Shared Illusions

oof. Je ne sais pas ou va le temps. I don’t know where the time goes. We arrived here on Saturday around 2:30 after a fine train raide from Lyon. While waiting for the train we met Francois from Belfort, France. It was a great opportunity to speak French. He was most accommodating. He had a huge pack as he will be camping and preparing his meals on the Chemin. I tried to get a selfie with him, but I am abysmal at selfies. He however took a good photo of us at the train station in Le Puy.

We could not check into our gite until 5 pm so we went to the Cathedral to get our credenciales. It was a good taste of what lies ahead as the way there is steep. Our packs were on – and it it was pretty comfortable. The woman at the Cathedral shop was a character. She launched in, completely in French, not asking where we’re from. It was a lengthy explanation. I got maybe 10% – enough to get the gist, ask a few questions, and engage.

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Our Gite, La Veille Epicierie (the Old Grocery) is ancient. The stairs pracitcally straight up. The floor in the room, warped. It had real old world funky charm. Charlie was not pleased. 🙂 JeanNicolas was very friendly and said he would speak French slowly, but he didn’t.

The bed was comfortable and we had a big window for lots of fresh air.

Every night through September there are 9 buildings onto which light shows are beamed. We saw 5 of them.

Some images from Le Puy

What I really need to get down to tonight though, is the delay in our trip. We went to the Pilgrim Mass on Sunday and there were 100-150 pilgrims heading out. This route goes through very small towns and we discovered that booking even 2 days in advance wasn’t going to cut it. We had to change our route on day 1. Day 2 nothing available. We went for a beer to reconsider. In doing so, on this very hot day, disappointed, had us making some dubious decisions: Forget it. Let’s head north; it’s too hot here. Let’s go east toward the coast. I want to return to Dijon. Booked the train to Lyon. Got a place for 2 nights. Booked a train to Dijon. Canceled it today. The crazy part is we booked an exra night in Le Puy to stop and consider – then we made all those plans! We didn’t consider. But then we did.  In the end, we came up with a good plan.

Here’s the plan.

We are returning to Lyon to rent a car. We’ll go to the Dordogne area, west of Lyon and see the sights there. We’ll return to Le Puy on September 13 and hit the Chemin on the 14th. It will be cooler then and there should be fewer pilgrims. We’re also going to book our stays, at least for the first 5 days (already have day 1) in advance. We have a data plan and my French is good enough to make the reservations.

Tonight we mapped out our route so we could call to reserve rooms tomorrow. It took some time. You have to consider the route. How strenuous. Logical points to break up a long day. Does the town have a gite, or several… a supermarket.

It’ll be awesome. In 10 days the weather will be much cooler. Looking forward to our new itinerary. After our planned 12 days on the Chemin, we’ll decide what’s next.

Today we walked 12 miles, to the town of Polignac and back to see the fortress, built in the fourteenth century on volcanic rock and added to, as well as fallen into ruins over time.

Photos

Of course we climbed to the top of the dungeon. I should have counted the steps; there were a lot. Great breeze up there!

We also climbed up the volcanic plug upon which sits the aforementioned chapel, Rocher St. Michel d’Aigulhe, of the light show – 268 steps.

It was commissioned in 951 by a bishop after his pilgrimage to Santiago de Campostela.

The paintings are in remarkably good condition for their age.

There is also a statue of Notre-Dame de France built of 213 canons from the Crimean War. She also sits atop a volcanic plug. I don’t know why this is suddenly in italics.Here she is:

A few reminders of the Chemin de ST. Jacques:

Finally, for tonight I end with DuDu who has decided he likes our room.

There’s no window in this room so we are leaving the door open.

A plus tard…bisous