What do we see in a day?

Since I did give you an idea of what a day in the life of a pilgrim is, maybe you would like to know what we see in a typical day! Let's take yesterday, a Sunday. We left early, about 7:45. Not long after leaving we saw deer, bouncing across the path in the morning light, too quickly to take a picture but a wonderful sight!

It is Sunday so of course the Sunday cyclists were out in force. We crossed quite a large group going out for their weekend ride. In Montcuq it was Market day and we spent a wonderful hour wandering the stalls and enjoying the crowds of local people and other pilgrims. There were stalls of fruit and vegetables, local strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, spices, cheese, artisan bread, a butcher, a fish monger and many selling clothes and even furniture.

We had met a couple days ago in a gîte, a whole family, grandfather, grandmother, father, mother and 10 year old boy who are walking part of the "chemin" with a horse to carry baggage. They even carry the poles necessary to create an enclosure for the horse at night! We saw them walking along in the middle of town with the horse of course!

In the afternoon we walked through farmers' fields and enjoyed beautiful scenery; a wonderful bucolic scenery of green fields with sheep grazing, a pond of blue-green water, with giant yellow iris growing along its shore and puffy white clouds. Can you picture it in your mind?

We also saw while climbing through a forest, tiny pink orchids clinging to the trunk of a tree! And of course there are wild flowers in huge quantities; buttercups, bluebells, daisies, Queen Anne's Lace, tiny wild pansies of every colour and dozens more that we cannot identify.

Not all days are as euphoric, but you can see why everyday I am anxious to get back on the "chemin".

Michèle