Walking the Camino de Santiago
This was my dinner at Bio Gîte La Vita è Bella. Andrea, our host, was responsible for this delicious vegetarian meal. This, I think, demonstrates why it’s almost always a good idea to get the demi-pension option if the gîte offers it. This is where, for an extra charge, the gîte provides dinner and breakfast and you eat with your fellow […]
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I left the church, crossed the square, and walked into the first gîte I saw. I almost immediately ran into Nina the Bavarian, who I thought was a day ahead of me. It turns out she spent an extra day in Conques. In fact, there are lots of familiar faces here, including Ávila. Despite the bunks – very rare in gîtes […]
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Although most stone churches are cool inside, the interior of Saint-Adrien in Livinhac-le-Haut was uncharacteristically hot and stuffy. It was full of interesting choices, including an off-center crucifix, a beautiful pulpit shoved in the corner behind some pews, some sort of starburst lighting fixture behind the altar, and the tabernacle (with bare bulb tabernacle electric light) on a Marian side altar. […]
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My new book, Practical Pilgrimage, is now available for purchase. Subtitled “Useful Rules for Walking the Camino de Santiago”, it’s a deeper exploration and expansion of a blog post that appeared back in 2023, Thom’s Practical Rules for the Camino. Purchase on Amazon (affiliate link)Purchase from Powell’s Books (preferred)Purchase at Barnes & Noble This short book (about a hundred pages) […]
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I arrived at the church of Saint-Adrien in Livinhac-le-Haut at about 3:45 in the afternoon. I decided to visit the church before finding a gîte. The main door was locked up tight. I found my way in through a small side door with an accessibility ramp. It was uncharacteristically hot and stuffy inside. This is particularly odd, considering how cool it […]
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After the bridge, I found myself walking down this windy, narrow street with the rather grand name of Rue de la République. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I passed several gîtes that are located down even narrower side streets to the left and right. I followed the blazes, hopeful that they would lead me to the church […]
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The Camino enters Livinhac-le-Haut on this bridge over our old friend, the River Lot. The bridge is mostly for car traffic, obviously, and pilgrims must walk a narrow sidewalk. Not my favourite thing in the world, but also nowhere close to the first time I’ve had to do something like this. I did not have a gîte reserved here, so […]
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When I finally caught sight of the town of Livinhac-le-Haut, I would have leapt for joy if I thought my feet would take it. It had been a long, long afternoon by the time I took this photo at about 3:30. I could hardly wait to find a gîte. The town of Livinhac-le-Haut is surrounded on three sides by the […]
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Throughout the Camino in France, I found many small roadside shrines like this one of Saint-Roch. It’s not the sort of thing you will see in the United States, and I always found them charming and, on some days, a source of needed inspiration. The Camino at this point was starting its descent to the river town of Livinhac-le-Haut, where […]
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Both to get out of the heat and to pray and rest a bit, I stopped in the chapel of Saint-Roch in the once-a-village-now-a-neighbourhood of Saint-Roch. This place was definitely a parish church once, or at least it very much gave the appearance of a place that had once seen much use and was now only sporadically attended to. There […]
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