Day 37: Mont Marsan to Saint Severs

Today,s walk is dedicated to my brother Kevin who is just beginning his cancer journey. I pray for him.

I bet you didn,t know that bullfighting is very popular in this part of France. They don,t kill them here though they just lull them to sleep. The crowds go nuts with boredom. Weird!

Well today was very pleasant. Overcast, very humid, smells of rain. We covered off 22 km in about 4.5 hours. Pretty good. Stopped in one village where a cafe was open and had a coffee au lait. People were very friendly. You know I have found that throughout this trip if you just try to communicate, no matter how bad your French is, they will respond in kind. Have a few laughs as well but that is okay. My walking companion is amazed at how well my reception is.

Oh, I wanted to mention that the woman who welcomed us in Saint Marsan was a real sweatheart. She was ex French Air Force having done 18 years as an Air Traffic Controller. Now a nessage therapist like my daughter in law. Can,t wait to tell this Dutch woman when we see her. Yes, apparently they are staying at the same place as us this evening. Can,t wait to see the look on her face when I tell her I got a nessage from a French Air Traffic Controller. She will have a righteous shit-fit. Yesssss! Love it.

Saint Sever is a very old village. They are or were very religious here as they have two churches. Beautiful. Jacobins have a monastary here as well. And like every single hamlet, village, town or city, one has to climb a hill before entering it. This place had a huge hill. Hard at the end of a day,s walk. Oh well.

Oh, I got a haircut and beard trim today. It was getting unruly. The little children were running away from me when I approached. “ Look mommy that man is scary” I would hear them say. So, I found a hairdresser in Saint -Sever. My two sweathearts:

We had a great time and a few laughs.

The one on the left cut my hair and trimmed my beard. What do you think?

It is cooler though. I also asked her why our eye-brows remained the same colour when everything else turned grey. She shrugged her shoulders and said: “un mystere de la vie Monsieur.”