We woke up to another very very cold day but no rain in the forecast. We set out to walk very early because today and tomorrow we have many many km to go so we can get to st pallais.

At the early hours in the woods, the only other people on the trails are cepes hunters. They are very serious mushrooms collectors. We met up with one who is wearing camouflage outfit so he blends into the woods. They all have some kind of stick, some just straight wooden walking stick while others have metal sticks with a sort of bend that make them almost look like a T shape. The mushroom collectors all walk with a straw of wooden basket and use their sticks to turn the ferns and other leaves on the ground to find these delicious cepes. The cepes season starts in may or June way high up in the mountain and by September they move down to about the areas we are walking by. Cepes are used in almost all the dishes, from raw in salad, in soup, in omelette, in pate’, in sauces, in everything imaginable that are served on the tables in this region.

The tale of the cepes hunters is very colorful. In lalbenques, it’s the story of the black truffles. Here in this region it’s the tale of the cepes. The cepes is a delicacy of this region and the cepes hunters go gather these mushrooms in the forest at this time in full force. The mushrooms are found mostly by the oak trees under the fern leaves.

It is rude to ask one farmer where he finds his cepes. Those places are usually kept a secret. It is said that cepes hunter reveal their secret places for collecting cepes on their death bed! There are also some women who are gifted and can feel the cepes in the forest. These women are called mushroom witches. They can go and filled their baskets with 30 kilograms (more than 60 pounds) of these cepes a day. The location of these cepes are never revealed to strangers. It’s the family’s vault! They keep it a secret.

We arrive into St Palais where we will stay the night. St palais is an interesting village as it is the cross road where 3 different french camimos (camimo Le Puy, camimo Vezelay and camimo du Tours) meet up and then all the pilgrims no matter which camimo he was on, will walk on the same path into St Jean pied de port.

It is with a mixed feeling of excitement and sadness as we face our imminent arrival tomorrow into the st Jean pied de port as that will mark the end of our pilgrimage this year on the camimo Le Puy. It has been a great experience. The days have not been the easiest days of our lives but the lessons are certainly most enriching and the experience truly priceless.

When Ed used to say last year’s 33 days on the camimo de Santiago was the happiest time in his life, we have managed to add another 35 days on the camimo Le Puy as another period of time in our lives that was equally as happy. We not only live the simplest lives, spending most of our time holding hands walking, reflecting, sharing thoughts and feelings with each other. We hope this will continue as we get back to our normal life in Florida. Our camimo Le Puy is ending but our life camimo will continue.