Walking the Camino de Santiago
Yesterday evening, I returned to the church of Saint Pierre to pray vespers. Mass for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary began at 6 PM. The priest was a young, dynamic African immigrant, apparently responsible for a large number of the churches in this area. Afterwards, there was a small reception hosted in the parish offices for the pilgrims. […]
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Today was a lesson in listening to your body. Or, rather, a lesson in listening to your foot and not your stomach. Or perhaps, today was a series of lessons that I need to learn, or remember. Jacopo and I shared dinner last night with a Canadian couple, Etienne and Colleen. I immediately noticed that both of them wore the […]
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Serge sure puts on a spread! Dinner with the other pilgrims in the gîte was enormous, and enormously fun, even if most of the conversation was in a language I can’t understand. Breakfast was similarly generous, and I had a hard time getting out the door. We finally left about 7:00 AM. My goal today was the city of Moissac, […]
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This morning, after a hasty breakfast, I left the gîte at about 7:15. There was enough light to walk, and the air was cool, but the sky was still that leaden color of yesterday. My goal was to get to my first village – Montcuq – no later than 9:30 so I could get a proper breakfast. My dinner last […]
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This morning, I crawled up the face of a cliff. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin where I left off yesterday. I returned to the Cathedral yesterday for Mass and a pilgrim blessing. As at Le Puy and Rocamadour, the priest also gave medals to all of the pilgrims. Dinner by myself at a lovely local hole-in-the-wall mom […]
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Today I thought it might be fun to have Dobbles take the lead on exploring and running some errands in Cahors this afternoon. Wait? Dobbles? Yes, Dobbles is my mascot for this Camino. He’s a little stuffed emperor penguin chick that normally lives clipped to my backpack. I joke that he’s guarding the pack while it’s not attached to me. […]
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After a lovely breakfast with Tony the gîte owner and Constance the injured pilgrim from Brazil, I left about 7:40 into a cool, clear morning. Today was going to be hot, but it was also a short day – only 17 km or so into the great city of Cahors. My goal was to get to the city before noon. […]
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There were three of us in the gîte last night: myself, Bruno, and Anne. Anne runs a gîte in Moissac, but she’s taking some time off to walk. We never did actually see the gîte owner here, but she left pretty clear written instructions. Dinner options in the little town were limited, and we ended up going to a local […]
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After the high that was Rocamadour, today was bound to be a bit of a letdown. Thanks to some self-inflicted problems, it was a great deal worse than it should have been. Isn’t that always the way? Last night after walking the Way of the Cross, I returned to the sanctuary of the Black Virgin to find Vespers already underway. […]
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From the sanctuary level at Rocamadour, it is possible to walk uphill even further. This is the Way of the Cross. Each station is at the corner of a switchback trail going up the side of the cliff. I walked the Way and prayed at each station. It was an incredibly moving experience, both from the stations themselves, but perhaps […]
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