We woke up very early this morning. We have a very long walk today. The last 3 days! Ed stuck his head outside the window and quickly retreated: cold, he said, very very cold! On the bright side of life: it’s not raining and it’s not snowing. We will take cold any day over muddy, raining and wet trails.

Jackets and hats. We are ready for today. The Pyrenees mountain range tested our legs with long winding steady climbs. No rocky straight up hills but more undulating uphold that last for ever. It was a good work out. I was totally sweating after an hour and took off my jacket even before the sun came out!

After long stretches of uphills comes long stretches of downhills and then more and more uphills. Mostly uphills. Ed does not do so well with downhills. His toes jam against his boots and give him lots of pain. I do better downhills and I am out of breath and drag my feet on the uphills. Either way, we concluded that our bodies are design for flat walking. We truly enjoy the days when the trails are flat. The hills, both up and down, are such a pain for both of us!

We walked through very nice towns of the Basque regions of France. We past more corn fields but no more fruit trees. We came upon done very young newly planted trees along the trail, they all have a little plaque on them: courtesy of the friends of the Pilgrims to St Jacques de compostella. Very nice. And they are plum trees. Yeah!!!! We love the plums and we love it that they plant fruit trees instead of oak trees. I was praying there should be more fruit trees planted for hungry waking pilgrims and there, my prayer was answered.

We met some mushroom collectors. I was surprised to see that mushrooms are just collected from the forest in the wild. These French men carry basket full of cepes, a mushroom that taste like portobella mushrooms. They are very very good. I had an omelette aux cepes the other day and it’s unbelievably good. Very tasty. And these Frenchmen are the very people that go collect those mushrooms for the markets.

We took a break near a shrine of a sacred fountain with the inscription “And Jesus said those who drink from this sacred fountain shall have eternal life”. Ed of course drank a bundle of water for all of us.

Ed is such a brave soul. He drinks at all kinds of fountains along the way. And he is fine. He must have a stomach of steel or iron!

We pass the hamlet of Meritein. Another beautiful church.

Then we arrive at our destination for tonight, the village of navarrenx. This is the first village in France to be fortified with Italian style ramparts. We stay in the main square by the church of St German. This village is classified as one of the most beautiful village of France. It is very quaint and beautiful.

Everyday Ed plays a joke on me. Today’s joke is no less dramatic than ordinary. We walk everyday for 6 to 8 hours through forest and corn fields or vineyards. We have to relieve ourselves once in a while. In warm days, I sweat out so much some day I don’t need to but on cold days it’s a different story. And today it’s one of those cold days. I ask Ed to keep watch for me while I answer the call of nature, I just squat down when I hear Ed saying loudly “bonjour, bonjour!” Oh my goodness I was so red thinking I was caught on the act but in fact it was just my husband in one of his moment of clowning around. There was nobody in sight!

We are doing so well with our mileage we only have 2 more days to go before we get to st Jean pied de port. Having one extra day to spare, Ed and I have decided we will take the train to Lourdes on the way up to Paris before we fly home. I found us a hotel in Lourdes for $34 a night. How sweet! It looks very nice too.

Lourdes is considered the most sacred pilgrimage site in France. Thousands of pilgrims arrive each day to Lourdes. We have both been there many times but I do feel with one extra day, there is no better place to go but Lourdes if one is on a pilgrimage in France. It’s in the same region we are in currently, not too far away but we do have to get there by train which will cost us about $14 each.

We have 60 km to go. Which means two long days ahead of us but two very exciting days as we are getting so close to our goal of reaching st Jean Pied de port and we are so thankful for all the support we get from all our friends and family, in kind spirit and in many emails that were sent to us. Both Ed and I feel the pilgrimage has changed us in many profound ways but mostly it has given us a chance to reminisce over our life, reflect on many of the things we did or did not do or should have done and make decision about directions we are taking going forward.

We feel mostly very lucky that we are able to do the walk while we still have the good health and body strength to walk the long journey. That in itself is our blessing. And as we have little needs of our own, we just want to dedicate this pilgrimage to others who are in need of help in their lives and Ed is happy to carry the prayers and petitions for others who are unable to walk with him and hope that his prayers for their will lessen the burden of pain they feel in their lives.