This morning we head towards Marsolan, where we can find the remains of l’Hôpital St Jacques at the entrance to the village.

We have a very pleasant somewhat flat walk, there are some uphills and some downhills but nothing too strenuous. We walk across large fields of sunflowers.

Before getting into La Romieu where we will stay tonight, we pass large orchards of plums. Beautiful plum trees full of fruits.

The trail itself is nice, beautiful and where ever they can, people would plant trees to give the pilgrims done shade to walk under so that’s a very nice added benefit in this particular region of the Gers.

We met up today with Michael, a young 18 years old Austrian who walked right out his front door in Austria and will walk on to Santiago. A cheerful young kid, he told us he is not praying for anything, he walks to say thank. He wants to thank God for his good health, his good fortune, his good life so far. Finishing high school and before he goes to college next year he wants to just spend time being thankful for what he has gotten so far with life. It’s amazing to hear him talk. It’s refreshing.

So many young kids today complaint about what they don’t have or can’t have and they want more of everything and here is this young man expressing thanks for so much that he has gotten so far.

With every person that we meet on the camino, it seems like everybody is there to teach us something. Even this young kid who is younger than our youngest son, what he just shared with us reminds us that we not only live, hope, plan for the future but also must be grateful for what we have today.

Ed and I reflect on our lives now. For us to be successful these days mean to be happy. And we both know that happiness means different things to different people but thankfully for us, we both agree that happiness means having good health, doing meaningful work and being in a loving relationship. Some people have one and not the other, they might have a great job but in a bad relationship, have a good friendship and family but suffer some chronic diseases, etc … We are definitely very lucky to be having all three and for that we are very thankful for our good fortune.

We arrive finally into La romieu, a quaint, beautfiful and “magnifique” village, like our French pilgrims would describe it. The word “romieux” means pilgrims, for the pilgrims that passed through it on their way to Santiago. The small village has an enormous church, an indication of its importance in the past. The church was built in the 14th century by Clement V, one of the Avignons popes.

We check into our place for tonight. We inquire in the church where this place is and to our surprise, we are shown to stone house right across from the church. It looks more like a large villa or a small castle.

To understand this “reservation” system, I will have to explain what we did. We bought a French book, that has a map on one side, and a list of accommodation with telephone number to call on the other side. The title of the book says it all “miam miam dodo”. Miam miam is French (or international for eating) and dodo is for sleeping. And it’s just that. No instruction of any sort, no guide, no explanation of anything. Just a continuos map from Le puy to st Jean pied de port with village name and a list of places we can call to get a room for the night. There are no pictures and no description. We are pilgrims, we don’t fuss too much I guess. The camino will take care of us.

So every night when we arrive, it’s always a surprise. There is no standard like holiday inn or motel 6 or ritz Carlton to go by. It’s a roulette game but so far it’s been very very nice. We have no complaint at all with the accommodation but we must say it’s always a surprise. Simply because they are all very different.

Most places are run by retired couples, older couples who open up their homes to pilgrims. They can work when ever they want to. But you most definitely must call them first to let them know you intend to spend the night and they will tell you if its ok or not, or if their home is full or not, etc …

Like I say there are no pictures so we never know what we are going to be staying at. So anyway tonight we check into a small castle. We arrived early and there was a note on the big iron gate our front “check in at 3:30 pm”. We hesitated but we are tired so we decided to open the gate anyway. As soon as the gate opened, a huge dog jumps out and barks at us. We quickly retreat outside the gate while the dog barks it’s head off. An older gentleman appears. He looks like a duke or a count. He wears a white shirt with a small handkerchief tied around his neck inside his shirt collar. He told us it’s ok to come in.

Just as we speak, another couple arrives. This pilgrim couple knows more art than I did. Immediately, they complimented on the painting. The owner says she choose each painting herself. The three of them stood there oo-ing and aa-ing about each painting, how powerful each of them were, while I was at a complete lost. Abstract painting was never my forte. I see splashes of paint mixed on a canvas but can’t make out any meaning.

Anyway the dining table was set with very nice antique setting, I think that’s where we will have breakfast tomorrow at 8 am.

This place is awesome. Beautiful. Quaint and certainly very French.