Via Lemovicensis: Racing to the Cathedral

The challenge this morning was to try to find a Sunday Mass. Often, this is simply impossible on Camino, which is why there are dispensations by the various bishops’ conferences. Nevertheless, one should always try!

The abbey I was staying at normally has their Masses at 8 AM, which would have been plausible, except that on Sundays they move it to 11 AM.

My only other option is the co-cathedral in Bazas, my destination for the day, which also has an 11 AM Mass. The trick here is that because I’m off the Camino, I’m “off map”, so to speak. I don’t actually know the walking distance from the abbey to Bazas. 

I left at 7:30, just as the bells were calling the sisters for Lauds. The various mapping apps seemed to think that this should be plenty of time, but they rarely take into account things like terrain.

I was somewhat amused to note as I left that parts of the monastery enclosure are topped with barbed wire. Yikes!

The forecast said today was going to be a lot cooler than yesterday, but there was a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. 

I began the day by roadwalking through field and forest, with occasional clusters of houses that may or may not be named hamlets. This would actually be the program for most of the day.

I passed through the first of the named hamlets, Carpentey, at about 7:40. Just past the cozy suburban hamlet of Saint Germain, I took my first turn, onto a much busier, two-lane road. 

I made my second turn at a place called Le  Sacristain. Here, I unexpectedly found a church. Obviously, this must have once been a community somewhat larger than the two or three houses here now.

It was locked, of course. Interestingly, the place seems to be served by a priest from the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), a society that celebrates the vetus ordo in communion with the Pope. In accordance with the rules propagated by Pope Francis, there were no Mass times listed. I guess either you know, or you don’t. And I didn’t, so I continued my quick pace towards Bazas.

I passed through the next little farming hamlet, Loustaou Viel, at just about 8 o’clock. About five minutes later, at least according to the map, the Camino merged onto the road I was walking. I did not see an actual blaze or sign for quite some time.

One year ago today, we moved Francine from hospital to hospice. All of these anniversaries weigh heavy on my heart, but this one is one of the heaviest of all.

I never completely gave up hope for a miracle, but just the psychological act of leaving the hospital crushed something in me. 

Some small part of it was that I could no longer walk to see Francine, but I had to take a bus. It created a kind of distance that hadn’t existed before, as if she were slowly drifting out to sea.

Francine was upbeat most of the day, and she got a kick out of the ambulance ride. It was probably the most expensive ride she ever took.

I saw my first Camino marker just after 8:15, 4 km into the day. It felt like a little victory.

At about 8:25, I passed through a small suburban hamlet, perhaps three houses, with the rather grandiose name of France. Shortly after this, I had to pause to remove my fleece. The air temperature was still quite cool, but I was moving fast enough that I was starting to overheat.

At 8:35, I entered the village of Brouqueryran. The area I passed through was clearly a suburban subdivision project at some point. 

Most of the houses are exactly the same design, and the ones that aren’t look like they’ve just had additions put on. They are all set at different angles to the road, so if you were just zooming past in a car, you might not notice that they were all the same.

There was a large open meadow with a sign advertising seven lots of a new subdivision. And then the Camino left the village past a pond screaming with frogs.

A sign at the pond said it was 11.5 km to Bazas. If that is even close to correct, I might squeak into Mass before it finished.

At just past 8:45, the Camino turned down a road of packed earth and gravel. This eventually took me past a beautiful little lake, which is apparently a popular fishing spot. The Camino here became a grass path following the shore of the lake.

Fortunately, the grass was short enough that my shoes only got spattered and not soaked.

Eventually, this became a broad dirt path through the trees. At the end of the lake, the Camino crossed a long narrow boardwalk over the water. I know I was the first one through there today just based on the number of spiderwebs I walked through.

The path continued on the other side of the lake, briefly back in the direction I had come before heading steeply uphill away from the lake.

I passed a number of palombières, as well as warning signs. Based on the frequency of these things on the Camino route in this region, I don’t think it’s possible to walk this route in the Autumn, unless you were through this region before October 1.

Past these, the dirt path became a dirt road, which presently took me to an unnamed hamlet with a cluster of large, identical homes and a couple of barns. By now, it was 9:15, and I was back to walking a gravel road, which transitioned to asphalt about a kilometer later. And then back to the forest.

I was definitely slowing down at this point, as the initial morning adrenaline (and coffee) wore off. I also frequently had to step off of the hilly, winding forest road because it was hosting a cycling race. 

I didn’t think to get a photo until the seventh or eighth group passed me. And they just kept passing me, singly and in pairs, with the occasional large larger group.

Over the course of the next hour, I passed many racing officials stationed along the road. Most of them were very polite in giving me instruction on where to walk. 

There were a couple, though, who seemed offended that I was there, one of them even angrily shouted at me, the kind of anger where you can see veins on the neck and forehead. Fortunately, there was a Camino blaze nearby and I just pointed to it, smiled, shrugged, and then walked on.

Finally, just about 10 o’clock, the race route and and the Camino route parted ways. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear a church bell tolling the hour.

My best guesstimate was that Bazas was still 6 km away. The cyclists and hills had slowed me down enough that I was unlikely to make it in time.

The Camino came out of the forest and into more open farmland. And then I started getting passed by large groups of cyclists, this time coming from behind me. At least I didn’t need to step out of the road now.

There were only a few waves of these before they stopped.

By 10:35, I had passed through a number of tiny suburban hamlets: Lagardère, Picot, Graouillère. The sun blazed in the sky as the cloud cover melted away.

After this, the houses were less clustered and more just sort of strung out along the road in between trees and meadows.

At about 10:50, the Camino turned down a bike path through a forested parkland. I had now officially entered the city of Bazas, though you couldn’t tell it by looking at the surroundings. 

I passed an old woman talking on her phone on a park bench, joggers, walkers, even a couple of cyclists. When I greeted them, most of them looked at me as though I were an enthusiastic stray labrador.

The woods opened out, and the path took me past an apartment complex complex that would not be out out of place in almost at the American city.

It was now 10:55, and the cathedral bells began to ring. The Camino turned off the bike path and headed down a tree-lined Avenue.

By 11 o’clock, I could see the cathedral spire. Central Bazas was full of cyclists!

I arrived in the cathedral during the sprinkling rite. I actually got to Mass! On a Sunday! Huzzah!

The cathedral was beautiful, and the Mass was beautiful, though of course I couldn’t understand the homily at all.

Although Father had six altar servers assisting him, the thurifer was the only one who actually seemed to know what he was doing.

The Cantor was good, and the organist was exceptional, but there was no choir.

The place was very nearly full, and even in the back where I was, most folks were engaged. It was just a lovely experience.

The cathedral itself is something of a wonder. There is some evidence of Christian worship here as early as the first century. Bazas has had a bishop since at least the fifth century, though it may have been earlier. The records are somewhat fragmentary.

Churches and later cathedrals on this site have been sacked, damaged, vandalized, and/or destroyed by a host of maladies including Vikings, Huguenots, a hurricane, and the Revolutionaries.

The current cathedral stands in spite of them all.

The liturgical furniture appointments all match each other, and they match the high altar as well. So very well done.

After Mass, I stayed and prayed a while, and I lit a candle for Francine in the little shrine of Saint James. 

I also spent some time just walking around the Cathedral taking photos. I ran into Yves. We looked around to see if there was a stamp for our pilgrim credentials in the cathedral, but we came up empty.

Yves still has another ten kilometers or so to go today, and then he is planning on taking a short day after that. Today of course is my short day.

I went for lunch at about 1 PM and ran into Luc and Louis-Marie.

One thing led to another, and I wasn’t to my gîte until 3 PM. And then the fun began. Because when I registered at the “Château St. Vincent” I assumed it was just a fancy name. No, it’s an actual 17 or 18th century Manor house. It’s a sort of place you imagine people in formal dress playing croquet on the front lawn.

The trick was getting in. They have a hotel as well as a pilgrim gîte, and the hotel was fully booked for a wedding reception that was going on as I arrived. Madness.

Obviously, nobody there knew anything about pilgrims, and no one was answering the bell at the front door.

I finally gave up and headed back to the square in front of the cathedral. I contacted Louis-Marie, and he told me there was room where they were staying. So that’s where I ended up. No mansion stay for me tonight, I’m afraid.

So after showering and catching up on my laundry, I took a little nap before heading back out to do some errands in the town.

One of these was to visit the cathedral to look more closely at the façade. I also spent some time in the chapter garden, which is a peaceful place to just sit. At 6:30, I went back into the cathedral to pray Vespers.

Afterwards, I went through and took some more photos. The artwork in the cathedral is really quite something to behold. I particularly enjoyed the stained glass and the painted murals in some of the side chapels. There is a harmony of design here that is quite impressive.

Date: 10 May 2026

Place: Bazas 

Today started: Abbaye Sainte-Marie-du-Rivet 

Today’s Photos!