Philippians 4:8

Pretty uneventful day. Or should I say that since everything went well, it was an event in itself. Left Auvillar about 8:10 in a dense fog. By the time we were a quarter mile away, we could not see the 150 foot clock tower. The fog stuck with us until almost noon but no drizzle or rain. Nice for a change. A few muddy parches but things are drying out. After lunch we had bright sunshine. No the worry shifts from rain to how hot it will get. Pilgrims, like farmers, always can find something wrong with the weather.

A few new observations on the French.

The place where we stayed was on the unique side. The trouble with unique is that the plumbing is often also unique. We can get by but when we got to our Gite in Miradoux we were pleasantly surprised by modern plumbing in a centuries old building. Jen and Brian would like the bathroom fixtures with the hollowed out granite sinks. Had to take a picture or two. Peggy fell in love with the washer for Pilgrim use. We are currently wearing the minimum for decency’s sake in order to wash everything. The clothesline is in the sun and we should be in clean clothes for a few days. It is the little things.

On our 17.5 km sojourn we found a little village who knew how to do the hiker/pilgrim thing the right way. The little town of Saint-Antoine routes foot travelers through an old medieval gate down a walking lane. You then see cafe seating that is tough to pass up. It was still foggy so we ordered cafe and chocolate. A log jam of walkers soon filled the seats. They had a modern toilette and a bar and a place to by a few picnic items. We soon forgot the picnic when we saw the sandwiches that were made to go. They also had wifi. It was perfect in a village named after the saint who helps peasants suffering from ergotism.

There are quite few villages and towns that mess up this simple marketing approach of providing services needed easily and readily. Pilgrims are not going to walk an extra few hundred meters to buy a sandwich. A few bucks invested modest signage is better than leading us through intersections that make us targets for texting drivers. And it is important to remember that the number of hikers and pilgrims is in the hundreds of thousands. That is a lot of euros for cafe.

The laundry is hung and Peggy’s ankle is on the mend. All is well in the spring sunshine.

The first few pictures are from the crazy restaurant from yesterday.