April 29: A bit of everything

Today, we also have no wifi and barely any cell signal. So, once again, I will post when I post. We are staying in Golinhac, which is a hilltop village with a single auberge (where we already enjoyed a couple of cold beers on their terrace and where, later tonight, we will have dinner). We are staying in a gîte with another couple, who beat us to the drying rack, so I have socks and shirts strewn across the lounger out front and am watching to make sure our underpants don’t travel too far down the road on the wind.

It was a short day today, but with a bit of everything: climbing; farmland (full of clover and buttercup); fir forest, springy underfoot and beech wood (glowing green and crunchy with last-year’s leaves underfoot). We arrived before 1pm, much to the delight of our host, whose daughter has a music recital, which she really needed to get to (it being a school holiday).

I have spent today feeling very grateful. I am grateful for strengthening legs and back. I am grateful for dry skies and cool wind. I am grateful for being persuaded to make this journey. Carey was the instigator of this choice. It has proved spectacular. It is more physically demanding than the “famous” camino (although we met a 77-year-old who walks in l’Aubrac now because she can no longer tolerate the altitude of Nepal “á mon àge”, which is something to aspire to). But, it is also much more beautiful. We are having an amazing time, with much better food and accommodation than we ever had on any previous camino.

The La Puy Way is marked with crosses. Hostels offer credentials and stamps. Blazes call out “le chemin de St Jacques”. But, it is also, NOT a “camino” in one crucial sense. I aways say: “no one is on the camino by accident”. Pilgrims are searching, open and want, perhaps to quiet the past, perhaps to illuminate the future, always to honour something, or someone – including themselves. This is not true of La Puy Way, although the way of being here is very communal and communicative. Obviously, no one suddenly found themselves halfway up a hillside without knowing how they got there! I mean that, we have not yet met any other people walking for anything BUT the scenery and the fellowship they came with. We have met friend groups on vacation; expats, invited by generous work colleagues; tourists, walking as part of “Euope highlights” (sadly, many struggling with what is a very local dynamic).

Whom we have not met (yet), are any pilgrims. We ate with two Australian women last night. They are challenged with no language (even my horrible French makes a big difference) and too many hills. When we were telling tales of walking through hurricanes, wading through mud, they looked askance. When we said “well, when you’ve made a promise to God, you just do it…”, you could hear their eyes roll.