Day 22- Sept 7- In Miradoux 294 km to go!

Not all those who wander are lost ….

IMG_6105

I would not say we are lost. I actually would say we were found! Right here in Auvillar, at the country home of a wonderfully warm old couple who open up their warm house filled with antique to welcome tired pilgrims. They can’t take in too many people so we were very fortunate that they took us in. I did call ahead a month in advance.

First of all, we arrived to the village in the middle of the village festival by the river. The whole village was down by the river bank. Our hosts also were down there and they watch as the pilgrims walked into town. The old lady would ask the name of each pilgrim and she was watching for “Kondrot”. She said she saw us as we walked in but then we disappeared in the crowd. I think we were so excited and we took a turn to go check out the activities down by the water. Anyway we missed her and walked all the way up to the house by ourselves. She left notes for us telling us what to do, go the patio out of the sun. Sit down and rest etc … A very caring person.

When she got back she offered cold drinks, told us to go rest.

The old couple had a beautiful garden full of tomatoes, eggplants, basil, enough fresh vegetable to cook up a feast. We had a delicious dinner.

Breakfast was a full table of bread, croissant, coffee, cheese, peach, banana, yogurt, juices etc ….

After breakfast, the sweet lady insisted we packed her tomatoes for lunch. We took some. Then we got some fresh peaches, more croissant. She gave us so much food we could not carry all her gifts we had to tell her to stop packing for us.

We had the best picnic lunch today, all for free. And it was the most delicious yummy sweet and juicy tomatoes we have had in years!!!

So we paid the lady what she told us, for the room and all the food, $42 for the two of us. That’s about the going rate. Some nights a bit more, and some a bit less. Tonight we are paying $45 for the two of us.

A few places there are no price. It’s by donation. You pay what ever you want. A few big town with bigger hotels may be we have to pay $60 for the night, it’s almost a game we play, to see if we can keep our cost down to under $100 a day, including everything and most day we do meet our goal.

It can be even a lot cheaper if we stay in communal gite, but we like a private room with our own private bath and therefore we have to pay a little extra. That said, we do think the daily expenses are very reasonable for the two of us.

We often spoke to our friends, other doctors, etc … And we often get this comment “I wish I have the money to go to do the pilgrimage” or “it’s expensive to go to Europe “. It’s true it’s expensive to go to Europe. But I would say it’s not that expensive to go do what we are doing. The feet have to do the walking but I know a lot of pilgrims really keep their cost very low by staying in communal gite and eating just the pilgrim meals. In Spain there is often the option of eating in church after mass, a simple dinner of bread and soup.

We had a very pleasant day today walking through fields of sunflowers. We are saying goodbye to the Lot department as we say hello to the Gers department this morning. The Gets department is dubbed the Tuscany region of France. We walk pass rolling hills sunflowers that stretches as far as the eyes can see.

It is a peaceful region of quiet villages and attractive rolling countryside where we can enjoy birdsong and fields of sunflowers and long evenings relaxing in tranquility away from the other more visited tourist regions of France.

We walked to day with Roland, the French pilgrim whose wife broke her knee and too the train home and another pilgrim from Denmark who is on his 5 th pilgrimage.

I am also very happy to report that I have absolutely no trace of pain at all. And we finish today’s walk early again. As long as the walk is flat, we march on with a very brisk pace. It’s all the hills and ups and downs that get us.

So far 2 days in a row, a true gift for the two of us, two days of pleasant undulating path through beautiful fields of sunflowers and corn.

I am starting to love the Gers department much more than the previous regions of steep hills!

The weather is perfect now. Colder in the early morning. We do have to start our walk with our light jacket. Then very sunny by mid day. But not scorching heat. Hot but mild.

Everything seem to be working out perfectly for us the past 2 days. Nothing like two well fed pilgrims with a big bag full of food for our picnic lunch at mid day.

Ed had a radio show last night that went very well while I sleep soundly through it. Nothing is new there about my sleeping through his radio show. There are a lot more patients sending in their petitions for prayers.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,