Pilgrim rest day in Moissac

We got a pilgrim rest day in Moissac as the doctors had ordered.

Thankfully it really is not as bad as it all seems. I feel very light since the icky pain on the leg is just about almost gone the next day after the abscess is drained. I am so glad we made the right decision to stop and get it taken care of.

On our way, we met a French pilgrim couple who are planning to go all the way to Santiago from Le Puy. The wife broke her knee after 12 days and decided to take the train back to Paris while the husband walks on alone all by himself. The husband says it’s ok, it’s his “project” anyway. He wanted to do the pilgrimage more than she does and if she can’t go on, she can go home and he will walk on to the finish if he could. We also met a man from Austria whose wife is now in Turkey resting, she only wants to do 2 weeks while he wants to go on to Santiago. We walked a lot with those two “husband pilgrims with dropped out wives”. I am hoping I will toughen it out and go on with Ed as planned otherwise Ed will join with those two lonesome pilgrims and forms a group of three “husband pilgrims with dropped out wives”!

Of course my recovery greatly depends on “nurse Ed” ability to change the dressing on my wound and keep it clean and healthy. The doctors in the hospital and Ed were joking around as they say they don’t know if his U.S. medical degree and board certification qualify him to take care of a pilgrim on French soil! Ed clowns around with them and with a heavy Irish accent, he mimicked his Irish medical teacher, Dr Thomas and said “good God kuunndrot, change your wife bandage and make sure she does not loose her leg!”. We all broke out in a big laughter.

We also got a pilgrim transfer forward to the next big town with a hospital and nurse facility in case I need some care while we wait for me to be ready to get back on my walking pilgrimage. We will be staying in Moissac for a Saturday rest day and we will continue onward on Sunday walking to Auvillar as planned and resume our walk. We agree since we don’t know how much I can walk that we will go until I feel uncomfortable then we will stop. We don’t know right now how far we will get once our boots hit the ground early Sunday morning.

As we approach Moissac, we can see many peach and apricot grove covered by netting. The trees are full of ripe fruits. It’s right in season right now and we can see some hand picking of the fruits going on in the fields. We also pass many sunflower fields most of them ready for harvest.

We have a day to visit Moissac, home to UNESCO World Heritage Saint-Pierre abbey founded in the 7th Century with impressive cloisters.

There are important waterways in Moissac: the Tarn River flows through the centre of town, as does the Canal de Garonne, the extension of the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to Bordeaux. Together, these two canals are sometimes known as the Canal des deux mers or canal of the two seas, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea.

The break in the walking rhythm is strange as I do not have to wash clothes for 2 days now. Lots of sleep. Lots of rest.

We woke up in Moissac to the hustle and bustle of the Moissac Saturday market. The market is an all important event in a small village or small French town. It brings the whole place alive with colors and sounds and life of the surrounding regions. The farmers bring out their harvest. Very proud of their products. Signs of “all organic”, “hand made”, “fait maison” (made in house), produceur (producer) etc … And the aroma! The wonderful smell of roasted chicken, fresh baked bread, French fries, grilled meat, big pan of paella, huge pan of mussels, fresh herbs, basil, garlic, onions all mixed in a small square near the big church in the center of town.

The buyers hustle around the stalls, the sellers wrapping and cutting big pieces of cheese or meat or red pumpkin. We saw fresh saffron, donkey ear tomatoes, cepre mushrooms, steamed beets and oven baked beets. Of course in this region famous for foie gras, we saw rows upon rows of different sizes of freshly packed in glass jars of foie gras, confit de canard, rillette, and sausages. Wine and grapes in abundance. We got a wonderful walk through the market.

We spent a great deal of time at the Abbey de saint Pierre, the main church in the center of town. A very very beautiful church and a UNESCO world heritage site.

Back in our room, “nurse Ed” dutifully changed my dressing. It is healing very well. I have no doubt I will be able to walk tomorrow, I even hope I can walk the whole stage to Auvillar but we will see.

One thing I must note is that I was discharged with 3 kinds of pain killers. A mild pain killer (4 times a day), a strong pain killer (4 times a day) of the mild ones are not strong enough and a heavy duty pain killer that I am supposed to take 1 hour before the dressing is changed so I don’t feel the pain of the “meche” (iodine gauze packing bandage) being pulled out and new meche being packed back in. We have to pack to bandage so the wound heals cleanly and no pus would pulled back into the area. I guess all that work was supposed to be painful? We did buy some pain killer but not all, just in case we need it. But I have not taken anything. I don’t feel any pain at all. Last night bandage change went very well, no mess, no screaming bloody murder. I guess “Nurse Ed” is doing a fantastic job! I did joke with him, with a heavy Irish accent, I did say “Good God Kuunndrot, take good care of your wife, don’t let her bleed to death now!”

I think we needed this break. We did not take any break last year on the camino de Santiago but I think the camino Le Puy is a much harder hike. There is a lot more climbing and a lot less rest areas in France than In Spain. We could have rested more but we usually just take a lunch break and keep on walking while in Spain, since we hit so many cafe, we usually stop for a cold drink, an ice cream bar on a hot day, and real lunch stop and we sit down for 30 minutes to rest 3 or 4 times a day. On the Le Puy walk it’s just a 30 minutes picnic lunch in the field and the rest of the time we walk straight through the whole day.

We are at our half way point now. We have another 15 days to go. It’s funny but I don’t want to think too much about St Jean pied de port. It’s kind of our goal to get there but it’s also the end of this wonderful pilgrimage.

On this beautiful and sunny day in Moissac, we want to share with you the pilgrim song on the “way to st James”:

French version:
Tous les matins nous prenons le Chemin,
tous les matins nous allons plus loin,
jour après jour la route nous appelle,
c’est la voix de Compostelle!

Chorus:
Ultreïa! Ultreïa! Et sus eia!
Deus adjuva nos!
Chemin de terre et Chemin de foi,
voie millénaire de l’Europe,
la voie lactée de Charlemagne,
c’est le Chemin de tous les jacquets!
Et tout là-bas au bout du continent,
Messire Jacques nous attend,
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finisterre.
Translated version:

Every morning we take the Camino,
Every morning we go farther,
Day after day the route calls us,
It’s the voice of [Santiago de] Compostela!
Chorus:
Onward! Onward! And upward!
God assist us!
Way of earth and way of faith,
Ancient road of Europe,
The Milky Way of Charlemagne,
It’s the Chemin of all the Santiago pilgrims!
And over there at the end of the continent,
Santiago waits for us,
His smile always fixed
On the sun that dies at Finisterre.

Sent from my iPhone