Three regions in the last 10 days!

Access to the internet has been rare in the last two weeks and sufficient access to update the blog even rarer. So here we have a certain access and I hope we can add some pictures.




We have passed through three very distinct regions since our last info on the blog. The first region was the Armagnac and Gascogne wines. We passed between vineyard after vineyard with little fencing between fields. It was quite wonderful to see all the vineyards. We were treated to a quite nice apéritif called a "pousse rapière", one third armagnac, one third sparkling wine! We are discovering all sorts of new drinks here!


The next region was actually quite boring, corn field after corn field, all about 2 inches high. But thankfully it was only two days. It has been very rare that the days have been boring.


We have been in the last few days in the Pyrenées Atlantique region. We can see the Pyrenées when the sun is out and we have spent our days climbing up and down hills in this lower region of the mountains. Unfortunately, it has been rather rainy in the last 5 days. Lets hope the weather gets better before we begin our climb into the real Pyrenées!

One of my favourite things about this pilgrimage is the people we meet. Wonderful people that we see along the route that talk to us about their experiences and what they have seen. I have a booklet full of e-mail addresses. We often see the same people several days in a row, sleep in the same gîte and then they seem to disappear only to appear again on the route or in a gîte in another village. We met a wonderful swiss german speaking woman who began her pilgrimage in Zurich, March 17th! We met another woman from Switzerland who began in Geneva and we have met some who are on their 3rd, 4th and even 6th time on this trail! I suspect both Arlette and I will be happy with one pilgrimage! Everyone talks to you on the trail and in the hamlets and villages we pass through.

We have also had some quite funny experiences. Yesterday because it was raining once again, we were looking for a place to eat our lunch under shelter. We arrived in a small village where there had obviously been a party the previous evening. There was a huge white tent set up with long tables and benches and the rest of what had been a lively party. There were bottles of wine, beer and soft drinks on the tables. So we cleared a corner of one of the tables and proceeded to eat our lunch. Along came two german women that we had met on the trail before and they set up at the same table. They were quite pleased to see the wine bottles, and helped themselves to a fair amount of wine! Later in the day on we negotiated quite a muddy and slippery farmer's field being careful not to slip and fall. It seems that they negotiated the muddy, slippery farmer's field on their backside!

Michèle