5-29-10 Aix en Provence to La Fare-les-Oliviers day 55

5-29-10 Aix en Provence to La Fare-les-Oliviers day 55
so I left the room latish near 11:00, knowing full well I had a fair bit of walking ahead... I got my bearings from the hotel man who seemed both impatient and yet willing to help... so I hit the road without again having seen much of Aix... including the various Cezanne haunts that were listed on my map, this was his home town... I saw open air art market in one square as I passed... this was an art town... I found a bar and ordered a coffee I totally botched the order with my mispronunciations.. I was about to try again..when the man took pity on me and said 'say it in english'... funny, well people at least give me an 'e' for effort...then onwards... I passed a giant Casino supermarket which is kind of like a Target or Fred Meyer on the west coast of USA, it had 'everything' I tried to find ingredients to fix my tent... I finally found some fabric I could use for patching and ductape. This had killed more time... to slow things down further I found someplace to eat a sandwhich..then finally I was willing to put some distance under my feet... visually it was not the most interesting day... I was walking along D10 which had enough of a curb and side walk, and sparse enough traffic I did not pay it much mind.... i had new shoe inserts and for the first half of the day it was fine..but the days of sore feet dont go away completely and sure enough as the day progressed I got foot sore again.. yet I seemed to cover more distance in a shorter time than I had done in a while so that was good.. near Ventabren, which I hit late afternoon, I asked the bar man if he knew of camping or hotels up the road towards la Fare... he made it seem like I might have some luck in la Fare, he did say it was another 10kms away... it was late afternoon but I felt confident today I could do that...

he really charged me a lot for water, I dont know if it's because I had said I was american, and we are known to be stupid about money...but then when my face sank, he suddenly proffered a free coke for the road...so I guess I came out even... I thanked him and hit the road again... I should say I was pretty lucky with the weather there was a strong breeze all day so I never felt too hot... I arrived in La Fare-les-Oliviers around sixish... my hopes were sinking, this did not look like a place with a hotel... and the next place on the map was 7kms away and I had to climb up a hill first and also there was no guarantees that it would have a place to stay... I went into the second bar I saw... and asked.. no.. no hotel .. I pulled out my map.. to see if they could maybe point me in a direction... I was ready to find a bush to crash under if need be...though I decided I would not want to meet a wild boar..prob the only dangerous animal out here... this old man was kind of inviting me to stay at his place but he had no food he said... I kinda pretended I did not understand him..he ended up buying the coke I had just drunk for me...so I thanked him for his kindness...since he was saying it all in french... at one point a man who did speak english had come in and he was recruited by the bar to help me.. he had one of those i-phones so he was looking up hotels for me... which was awesome... but it seemed I would have another 7 kms ahead of me in the least.. and then if it is a small town hotel and I role in after 8pm would they be open? Often i've noticed the reception closes up shop around 8pm in small hotels and they give you a night entry key... then I realized a pregnant woman was on the phone with someone on my behalf..it turns out there is a place where pilgrims can stay in this town.. problem was getting someone to open it... she did not speak much english but had me come with her to a place behind the church..there indeed I saw the symbol of pilgrims the shell..but the gate was closed.. she seemed to know everyone in town and kept stopping to kiss people on the cheeks as is the french greetings.. she asked some people on that block for information for me... she took me to the door of her friends apartment... and had him call someone for me... this took another ten minutes as more and more curious people came out of the apartment and little toddlers came tumbling out... then I was taken back to the bar by the woman, something had been sorted... at the bar the old man who had bought me the coke was kind of arguing with some young guys about being respectful to me if I spent the night at his place, the men seemed to not be impressed with his sincerity and kind of made fun of him...but I knew I was now safely taken care of, so I pretended to not understand anything and just waited bemused for my pregnant savior to herd me on...at this point she handed me off to her male friend and said good bye to me, saying he would take me to the nuns..i tried to thank her but she made it all seem like not much trouble....the man took me a short distance to a house and rang the bell, he spoke a bit of english.. he told them who I was and these three frail old ladies invited me into their house, the man said good bye and wished me luck... they were nuns but wore lay clothes, they did have the tell tale crosses pined to their shirt or as a pendant.. non spoke english.. one nun spoke a little spanish...they offered me food, first a potatoes carrot soup... while I ate, the door rang and man was brought in, he spoke some english, he was in charge of the pilgrims he said... he told me I should eat, and went away..there was confusion about whether I was alone or not since I had been brought here by another man... the nuns continued to feed me... now a type of pizza with some french cheese melted on top and a salad..then the spanish french nun insisted with a lot of relish that I needed beer, she brought in two small bottles of Heineken... and had me drink... she would try to speak to me in slow spanish in hopes to be more understandable than french... I tried in turn to really prick my ears up to see if I could at least catch some context... somehow we did get a little bit of story exchange, I dont know how this happens but I have had mini conversations before where no common language was spoken... they commented on my bronze skin... because by now I had gotten quite dark.. and they laughed at their own paleness... they were very impressed with me for having walked 20kms... and they were surprised that I would walk in the sun without a hat.. when they found out that I had walked all the way from Assisi, they were more impressed..when asked how many days i'd been walking, I told them about 50 days...this seemed to be significant... then I more or less understood that these nuns were new to this town, that had come here from Paris, and have also been here 50 days...they laughed that they had taken the train..no walking!.. then desert, fruit yogurt and apple sauce... surprising no meat except for these little fish sticks in some of the salad that was easy to avoid... at this point the man came back.. he had the keys to the pilgrims place, he said he could not find my friend... I tried to explain again that it had just been a man from the bar who had helped me and that I was alone... I felt bad if he spend a lot of time looking for this man... he talked to one of the nuns about the keys.. and he told me about the sign-in-sheet...where the bathroom was and where the stamper was for my credentials. .he told me he would come by the next day around 9am to show me the beginning of the Camino walk... then one of the nuns went with me back to behind the church... she too had never seen this place.. so we went in together... the bathroom and shower, where down in the court yard , and the place I was staying was up some stairs... it ended up being a large room divided.. one area had dining table and tv... the other had kitchen and three beds... it smelled a little moldy in there, like this place did not get used much... and the man had said as much, this was not part of the official route so there was not a lot of traffic coming through here per year.... the nun was concerned that there was no food in the pantry not even a baguette, she was afraid I would not have breakfast... I then assured her I had baguette crackers and cheese in my bag..she was relieved, she wished me a good night and a good journey... and I was alone.. I had been warned that the shower would be cold since he did not have time to get the heat going...it was still warm enough so I was willing to take a quick cold shower... then laundry which I hung out in the little courtyard... then settling in for the night... the bed had a weird spongy mattress but still I slept fairly fine... I felt very damn lucky.. the young french pilgrim I had met in italy had said that this is what could happen if I tried to find refuge... but this was the first time, I had this need and no other options... and it was both wonderful and a bit embarrassing to have so much fuss made over me... and that these strangers would go to so much trouble to help me have a safe, well fed good night...was surprising and heartening.....