace Bernadette Soubirous last night. The place is so enormous, though, I never saw her until this morning. But here’s the single most important thing to know about breakfast: there was coffee. Going in, I knew that today was going to be a long day – more than 30 km. […]
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The jet lag might be a thing of the past. I did wake up around 4 AM, but I quickly fell back to sleep. I think I probably got nine hours of sleep last night, which is crazy. The long hours of walking might be catching up with me. I didn’t leave until about 7:45, and Judith was still at […]
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