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.