I woke up early enough (not sure what that means now..but it's what i wrote) and packed... I expected to leave before others got up...but my two friends came down for breakfast to send me off...which was really nice...they had decided to walk to another town to catch the train back towards their car and do some post pilgrim shopping in France since their vacation was almost up...so we said our good byes and we talked about some of the ideas that they were taking away with them from the trip...since now, was their time to reflect on this pilgrimage... it is interesting how quickly we had built a friendship over the last few weeks and how much we had learned about each other and also how open we had become with each other... one seldom travels in a way were one repeatedly meets the same people again and again and frequently shares a room and some of ones daily life with them... so I think pilgrims relationship with each other is unique...i got going a little before 8 and again it was a day along the channel, this was slightly different from the route in my book but it saved maybe ten kms... and it was a nice cool route under trees... around eleven I notice a familiar figure approach on one of my breaks, it was my friend from Ulm..she too was surprised to see me since she had thought she'd gotten ahead of us some how... we caught up on the last few days apart... she had found an interesting camping place the night before run by someone who was from the Cavalier lineage... at one point he put on his robes and armour for her and knighted her as a joke with his sword...we would continue walking together for the rest of the day... I think she slowed her pace to match mine... we took several long breaks..including a small detour into town for coffee.. basically stretching out our walking day... it was unclear were we had to turn off in order to enter the town of destination because we were not taking the official pilgrims route... there were lots of bicyclists along the way.. and she asked them for us...we found out, we had to find a place with silos...so we looked across into the hills and eventually saw something fitting the description...we turned too early and had to negotiate some farm fields and also ditches and eventually tennis courts...she told me of some interesting strong adventures women she had met in her life and body work training she'd done and experiences with working with different clients..including old patients in hospital...and how important the human touch is but also how it can evoke old neglected wounds in some...we aimed for the church a good land mark for town center.. along the way we asked a young mother, if she knew were the gite was..she did and gave us directions..soon enough I found the tell tale shell sign and we entered the building... everything was unlocked so we just headed in and up..we met a very friendly host who was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt... he gave us the tour in french and my friend translated... the older french couple was already there and so was the deaf man and a young french man from two nights ago...so mostly same faces... later too the swiss couple would arrive a little later... I did the usual shower, laundry with minimal hanging space in the hall and bought food at a supermarket..i got ready made soup and tin of lentils... hungry and uninspired to cook... the evening turned out to be pretty funny in the kitchen... most everyone spoke french of course.. but a few did try to connect with me... eventually I asked the young french man if he had learned english in school, turns out he had...8 years... so I chatted him up..he got really nervous since he wanted to speak perfect english and could not.. but he was quite good and actually quite sweet... he did say that most of the older generation in france did not learn any other language in school... my friend ended up getting into a long conversation with the gite man... all the social stuff kept me up later than intended ..i had to hurry to catch up on my little homework...finding time for myself in such social settings requires a little bit of restructuring...i dont have that down yet..
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