26 May Saint Jean Pied-de-Port to Orisson

This morning I get up, have breakfast and ask if there is an opportunity for a bed this evening. They tell me that they won’t know unless someone calls and cancels and it may not be until late in the day that we will know if I can stay the night. I decide that this [...]

25 May Ostabat to Saint Jean Pied-de-Port

I leave the Ferme Gaineko Etxea before 8. There is heavy fog below us in the valleys and the tops of the trees are just above the fog, making for a surreal and quite beautiful image. I am heading for Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, just about five years and one month later than planned. This was [...]

24 May Aroue to Ostabat

This morning it’s foggy, very foggy and I leave with the prospect of a longer day ahead, about 24 kilometres. After a while in the fog, I start to think about life and how the fog is a good metaphor for the future. I am walking confidently along the chemin, taking note of the excellent [...]

23 May Navarrenx to Aroue

Last evening while sitting in the church just prior to the pilgrim service, Jean-Pierre (the big Belgian) quietly asked me; “Is religion important to you?” I answered; “No. How about you?” He said; “Not now so much. It used to be very important.” And I wonder, of all the people walking this path, for how [...]

22 May Sauvelade to Navarrenx

Since I went to bed at 9, I cannot stay in bed until 7, so I am up and dressed before the rest of the people have left. I ask if the French couple who will be in Ottawa in September are still here. They are, so I issue them a formal invitation to join [...]

21 May Arthez to Sauvelade

We are up early. The other two want an early breakfast because they intend to walk to Navarranxe today, almost 30 kilometres. So it’s breakfast at 7. By the time I get down, the ladies are done and preparing to leave. I have my coffee with hot milk and eat my bread with butter and [...]

20 May Arthez to Pomps to Arthez

I wake up during the night to the sound of rain and it is still raining when I get up. The forecast is for several more days of this. The high today will be 12, so I don’t have to worry about overheating. The plan today is for Laurent to take me back to Pomps, [...]

19 May Arzacq to Arthez de-Bearn

When I checked the weather last evening, today’s forecast was not promising. Overcast in the morning, showers in the afternoon, storms in the evening … then continuing on with wet and stormy weather for the next several days. I went to bed at 9 and I was the last of five in our room to [...]

18 May Miramont to Arzacq

I have a really good sleep in my double bed with comforter. I wake up just before 7 and am dressed and in the farmhouse kitchen by 7:15. The two French couples are already there, almost finished breakfast and ready to go. I have a short walk today, less than 10 kilometres to a fairly [...]

17 May Aire-sur-l’Adour to Miramont-Sensacq

Well, not a good night’s sleep. We are three in a room and the other two guys are fine, but I have a sodium street lamp about 15 metres from the window and it glares all night. It isn’t until the morning when someone asks how I slept – the universal question in the morning [...]