{"id":20067,"date":"2026-04-08T11:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=20067"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:38:59","slug":"via-lemovicensis-books-never-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/via-lemovicensis-books-never-written\/","title":{"rendered":"Via Lemovicensis: Books Never Written"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

N<\/span>ormally I don’t get jet lag flying to Europe. I might be a bit blurry on my first day, but I settle down after that. And yet, this time, here I am on day two waking up at 3 AM. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get back to sleep. By 5 AM, I had given up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today was a non-walking day spent in further explorations of the town and its immediate vicinity. In particular, I wanted to walk the road around the ramparts and revisit Cordelle. I learned some things this morning that put that place in an entirely different light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting tomorrow, though, my next scheduled rest day is in Saint-Jean on or about May 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also need to confirm my g\u00eetes for the next few days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakfast in the common room. I had forgotten that in France coffee normally comes in bowls. A most worthy custom. I was joined by hospi Jean-Luc and six other pilgrims, all women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all headed up to the basilica to join the religious communities in praying lauds. It was an absolutely transcendent experience, even if they were using a form with which I was unfamiliar. It wasn’t the modern Liturgy of the Hours, nor was it the older Divine Office so far as I could tell. The singing, echoing through the massive basilica just as the sun was dawning through the windows, was achingly beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalms chanted in French. An Easter hymn by Palestrina \u2013 polyphony in French. Two readings, including a rather long Gospel. The whole was concluded by a solemn blessing of the pilgrims. We were called into the sanctuary for the blessing, given by the superior from the altar. Afterwards, each of us were gifted medals of Saint Mary Magdalene. Just sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards in the g\u00eete I had a lovely, long conversation with two German pilgrims. One had started in the Netherlands and is walking to Santiago via Rocamadour, and the other started in Trier and this is her final stage before taking the train home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 9 AM or so I set out. My plan was to try to find the path I didn’t take yesterday and go back to the hermitage. It’s definitely a much shorter and more direct route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what I learned about Cordelle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was originally called the Sainte-Croix. It was built in the year 1147 on the site where, the previous Easter Sunday, Saint Bernard had preached the Second Crusade to a crowd reported to be in excess of 100,000 people, including King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francine had long planned a romantic Camino novel based on these events, which she sadly never finished writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1217, the chapel was given over to a group of Italian Franciscans who built a convent here. This was the first permanent Franciscan presence in France, and (except for a short period following the Revolution) they’ve been here ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monumental cross outside is called Croix Saint-Bernard. It was originally raised in 1647 to commemorate the Saint’s preaching here. The original was destroyed during the Revolution. It was replaced in 1899 by an iron cross, and by a series of progressively larger crosses in the years since. The current one appears to be made of railroad ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I prayed for Francine in the chapel, which today had the powerful scent of Easter lilies throughout. I laid one of her holy cards at the foot of a medieval statue of Madonna and Child on a bed of flower petals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I climbed back up the hill V\u00e9zelay. Three of us pilgrims attended a presentation on the architecture of the basilica, particularly focused on the interplay of light and stone in the structure, which has some remarkable properties based on the seasons of the year and the liturgical calendar. Absolutely fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then had to go to the basilica, of course, to see some of these things for ourselves. Lunch followed, which eventually transformed into a free-flowing conversation among strangers, suddenly friends, that I find only happens on Camino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon was partially taken up with logistics \u2013 confirming some of my reservations and payments for the next week and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was still determined to try to circumnavigate the medieval walls, even though we were now at the hottest part of the day. It was definitely warm, but there was a cool breeze which certainly helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s clear that in many places, the facing stones have been removed from the wall. I suspect they were plundered to be used as building materials. It’s pretty clear that any number of the stone houses in the village were built using repurposed stone. Most of these were probably from the various monastic buildings that were torn down in the 16th through the 18th centuries, as well as the medieval wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in some places the wall still looks like a proper wall, there are also places where it’s fallen into ruin, being little more than a heap of overgrown rubble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funnily enough, in one place they appear to be building a new stone wall atop the crumbling remains of the old one. I think this is to wall off the old monastic cemetery behind the basilica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also several large gaps in the walls, one of which is now a parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scrambled up a path here to the top of the wall immediately behind the basilica and found one of the most amazing lookouts I’ve ever seen. It overlooks the entire valley, and you can see the village of Asquins where I was yesterday looking like a child’s toy far below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the circumnavigation in the heat proved too much, and I scooted back up into the village for something to drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not entirely certain what she served me, except that it’s beer, but green. And it was cool and refreshing and perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

V\u00e9zelay is absolutely overrun with teenagers today. They are students \u2013 in uniform \u2013 on some sort of class trip. One of the sisters was giving some of them a tour of the Basilica while I was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime after 4 PM, it was possible to finally check into the g\u00eete dorm. The hospital walked us up a long, tight spiral staircase to the attic. The dorm is cozy and comfortable, complete with wood beams in the ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also blessedly cool. It was so nice, in fact, that I may have accidentally taken a little nap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a proper communal Camino dinner in the g\u00eete tonight. I can’t particularly cook, so I washed everybody’s dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date:<\/strong> 08 April 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Place:<\/strong> V\u00e9zelay <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s Photos!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Normally I don’t get jet lag flying to Europe. I might be a bit blurry on my first day, but I settle down after that. And yet, this time, here I am on day two waking up at 3 AM. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get back to sleep. By 5 AM, I had given up. Today was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pilgrim-reports","category-via-lemovicensis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20083,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20067\/revisions\/20083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}