We woke up this morning to a cloudy and cold morning. As long as it does not rain, cold is good for walking. We don’t mind that at all.

We left early and walk out by the Sainte Quitterie church and walk down to the Sainte Quitterie Fountain. We walk past many welcoming hospital and gite with signs welcoming pilgrims on the way to Compostella. We visited one last time and say goodbye to very nice, quiet and peaceful town of Aire sur l’adour.

This town is also the beginning of the last stage of the Camino Le Puy. It is the beginning of the walk in the Landes region and also the start of the Pyrenees Atlantic.

We caught our first glimpse of the white snow capped Pyrenees mountain ranges. We are now about 100 km away from it.

There is no more vineyards. There are some corn fields. No more sunflowers and also no more fruit trees along the way. There are many chestnut and oak trees.

The way markers are changing from the old red and white blazes to blue and yellow arrow and scallop shells signs.

We met a new set of pilgrims starting fresh from Aire sur L’adour. In the morning walk, we counted about a dozen of them all wearing what Ed call a pair a garters. They look like calves covers and they help keep water or rain and mud off the boots and long hiking pants. We walking in dry condition, no rain, and all these new pilgrims are all wearing garters. Ed and I started to get worried. May be they know something we don’t? We hope not. As we walked on, Ed suddenly says : these garters also keep the snow out. Now I get really worried. Snow? I am certainly not prepared for this. I know this is the last 100 km and we are approaching the Pyrenees but September is way too early for me to be walking through snow.

By midday the whole group of “gartered” pilgrims gathered by the side of the road for a break but it looks like they are gathering for a big meeting. Ed joking says the meeting is for an important decision: to garter or not to garter? That is the question!

Anyway we arrive into miramont sensacq all dry, safe and no snow. I think this new group of pilgrims are just way to cautious and probably just wanted to protect their new and clean boots and hiking pants.

Ed’s French is now very impressive. He can carry on a whole conversation in French by himself, fully equipped with : hello, goodbye, how are you, see you later, good courage, good walk, good day, good morning, and the all important: I am cold, I am tired, I am thirsty and I am hungry. He entertained people with: well deserved (rest, drink, meal) at the end of a long walk day and everybody would smile, nod, agree with him that what ever it is that are doing to celebrate the end of the day was “well deserved”. Bien meritte’!

It was all going well until last night when Ed asked for the bill in French and the guy answered him … In English! Ed is all upset. He told me “I spoke perfect French to him. Why did he speak English to me? He can’t understand his own language!” Oh dear ….

Well, it is Tuesday today. Which means it’s Monday yesterday and all the stores were closed. We left too early so nothing is open yet. Which means we have no food in our backpacks again. This is the last week of walking. We have been here for 4 weeks you would think we should get this system down and know what to do so we don’t walk hungry. We try. But there’s always something. Anyway when the stores are closed we have no food.

The bad thing about this region: no more fruit trees along the route. We look for them but nothing. We walk hungry today. We arrived into the small village of miramont sensacq and nothing is available. There is only one store sthat will open from 5 pm to 7 pm. Ah .. Another wait till 5 pm before we can get something for our tummy! Tough life on the camino!

We checked into the gite. Dinner at 7:30 pm. The whole place feels so cold. I complained to Ed it’s too cold in here. I put on my jacket and laid down under 2 layers of blankets and passed out. I wake up 2 hours later, a bit rested. I took a hot shower and walked out. It turns out the place was not that cold. It was me who was so hungry and felt so cold. It’s almost 5 pm after my shower. We walked out and bought some snacks and inhale them all to keep us alive until 7:30 pm when dinner will be served.

Another tough day on the camino!