What a difference a day brings. I must admit that yesterday was terrible but after a cold shower and a few pilsners, while looking out over the beautiful French countryside, one,s hiking troubles seem to fade away. And yes Scarlette, tomorrow is another day.
One last note about the Chateau. Yes the place was grand from the outside but the inside was a dump. He charged 18 euros for just the bed and shower. No food, no drinks, nothing while the town was over 2 kilometers away. Now you may say 18 euros is cheap. Yes but in the pelerin refuge business 18 euros should bring some extras. Crap,he did,t even provide toilet paper. I left him a calling card in response to that. Oh, and I think the original owner of that Chateau lost his head at some point in time. Spooky.
Today I did 33 kilometers in 6.5 hours. In comparison yesterday I did 24 kilometersin 7 hours. That is what the hills do to you. Slow you down to a crawl while tiring you out:
I don,t know if the grade of the slope shows in this photo. Oh and this is for my friend Pascal:
Not sure if this is a nice horse or not Pascal. And this is me almost passed out in the heat yesterday:
Things are a lot better. Todays walk went very well. Off at 0615am and before I knew it I had knocked off 10 kilometers. Landscape is changing again. Lots of southern pine and a few palms. Lots of forests and the homes are beginning to take on a more Spanish vibe as we, or should I say I, edge closer to Basque country. Today was overcast with a high of about 25 C. Humidity is sky high as we had a massive storm last night. Oh, it would have been nice sleeping in the Chateau during that storm…for sure.
I have entered Bergerac country. Wow, I have dranked about this place, er sorry, dreamed about this place all of my adult wine drinking life:
Can ya read the sign?
Just look at this country side. Red, red wine, as far as the eye can see. Mouth watering!
Now that is a grape field!
You may not be able to read it but an area here is called Vignobles. Now the French would pronounce that as Vee-know-bla, silent at the end. But us Canadians would pronounce that as Vig-naw-blahs, as in, well you know, hey that woman over there has very “ vig-nob-blahs “ don,t ya think? Definitely lost in translation. And I passed a town called Fleix. Now the French would pronounce that as in “Fvlew” while we Canadians would say “Flees”and there is no way on God,s green earth would you get me into a town called “Flees.” No way. Again lost in translation. And this is the sort of stuff that goes through my mind while doing a 900 kilometer walk.
Come to France they said. I,ll drink to that. Cheers!