Paris-Montrouge Scribbler

  Pilgrimage walk from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago de Compostela, 2003 . Week 6 (30 May-5 June) Friday, 30 May, 2003 . Puente la Reina . [ Day 36. In Spain, Day 3 ] 6:35 pm. We’re staying in a large hostel at the north edge of this small city, a hostel sponsored by los Padres Reparadores. 

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, 2003 .  Week 5  (23-29 May) Friday, 23 May 2003. Maslacq. [Day 29] 6:15 p.m. Tonight we are staying in the Hôtel Magouber, because the municipal gîte is very small, only four beds, and it was full. The hotel’s restaurant is closed on Fridays, but pilgrims / walkers are welcomed and will be served a dinner at 7:15 p.m. Caroline walked again today without a backpack, thanks to a group of seven Parisians (from the southern suburbs) at the gîte last night, who have a car (driven in rotation). They dropped off the backpack here and arranged for our room, after having first checked if there was space at the gîte. Tomorrow Caroline will have to walk with the pack. We plan to do 20 km, to Navarrenx. The owner of the gîte in Casteide-Candau let us off this morning at 8:45 a.m. at the market in Pomps where we had left the trail yesterday. On the way, she drove us through Morlanne , a picturesque town with an impressive castle on a bluf...

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, 2003 .  Week 4  (16-22 May) Friday, 16 May 2003. Condom. [Day 22] I’m writing in a small gîte run by the city, inserted into a wing of a large school building. It looks 19th century. The young woman signing us in told us with great seriousness (and with a certain delight) how pilgrims were being assaulted and robbed, including a priest (of all people), attacked both going and returning from Santiago. It’s always possible that this might happen to us; we’ll just have to hope for the best. Now, at 6:40 p.m., it has started to rain. Our touristic inspection, after my usual yoga, shave/shower, and laundry (in the large institutional shower – washbasin area), was thus cut short. But we did visit the cathedral (Gothic) and an adjacent cloister (16th century, with much 19th-century rebuilding). The town has older houses in the center, but isn’t particularly picturesque. The gray skies may be in part responsible, of course. Last ni...

  Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, 2003 .  Week 3  (9-15 May) Friday, 9 May 2003.   Vaylats . [Day 15] Monastère des Filles de Jésus . A real find – a gift from heaven after our longest day yet: 33 km/20.5 mi from Cajarc.  This convent is a large complex, fortified almost, in a small village. We’re in single rooms, each equipped with a washbasin! We must use our sleeping bags, but we’re accustomed to that. The convent has a spacious church with much natural light. Mass takes place in the morning, a prayer service at the end of the afternoon. Since we arrived late as well as tired, we gave the prayer service a miss. At dinner, one of the sisters delivered a brief history of their order: founded in the 1820s by a local priest to instruct and evangelize in this rural region after the disruptions of the French Revolution. Today, they also have a small presence in Ivory Coast, where they face difficulties during the current unrest. We were nine at dinner, ...