Author: RebWhite

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15 miles – the most beautiful 15 miles I’ve probably ever walked. Only thing similarly beautiful was the west coast of Ireland. Every vista. AND we got completely lucky because the rain lightened up so that we could do the Napoleonic route, a higher more scenic route that Napoleon took in order to surprise the Spanish who were used to people coming the other way – lower, easier.

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The houses are all white washed with red roofs and shutters, it was green and misty. There were goats/cows/horses, all grouped and moving independently and with bells on a few to track the group. So bells ringing, roosters crowing, people chatting in all different languages, wonderfully musical.

You fall in and out with people depending on pace and interest. I had a few long periods with different people, so fun to hear their stories. My favorite people were Fiona and Murph from Ireland (different from the snippet couple). We had a couple of periods and happily the last few miles because Fiona was funny as she wanted to get there and get into bed, sending Murph out to find her some tea. Kept me distracted because I was getting tired too.

This town has 21 people, one of the biggest churches ever and two hotels and a huge aubergue – the pilgrim hostel. It used to be the major point from which people crossed into and out of France/Spain. Roland had a major fight and died in 778 here – Charlemagne’s man. The church was built in the 1200’s and when I walked in, they had a recording of monks singing. Then the priest walked in and started singing in a beautiful voice. I quietly left out the back after a while.

A lot of the Spanish (I think mostly) people do seem to go to the services and they time the evening service so that they can go between arrival and dinner. They were all singing the responses with him. Beautiful. And it’s been going on in this church since 1200’s – incredible.

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Snippets from the day:
New Yorker: My cousin is from Texas. She was married 6 times, became Mormon and is now converting all of our ancestors. My family won’t talk with her.

Irish: I lived in Aspen for a while, helped build the extension to the airport. Went from Dublin when I was 21. Took me a month to get used to breathing it was so high. And it was expensive! There were heated footpaths. I went to the priest, who was Irish and asked if he had a parishioner who’d let me a room. He did and I moved in with a woman who was 41 and exercised on a trampoline. Wrote my mum and she was very nervous. After about 4 months, my brother wrote and told me to come to beautiful LA. So I took the desert train from Glenwood Springs. It was beautiful!

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Day of getting sleep, getting in order, leaving tomorrow for the first day.

Things I’m grateful for:
Trekking umbrella – used it all day today.

Culottes that Carol told me to get, wick dry right away and so comfortable!
Updated phone that James said was a definite.
Medieval villages that are preserved and currently vibrant.
Walking out of dinner and hearing the music from the church built in 1212. The priest walks out with an old woman and gives her a hug, confers with a biker who brought his bike up to the steps, then turns to great a sizable crowd leaving the church. Pilgrims hitting his church would indeed feel welcomed.

To get to the starting point, most people fly into Paris and then take the train from Montparnasse to St. Jean Pied de Port. That’s what I did, so cool to spend a day and a half in Paris. So lucky that Rick sent me off with a hug and I’ll see you in 4 weeks – but would love to have been with him in Paris.

I’m hoping to sit in churches all along the way so today, in the morning before taking the train, I went to two churches. Both of which I’d found when I’d been lost in 2 different jet lag fog walks within a few (2) bocks of my hotel. So I went back. The first, Saint Germain Des Pres abbey, was built in 540AD, oldest current part from 1000 AD. The second was the Church of Saint-Supice, started in 1646 and my favorite part, the Lady l, was finished in 1660. I sat in both for a bit of quiet. Both are incredible, but the second was truly amazing because of the giant sculpture and chapel for Mary behind the altar. You couldn’t even see it until you walked around and behind the alter. I was astonished. I wish I could have seen it with Rick’s mom, Mimi. She loves Mary and this was a gift of a place. The marble fresco (described as white, but looked brown to me) was incredible carving, no haloes, gilt, signs of anything but a woman and her son and the faces were beautiful. I took an up close photo and then one with a woman who was cleaning meticulously to give an idea of scale.

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After both periods of sitting, I was calm when I walked out. So – will carry on with the pattern and take time to sit. I will say that I look for Mary or the kinder actions of Jesus to sit in front of if possible. And to think of the incredible number of people over the centuries/years who have done the same, though with perhaps a different type of devotion. Buddhists talk about devotion as a critical element of the practice. Again, different, but a way to connect.

THEN the train. Oy. The sitting calmed me down from the 4am wake up of – oh my goodness, I’m going early to make sure I don’t miss. And thank goodness I did. Montparnasse makes Grand Central look like a village train station. Well, not exactly, but close! AND not a single information booth. Anywhere. I got dropped off in terminal 2, found someone who pointed (no one speaks English and all of my French sure sounds like Spanish) to terminal 1. Felt like a mile. Happily, I found a nice woman who between my ticket and her bits of English was able to point to where I’d look. No announcements are in English (why should they be, I’m in France) and out of 6 information people I saw walking around after about 40 minutes, one spoke a wee bit of English. Wish I wasn’t so American in my lack of languages.
I made it on.