Pilgrims on the Way

The Camino took me past acres and acres of fields of dead sunflowers. I don’t know if I just missed the season, or they’re not liking the heat and drought. They must have been magnificent when they were in full bloom, but now they look like desiccated corpses standing nearly to the horizon. I took many photos trying to capture […]

This is my favourite of the luminous stained-glass windows in the little chapel of Saint-Jean le Froid. It depicts Salome, the daughter of Herodias, as a smirky, slightly mischievous girl who just happens to be holding the head of the Saint on a platter. To me, the expression on the Baptist’s face seems to be one of disappointment. You can read one […]

The little chapel of Saint-Jean le Froid is on the border between farm fields and forest. It’s not much, architecturally, and the predominant colour is grey. But amidst the grey, the stained-glass windows here are absolutely exquisite. And there is more evidence of devotion and care here than in the parish church of the village I just left. Date: 06 […]

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 major village – Montcuq – no later than 9:30 so I could get a proper breakfast. About fifteen minutes later, […]

The pilgrim Mass and blessing in the shabby little church of Saint-Georges de Lascabanes was, as you might suspect, a very “low church” affair, with no proper vestments and the readings done from a missalette. The priest was just as shabby as the church. He wore his stained alb over khaki clothes and trainers. No homily and absolutely no veneration […]

There is a very handsome marble Marian altar in Saint-Georges de Lascabanes, although the image of Mary has been crowned slightly askew in a way that looks almost jaunty. This altar is the only one in the entire building that is not made of wood. It bears an inscription on the side: “Jubilé 1896”. It has been allowed to become […]

The interior of the little church of Saint-Georges de Lascabanes is whitewashed, with the same lemon-colored trim I’d seen in any number of village churches in recent days. Taken as a whole, the church is mostly unremarkable, although very homey. There are just a couple of things that strike me as, well, odd.  First of all, they seem to have […]

I arrived in the village of Lascabanes (population 200) at just past one in the afternoon. It’s an odd place. Two streets look like this: narrow and medieval. You would think this is a bustling town. But once you stray from these, there are only a few scattered buildings. While I was securing lunch at the local café, the municipal […]

This is a pretty good example of most of the terrain in the eight or so kilometers after Trigodina: open country with dried grasses and small scrubby bushes. I saw very few people, other than the occasional pilgrim. As you might be able to tell from the colour of the sky, the air temperature was pretty hot. By now, it […]