ShakeyJay

Decided to take two short days rather than do another 30 plus day. Then I forgot that it is Sunday and everything is closed. Everything.

The wifi here is very bad and sooo slow. I cannot upload any pictures anymore as it takes too long.

Walk today was non eventful. Flat farming country. Corn everywhere

Also walking toward the Pyrenees. They are getting higher and higher and more majestic with every kilometer passed. Passing down fields of corn with the stalks so high it seems as if I am walking down a corn tunnel.

Still lots of Pilgrims. I never see them on the trail just at end of the day. Weird. I am in a gite run by volunteers. Very clean and they have a dinner so we will see. The place is packed but all French. I am the only foreigner here and it gets very lonely cause nobody here speaks English. I thought there would be either more foreigners or very few pilgrims on this Camino. I was wrong on both counts.These people are part timers so it pisses me off because all of the gites are full. I mean it is their country so who am I to say anything. But it is not an international Camino. It is a French Camino.  And there lies the problem here. There is no disputing that the countryside here is stunning and beautiful and the villages are quaint and historic but there is little to no social interaction among the pilgrims except for that among the French pilgrims themselves and they are not open to foreigners. In that sense Chemin Le Puy is not a true or a welcoming Camino. It lacks the true Camino spirit. I am glad I did it but I would not recommend it to any potential pilgrim.

From Le Puy to Conque things were great but after Conque things deteriorated significantly. No support infrastructure whatsoever exists. “Ferme” has to be the most popular French word in their vocabulary.

I never thought I would say this but I am starting to miss blunt and subtle as a ball pene hammer Honorario. Wow.

Another short day tomorrow. On the day after I am going to walk 30 plus to see if I can get away from the crowd I seem to be attached to. No fun.

No pics or video cause the network here sucks. I have had major phone problems since entering France and joining their Orange.fr network.

Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully there is a shop open somewhere.

Me and my buddy, the mad Spaniard! Beautiful country.

Another great Canadian artist.

27 kilometer walk today. Some pictures:

The mad Spaniard in a beautiful tree tunnel.

The shadow strikes again. Jerry knows what I am talking about here.

The shadow taking a picture of the mad Spaniard looking at some weird plant. Anyone out there know what plant it is? I am perplexed. I thought it was tobacco.

Bad wifi today. That happens a lot here. You have to go out and find good wifi. Oh and the exceptional asshole has met his match today. This guy is from New Zealand. He is an older gent who knows it all. He wrote the book on Grumpy old men. I tried to start a conversation with him at our gite. It went something like this:

Howzit going?

What do you mean howzit going?

Well how are you?

What do you think after 33 kilometers?

33 kilometers? Where did you start this morning?

Nogros.

So did we but it is only 27 kilometers.

It is 33.

Well my Spanish friend’s fit said we did 27.

His watch is wrong.

Ok. I see you bought a beer here. Is it good?

What do you think? Beer is beer.

Yes but here at the gite it could be warm.

Beer is beer.

Ok so how is your Camino going?

Why do you want to know?

Well you know, and this is just my opinion, but I have found the Camino after Cohar tougher than the first part. At the start you climbed one hill in the morning and went down one hill at the end. In between you walked along a ridge.

He shook his head. You are wrong.

I said in my opinion.

I don’t really care what your opinion is because you are wrong.

Ok asshole. I thought. You are an extraordinary asshole. I thought again.

I wonder if he had met David, the exceptional asshole from North Dakota

I will give this ass a wide berth.

Good Canadian band: The Northern Pikes:

I can’t upload any more pictures because the wifi is too slow. Sorry.

Oh I forgot. The Pyrenees came into view this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 September

Place we stayed at was a dump. Dinner consisted of a puke worthy vegetarian slop. And it wasn’t just me. The other Pilgrims felt the same. Then again the host was just  following the Pilgrim guidebook in that Pilgrims have to suffer and they cannot enjoy food. The walk to the next town was uneventful. Almost boring. Rained a little and remained overcast but when we arrived at Condom it poured. We just missed it.

Another conversation with Honorio.

Gee Honor. I woke up this morning with a mal d’etait. Too many beer and wine.

NO, NO DAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. YOU DO NOT.

Well how do you know that? What is going on in my head.

I KNOW, I KNOW. I USED TO BE A DOCTOR.

What? You told me you were a Librarian.

YES, YES . I KNOW. BUT I READ MANY BOOKS. I KNOW. YOU DID NOT. NO HEADACHE FROM ALCOHOL.

Oh, ok. If you say so Honorario.

I DO, I DO.

On the walk to Eauze, which is a very old and historic town. Henry 4h lived here for a few years, I fell in the mud and wrenched my right knee. I thought my Camino was over but this morning it felt better. I broke one of my rules not to walk in the woods and trail after a major rainfall. I broke that rule and paid the price.

Got to Eauze but had to wait 2 hours to get into the gite. Honoario went ballistic or postal. The book said it opened at 2pm but it didnt open until 4pm. With Honoario there is no compromise. He was upset but when he tried to brush his teeth in the WC the bartender said he could not. Well, that really upset Honorario (the mad Spaniard).

NO, NO WE LEAVE.

But, I haven’t finished my beer.

NO, NO. WE LEAVE…NOW. WE GO. I DON’T LIKE THIS PLACE. WE GO.

Ok Honor. We left. He was mad. And all over toothpaste.

We covered 35 kilometers.

13 September.

Walked to Nogros today. 21 kilometers. The next few stages are all over 30 kilometers. I may split that because 30 plus is a hard slog. It will be my last day with Honorario because he wants to go fast and I don’t. There is also a very nice Polish woman here who speaks very good English. She also walks very fast. She does about 6 kilometers per hour. Why so fast I ask. They want to reach the day’s destination as quickly as possible. No time to stop and smell the roses. I don’t like that. Honorario is like that as well. Not me.

Happy birthday to my three favorite people. Twins Sadie and Katie and their brother.

 

 

 

 

Unbelievable place of worship

I said it before but whether you are a believer or not Christianity has given the world unbelievable architecture, profound liturgy, inspirational art and memorable and beautiful music.

When you stand back and look up and toward the choir in this cathedral you cannot help being taken aback by the sheer majesty, the perfect symmetry and precise and clean lines of this gothic masterpiece. The magnitude and scope of the work that went into the design , architecture and construction of this place of worship is beyond description. They just don’t build them like this anymore. I am not sure they could.

But what grabbed my attention here was the artwork that captured the essence and the depiction of the passion of Christ through what Catholics refer to as the Stations of the Cross. It was very emotional for me. At each station we see what Christ sees. His perception. During his trial we see his outstretched lacerated arms flayed outward toward the Jewish crowd as if pleading for his life. In his encounter with the three women       (pictured above) all that is depicted in the painting is what Jesus sees. Three women looking at him in despair with sadness and love in their eyes. Buy what really got to me was seeing his mother looking passionately at her son knowing that there is nothing that she can do to save his life. That scene brought tears to my eyes. It was very powerful. In all of these paintings we never see the face or entire body of Christ. Only the scenes which he would have seen. I  wish I could have taken the picture of Jesus looking at his mother but there was too much glare.

Amazing. Seeing those pictures alone is worth the challenges of this walk.

John out. Have a nice day.

??. Today’s mystery village is? Ta….da

CONDOM

I kid you not. I have it on good authority that Condom is twinned with the French village of Mont-Coq that I mentioned a few days back. I kind of knew something was strange when I came across a factory in Condom, which was named “Trojan.” A little further down the main street was another establishment called “Ecstasy.” And a little further down the block was another factory called ” In Your Dreams.” They even had a Chinese restaurant here called “Ho-Hees-Hung .” Wow. What a  place. I love it.

But not a drug store anywhere.

Alexander Dumas lived here. He of Monty Python fame, erm I mean The Three Muskateers  and Artagnan.

The cathedral here is massive. More on that later.

Walked 24 kilometers from Lectour. Left at 6am and broke one of my own cardinal sins by walking in the dark with Honorario from Spain. This guy is a hiker on steroids. I could hardly keep up so when it got lighter out he went his own way and I met up with him later in CONDOM. It was overcast the whole way but with a perfect temp for walking. Honorario is very gruff. I don’t think he has a subtle bone in his body. I think he likes my company but you would never know it.

that is him in the background

Typical conversation with him would go like this:

WHY DO YOU TRY TO SPEAK FRENCH WITH ME?

Well I am just trying to be nice Honorario.

WELL STOP BECAUSE YOUR FRENCH IS TERRIBLE.

Oh ok.

SPEAK ENGLISH ONLY.

Yeah but you are deaf and your English is indecipherable.

WHAT!

WHAT YOU SAY? WHAT? NO, I GO NOW BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO SLOW FOR ME. SO LONG, GOODBYE.

And away he goes at warp speed.

Or at lunch today.

WHY YOU NOT HAVE WINE WITH ME?

Cause I am having a burger so I want to have a beer.

NO BEER. YOU HAVE WINE.

But I don’t want wine. I want a beer.

NO. NO BEER. WINE.

And like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

YOU NOT HAVE BEER. YOU HAVE RED WINE – LIKE A GOOD FRENCHMAN OR A SPANISH MAN.

But…but.

YOU HAVE WINE.

And that is about it. And then the exceptional asshole from North Dakota shows up. Thanks Lord.

There is more but not now.

Happy birthday to my sister.