FRIDAY: Aumont-Aubrac to Nasbisnals (26.5 Kms)
A miracle on the Camino…Whether it was the intervention of St Jacques or more likely, that lovely bottle of Corbieres Red last night, my blisters subsided sufficiently to allow me to walk. Painfully, especially the last few kilometers, but I made it to Nasbinals. Les was convinced she would be walking alone, but I showed her. And what a gorgeous walk it was. Crisp, clear day for walking across the Plateau d’Aubrac – landscape that reminds one of Connemara in Western Ireland. Empty, vast land, rolling hills strewn with rocks…few places for shelter. Pleasant walking territory, at least when the weather is fine…
We are generally staying at places that provide demi-pension – lodging, dinner & breakfast. Costs run around 100 Euro for the both of us. You can do this walk for a lot less by staying in Gites which would run around 12 Euro per person for a bed in a communal room. Can cook your own food or go out to eat. 3 or 4 course menus are about 15- 20 Euro. But since I am known as a big spender J, and we wanted to stay in nicer places – we opted for these, small, simple two-star hotels. At about $150 dollars a day for two, it ain’t bad. It would cost twice as much if you did the same walk through an agency – of which there are a lot choices on the Internet…..
The meals are always enormous and good. The house wine is always cheap – a pichet of the local Chateau Plonk at Nasbinals was 6 Euro. The hotels will amend their menus for non-meat eaters, so tonight instead of meat stuff tomatoes for entrée, they gave Les a large compost salad. Instead of beef “stew” (which was great), Les got an omellette (probably 4 eggs). Thereafter a big platter of cheese placed on the table (take all you want), and then dessert, and those calories walked off during the day are quickly replenished.
Speaking of food, the specialty of the Aubrac is aligot. It is on all the menus. Tomme fraiche, potatoes and garlic. Pureed together into this smooth, gooey paste – it is delicious, even if Les thinks it is too plain…..

SATURDAY: Nasbinals to St.Chely-Aubrac (17kms)
So much for the miracle. The right foot is very painful, but I limped my way into the next village. Hopefully, no permanent or temporary damage done. Another beautiful day, the first half finishing the Plateau while walking hills and skirting cows with horns. We have seen a lot of vaches on the walk – nice healthy looking ones. After the quaint village of Aubrac, where some noble built a hospital for the pilgrims in the 12th Century, it was an uncomfortable two hour walk downhill on very rocky paths to our destination. In by 2:30pm today….I could walk no further. One more day.
Guess I can”t complain too much. We have met folks who have dropped out because of foot problems. One young couple who we met on the second day had to stop today because the woman’s tendons were so painful. We keep bumping into a lone woman walker whose husband stopped after the second day because of blisters.. What a wooz!… We immigrants come from hardier stock!
Another lovely small hotel tonight – Hotel de la Valle. The hotels rated by the Logis folks seem the nicest. A bit more elegant dinner…..Since we did not want a full bottle of wine (well, Les didn’t) we ask for a demi. They countered with 500cl..fine by me. To the table comes the bottle of house wine, with a bit poured out (saved I’m sure) to that it is close to 500cl. You’ll never see that in the States.

SUNDAY: St. Chely-Aubrac-Espalion (22Kms).
Finished! 160 kms. Do it again in a flash. In fact it would be quite easy just to keep walking. One gets into a routine and it is quite enjoyable. Keep the feet healthy and you can walk to the ends of the Earth…or at least to Santiago de Compostela.
We left the Aubrac today and walked downhill into the Lot region. Much more lush countryside….Sundays in France are very quite. Even in a larger town like Espalion (6000 inhabitants) just about everything is closed. We will get a bite to eat later and try and find the bus tmr morning to Rodez and then on to the Canal du Midi…..The Hotel is a bit of a dump, but inexpensive – 24 Euros for a lumpy bed in dark room. But who cares…

We said good-bye to the remaining walkers who we have been sharing the occasional “my feet hurt” conversations on the walk…Among then, the French retired couple who are walking for two more weeks, and the friendly Dutch couple that loved to eat (we found out this last evening that the Dutch couple live in the same town that an old friend from Berkeley days used to live in. I have lost touch with Paul. The man said he would try to look him up for me)...The fact is that everyone stops to eat at 1PM – I actually think it is genetic with the French…We always were the last to leave our Hotel and the first to arrive at our destination, passing folks having their “picnic” on the side of the path (where they found those goodies to eat I’ll never know)….
One of the things about travelling with my partner of all these years is that she always seems to develop a sense of humor once she leaves Sacramento… Her latest observations on life are the pronounciation of the oft seen French words “poussez” and “pneus” – push and tires in Anglais. I’ll leave it at that…

PART TWO: Canal-du-Midi...upcoming

Finally, wifi access.... Posting my ramblings....

SUNDAY:

It may be true that “we”ll always have Paris”, but we had it for only about 3 hours after our arrival on Sunday. Cleared customs by 7:00am, hopped on the RER and when making our underground transfer knew we had arrived by the intense, delicious aroma of butter and pastries enveloping an otherwise desolate underground station…where else but Paris. We stored our 2 bags at the Gare de Lyon and were walking the streets of Paris by 9:00am. Where to but the Sunday market that radiates North from the Place de Bastille. Great market – the amazing variety of cheeses from the numerous fromagerie sellers are enough reason to make a trip….
After sitting for a café crème near the Place des Vosges, we were back to the Gare for our trip to Le Puy. TGV to St Etienne – it waits to be seen if Ca. will really have something as fast..Then the local to Le Puy - the surprising part of this part was the beautiful scenery of the valleys that wind through the Haute-Loire river as one reaches Le Puy
Le Puy – the beginning of our walk - is a gorgeous ancient city, made more interesting by the fact that as we walked into town nearly everyone was dressed in medieval garb. Time warp? No, just part of an annual festival. A delicious three-course dinner at Restaurant Lapierre and off to bed for the big day tomorrow.

MONDAY: Le Puy to St. Privat (24kms)
First thing in the morning (7am) we attend the pilgrims Mass at the Cathedral. Not quite the church goer am I, but this simply had to be done. A Mass is given every day for the walkers/pilgrims, and well, a blessing or two can’t hurt. I was wondering how many pilgrims would attend – given the fact that we are later in the season – expecting maybe 25 or so. Probably close to 60 folks were there. After the Mass, the Bishop gathers all around the statue of Saint Jaques and inquires were all are from. We were the only ones from the USA, most coming from France with a scattering of Germans and Spanish. Mostly “mature” persons like yours truly. Nice little bonding experience…And to think that something like this has been done for close to 1000 years…We left town headed straight uphill, which appears to be the way one leaves all these towns. Up and down most of the day with beautiful views of the countryside – none of which you will get to see because my little camera stopped working shortly after a couple of pictures. Damn. Knew I should have had it blessed by the Church. So, it appears only the written word will be available to keep you all amused.
Speaking of amusing, Les almost fell asleep walking. Never quite seen that before, but having gotten virtually no sleep the previous evening and suffering from jet-lag, perhaps not such an odd occurrence…Well, after about six hours of somewhat difficult walking intermingled with occasional chats with co-walkers, we arrived at the charming little village of St.Privat… A gite this evening – communal cheap sleeping place for walkers. Fortunately, we had our own room, so I had no need to pretend to be social or hear others snore. Dinner at the only restaurant in town made up for the entertainment. For the princely price of 16 Euros a four course meal that could have fed four. Decent enough food, but stupid big portions…my main dish was pork belly (ham like) on top of local lentils – but must have been a bloody pound of lentils….Let me just say that lentils have a certain effect on me – what Les and I are now calling the Le Puy syndrome…..

TUESDAY: St Privat – Saugues (20kms)
Lots of elevation change today. Makes the 20kms a bit harder, especially since all that pre-walking training in Sacto did not encompass hills. Downhill is certainly the hardest, but uphill ain’t a piece of cake especially after a one and a half hour walk straight uphill. A cool, foggy day, great for walking. Spoke to a couple of walkers that have done the Camino and they (and others) say that the part from Le Puy to Conques is the prettiest and hardest. So far they are correct….Arrival at Saugues at the very reasonable hour of 3pm. Bigger town, with a cool 14th Century tower and lots of places to stay. We are at La Terrasse (Michelin rated hotel and restaurant). Up to now, no access to the Internet to post these ramblings, but did get to the Tourist Office which let me utilize their Internet to send a “we are alive” email to family…..For my wine friends – a glass of decent local wine at the corner café: 90 cents, and that’s with the bad exchange rate….The evening meal at La Terrasse was superb. I started with the “lentille se fait blonde, a la recontre des moules de Mouchot et des crevettes”, and Les haqd the “cepe entire cuit en ragout et son oeuf biologique poche”. We both had the “pave de saumon et panais, sauce marchand de vin”. A plate of local cheeses and “crème citron”. Not only does it sound better in French, but it was superb and only 20 Euros – way less than half for a similar meal in Sacto. Half bottle of a lovely Cote d’Auvergene (which had to be a Pinot), and a good day it was.

WEDNESDAY: St Privat – St. Alban (30Kms)
After a fabulous buffet breakfast, and a failed effort to fix my camera, we took off. Les was freaked about the distance, especially since her feet seem to belong to a 90 year old. Foggy start, but blue skies for the rest of the day. Again, beautiful countryside – verdant hills, virgin forests, etc. etc. Not as many undulations (as the Brits would say) as yesterday, but a long, tiring walk. I pretty much carried Les the last 3kms, or so it seemed to me. We chatted for a while with a youngish Frenchman who was walking carrying 15 kilos all the way to the Spanish border – a mere 500 miles. He nevertheless seemed quite rationale….Already there is a group of walkers whom we have come to know and meet up with while walking and at dinner: the two French couples who are using a car and taking turns driving and letting the others walk; the French great- grandmother and her sister who refer to us as “Les Americain”; and the friendly and attractive Swiss couple – the husband of which speaks perfect American English because his mom was American. A motley, but interesting group….We are staying at a Chambre d’Hotes (B&B). We are only the third Americans the owners have had in five years – obviously this walk/area is not common ground for us foreigners…Dinner was at a local restaurant – nothing to write home about, except that a carafe of decent red was 4 Euros – and when was the last time you had a bottle of decent Chateau Plonk at a restaurant for 6 bucks? (including tax and tip, as all meals in France do).

THURSDAY: St. Alban to Aumont-Aubrac (16kms)

A blessing on your head, mazeltov, mazeltov…oops wrong religion for this walk, but a blessing in any event as we had a short day – still walking through gorgeous countryside and petite villages. Thank goodness for a short day because I am the recipient of the walker’s curse, blisters. A couple of nasty ones on my little toe…In fact, as I write this, my foot is soaking in a bidet full of hot water. After all my complaining about Les’ foot ailments it appears I am struck with a worse problem. We shall see what transpires tomorrow – we only have 27kms to walk…ouch! Our hotel not only has wifi access, but a one-star Michelin restaurant. A fabulous dinner was had, which I am not going to detail because my toe hurts too much. One last observation for today…all along the walk there are crosses, carved statues of St Jacques and other more modern free-style wooden carvings. On these objects folks place little rocks for reasons known only to themselves. I put a stone on one in remembrance of my mom; Les did the same for her dad. It seemed and was the appropriate thing to do.

Leaving on Saturday

This will be my 22nd trip to Europe. Pretty amazing... It will also be my 4th long distance walk. This one will start from the traditional French start of the Camino de Santiago - Le Puy en Velay. It's @ 1600 kms to Santiago de Compostela - we hope to do @ 160kms. The rest will have to wait for future journeys. For those of you interested about all things Camino check out www.csj.uk.co home page of the Confraternity of St James.

Getting ready

We are getting ready for our 4 week trip to Europe. I intend to post some of our adventures to keep friends and family up to date... We leave on the 19th, return on Oct 17th