the first thing I did when I left the hotel is find coffee once I had my first cup I went to the cathedral that I had seen tower over the city... it was huge.. I think it is gothic? But I have unlearned all that.. but I can say that italian churches had been at times overwhelmingly ornate on the inside.. all the french churches seem more spartan in the decorative elements but because of this you really appreciate the grandeur of the structure itself especially the columns and where they join to form the ceiling arches... also I noticed in increased emphasis on stain glass. But the church here had plenty of master paintings and statuary... I saw they had a gift shop and a lady behind the counter... at a distance I got prepared and found my credentials in my money belt and pulled it out...i looked up and she too had spied me and at a distance had whipped out the stamper.. we both looked at each other and laughed... I went over to her and she stamped my credentials...she spoke eloquent english with almost a australian accent and she asked me where I was coming from and where I was headed...she told me of a place near here that I could overnight for free if I wanted to as a pilgrim..it was too close unfortunately .. I needed to make more time... after this I went and explored the church some more... I found that there was a passage way beneath that lead to relics of Mary Magdalen, there was english information, it was her skull and perhaps a fragment of skin where Jesus had touched her upon his res-erection. I sat a while in the church which had classical music piped in...then headed out for food.. I got a sandwich and pizza for on the way and proceeded out of town... some old men where speaking to me in french when I whipped out my map to get oriented... it sounded like they were willing to help direct me.. so I asked them the way out and I am glad they did, it was not intuitive direction...so off I went... emotionally I felt more fortified than the last two days.. I had regained some of my grounding... at first I was afraid I would have to walk a nasty bit of road.. again very little to no shoulder and there was massive amounts of truck traffic coming into town.. when they go really fast..their draft sometimes is strong enough to through me off my balance which is a bit scary if I only have a little margin of wobble I can afford without being in the way... so i've gotten in the habit of planting myself in place using my hiking stick till the trucks wind wake has passed, it only happens when they go pretty fast... eventually the traffic did thin out... I might have just hit the pre-lunch rush...at first the road had businesses along the way connected to the city but then these too dropped away to green spaces, I would be walking all day on d n7. I would be very glad for the food and water I packed since there did not seem to be much of anything for most of the day...except a few wine shops..which really offered nothing other than wine... I started seeing a grey ridge of mountains that I would follow along too for the rest of the day... there was a strong breeze for all of the day so I did not feel as thirsty or hot... and although my feet where still tender it was a lot improved since the last two days...It still felt like a long day... I have an i-pod thing but I find that mostly I like to walk without out it... but today in the afternoon I put it on and listened to slightly faster paced music kind of in a rhythm of a march and it actually helped me keep a good pace..since when I dont pay attention my hiking turns more into a stroll especially if I am caught up in thought... about an hour outside of Rousset and about an hour after I had run out of water, I found an open bar.. I got a big bottle of water drank half and carried the other half with me...
I came into Rousset around sixish... it took the usual while to find it's center and the open bar within it... I was told there was no camping or hotel around... I thought I had to get back on the road and keep walking for who knows how long...then an african man came over to try and help me...since I needed more french here than I had, he spoke some english and tried to explain where the nearest hotel was that they knew off on the road..then he yelled for someone in the crowd, apparently the bar held an english speaker.....and out emerged the token english lady of town... she tried to direct me to the place they had mentioned..then she said 'come on, i'll give you a lift'... I did not refuse...so she brought me to a hotel which was marginally part of the town.. the town was in two parts the older one in which I was and the new industrial zone.. in the mean time I got a bit of her story...she'd been coming to france regularly for 12 years now..but over the past five years she's been trying to live here... she said she was lucky since her mom had recently decided to buy a house here...but other things were much harder.. I had been under the impression that france was more international and that it was fairly easy for europeans to come and settle and work here... she said everything had been a struggle.. she was still trying to get her car license to be switched to a french one but they were making it difficult. If she could get that she can proof residency which would make it easier to get health-care here, she'd been denied access to health-care so far, and had to go back to england for medical stuff... she had been a teacher in england, now here after five years she'd acquired five cleaning jobs and wished she had a bit more work... but she was committed now to staying in France, going back to England for her now was no longer an option... she said there was an english woman and also an american living in the hills near by but they came to town seldom and did not frequent the bar the way she did, she said so chagrined. I forget there is stigma about woman going to a bar alone.. coming from seattle it is so normal there.. but I pointed out that for instance today for me..it's a great place to get help ..there are usually lots of people there and they know the area and there is usually one person who speaks a little of something that I speak... she agreed, she said if it were not for that bar she would not have made local friends... I asked her about her french, she said she had of course learned it in school and over time became fluent, but at first she did not want to speak it at all because she was too shy... although she understood everything.. she said it had been a challenge to make herself finally start speaking it..she felt she might be too much of a perfectionist and that had held her back.... she commented on how even though this town had tourist appeal and with the recent influx of industry had doubled in size with lots of temporary employees..she was surprised that it did not have a hotel... also that even though the area in the hills was quite pretty that there was no camping around... she insisted on coming into the hotel with me to make sure that they had a room...she asked me what I would do if there was no room here... I did not have an answer for her... because I dont think about that till it is the problem.. at least when I travel...there is just too many what ifs I could worry myself sick over..she was all ready to try and squeeze me in some spare room.. I told her I cant put her out like that... I was thinking worse came to worse I would keep walking to the next town...and seriously if nothing came up I would just set up my broken tent in a bush..but I wanted to see what happened here first... they in fact did not have a room...which was actually probably good since I saw the rates they charged ..this was a fancy place... but apparently there was another hidden hotel near here, the receptionist called to see if they had a room and how much it was... it was only five minutes away and yes there was a room and in my price range more or less...so the english lady drove me there too... I thanked her perfusily for going out of her way like this... she just said that she was impressed with what I was doing and was only glad to help... she safely deposited me at the other hotel which was only another km down the road... had I tried to figure this all out on my own I would have probably had to walk over another hour...so I was grateful to her... it seems the last few days the kindness of strangers has really been a very vital part of my experience on this pilgrimage...the room was actually quite nice and quiet... there was a restaurant bellow but at this point I was done with the outside world... I did my chores and ate the pizza I never got to for dinner... and watched Broke Back Mountain in french.... probably missing a lot of the plot..
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