Since I did not fall asleep till late I slept till seven and felt tired upon waking...for lack of a better plan I just start packing.. my friend woke around the same time and has gotten into the same habit...we grabbed coffee at a cafe on the way out of town.. we had a vague notion of were to find the trail... her notes warned that the trail had been changed recently due to construction and perhaps other issues... so we walked across the main river and headed towards the spot we thought the trail markers would start... instead of red white stripes of the GR trail we found the gold shells on blue stickers... my friend said that the pilgrims association had remarked the trail and that it was safe to follow... we also knew that we would be walking through city streets through a slew of smaller towns that tend to be suburbs of the big cities, so it would be an urban walk today.. not a pretty walk and hard on the feet because of tarmac... the trail really was a hunt for markers..very early on we came across an intersection with major street work and it was clear all the old signs had been taken away..we asked at a fruit stand.. the vendor waved in a direction uncertainly..uncertainly we followed... but yes, we did find markers again... my friend was quite happy to take breaks when I needed to...we took advantage of the fact that most of our walk was through towns and stopped at cafes as well... we really needed each other since we took turns finding markers the other missed...also she had notes from an old german guide book that worked for this section quite well...we had 20kms to clear today.. also we had heat...at a bend were I was ready for shade and sit break we saw not only a food truck but one that looked quite German..we approached it, and sure enough the owner spoke to us immediately in German... he sold curry wurst and other such snacks... because we were pilgrims he gave us a free plate of curry wurst which I passed off to my meat eating friend...apparently he and his french wife took their food truck around different parts of this region and the reason they were here today was at the request of a German international school that was here doing picnic with a french school...they were all under one giant shade spot at the edge of the park... we would join them since shade was minimal and we were a bit nosy...eventually one of the teachers came over, she was curious about our pilgrimage and offered us water... apparently the reason this area had a German school was because the company Airbus operated out of here... and it had many Germanje employees...and this school had formed a social exchange program with the local french school..the french kids had learned some german and the german kids were of course also learning french... two shy girls came up to us from the group and offered us some german jello-pudding...eventually, we would also receive chips and some tinned food and bread from the school group before all was done...after this longish break here we continued on.. I just would like to add here, that yes I really am not learning any french but my german is getting quite fluent again... lol... in the last two weeks I have spoken mostly german, something I have not done since I left Germany as a kid...and this in France!
The day of walking felt hard in heat and on my feet...and it continued to be a challenge to find the trail...i am quite sure alone neither one of us would have fared as well..
we arrived in Leguiven around 5,30, the Gite was open and a few french people and an elderly american man were already there... but not the man who was suppose to run the gite...we were not sure if others had reserved beds and had not arrived yet or if we could just move in... so slowly we moved in..first heading to store for dinner supplies...we ran into our swiss friends. They were just passing through grabbing supplies, they wanted to camp outside....then shower and laundry then dinner..still no gite-man ..so I decided to take one of the free beds and my friend joined me taking another... finally the man did come ...things were confusing and only french was spoken...apparently the french couple was a bit upset they had gotten lost that day..which is not surprising and they wanted to make absolutely sure that the next day would go better... there was an elaborate board on the wall with obscure photos of forest and notes in french about the trail..my friend could not make heads or tails of it... and apparently when the instructions were given, they did not wait for her to catch up...so all we knew was that tomorrow would be an even more confusing day for finding markers and the trail...the american man had the appearance of a vagabond, but he seemed harmless and a bit innocent....he was maybe sixty and come from Missouri...he did not want to sleep inside the gite but outside in the front yard...the gite man thought this strange and asked if he had money issues, he was using the french woman to translate, but the american insisted it was by choice and he would pay the full price...i spoke with this man a bit, he was sweet and bit odd... he had written in the gite-book that he had started in Rome. Usually when you write your starting point in the pilgrim's log it means you started walking from there...so we were intrigued about this long journey...turns out he had tried to find a 'trail' from Rome but could not... he would repeatedly jump on trains from Italy to France looking for the 'trail' ….eventually he met a french man in Toulouse who turned him on to the map guide book containing all the GR653 trails to lead him across France... so in fact this man had started walking in Toulouse... I had to explain to him that there is no real existing pilgrims trail anymore from Rome and that often you had to walk along streets and highways in Italy... and use a patchwork of maps and kind of just wing it...he seemed a bit disappointed... he too had spend the day getting lost in the woods... he was quite certain he had seen a rattle snake... I was pretty certain they don't exists in Europe but he could not be talked out of it...he definitely had his own mind and will...me and my friend were a bit concerned for him...but decided that he is the kind of person that people just start helping and also he seems quite content to get lost for days in Rome... etc...(this is based on a story he had told us about his first trip to Rome with an american church group) I did try to warn him about tomorrows trail but he was confident he knew where the trail started... I also got the sense that he was highly religious and when I mentioned I wanted to check out this Buddhist center near Lourdes he seemed to get quite uncomfortable... so I took that as a warning that we would not have a religiously tolerant conversation about things... in France the pilgrims i've met seem really relaxed about their faith and they dont seem to care whether your a catholic pilgrim or not...one of the people running a pilgrims gite had told my friend he did not believe in god...it is a given here on the trail that people come for all sorts of personal reasons to do pilgrimage and that that is just fine...i've never felt any pressure to pretend I am something I am not...it's a relief to experience such interfaith tolerance on a path that is part of very old catholic tradition.
Later as we got settled for the night... it seemed people were staying up late and packing late... we had gotten used to people doing quite the opposite..usually most people super stressed about getting up early and lights out by 9.30..but now we are getting the new wave of 'etape' walkers..who are doing their ten day to two week walking starting in Toulouse, so they go through their adjustment period of fitting into pilgrim's life.
.... Apparently once we hit the Spanish boarder we will meet mostly people who are going all the way to Santiago...but one hears a lot of conflicting info on the spanish camino...all i know is it will be more crowded and i will have to adjust to that...
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