Via Regia 2016

The top picture says it all: I walked at least 36 km (22.5 mi) yesterday. And with breaks including lunch, it took me about 10 hrs. I overestimated. So, what did I get for that effort, and worse, for not making a reservation ahead of time? I found all my places closed or no answer on the telephone, and a nearby hotel with no vacancy. Luckily, the only other hotel was available but I had to walk another two km just beyond town. And it's back to the heel brace on the other foot for an Achilles tendon problem. You'd think by the 97th day, I wouldn't make all these mistakes.

On the brighter side, the farmers' creativity had me laughing along the way. And, yes, tomorrow will be a much shorter day!

I had lodging arrangements in mind as I left Poitiers, France but as I got closer I realized they were a good many miles off my route, so I cancelled. Emotionally that threw me into a low, because of the insecurity I suddenly felt. I was toying with pushing my distance into the 45 km (28+ miles) range. Then the heat made me realize, I couldn't get there--although it was only low 80s. A hotel was an option back a ways, but I stubbornly passed it up at lunch. BTW, I stopped at a cemetery to replenish my water and to cool off--great source of water.

Then I nearly hit the panic stage--no, I actually did hit it at 32 km (20 mi) here in Lusignan, when, while asking around, I discovered they also have a "Refuge Jacquaire," basically a Gite, a fully equipped apartment (pilgrim-style), for pilgrims run by the city hall (Mairie)! That skyrocketed me emotionally. And so that was my day today.

Walked back some 15 km to Futuroscope, a theme park based on multimedia, cinematographic and audio-visual techniques. Their photo of the park looks impressive. Then I returned by train to Poitiers and walked another 5 km sightseeing. I didn't enter the park, but looked at what they advertised--based on the cars, attendance looked skimpy. Then again, they made it extremely easy to come down from Paris by train.

My main goal was to visit the Notre Dame of Poitiers whose Romanesque architecture and painted interior walls immediately strike you (1st set of three). Then I walked to the Cathedral whose construction, like most, began in the 12th century. Unusual about it is that it has no apse and its broad front vs height gives it an exceptionally huge and boxy look (2nd set of three). I failed to be able to get my credentials stamped at either one, which disappointed me.

It was an eight-hour day, and by the time I came back to my room, I was dragging. I also stopped at the Office de Tourisme; they made me a reservation at tomorrow's place. We talked about the refugees who were being helped by the Abbey and the lady was facilitating that aid.

For dinner, I walked some five minutes to a local Kebab place, got to chitchatting with the owners who came from Tunisia. They were so taken by my pilgrimage they ended up treating me for dinner--what kindness. We all agreed that our three Abrahamic religions should solve the mess we're in! So much commonality, yet so much strife--they simply asked that I pray for them! Trail Angels (picture included).

I received a sad message during the night that our American Pilgrims Co-coordinator, Anita, had a bad fall during their group's walk--concussion with possible sutures of her lip. Haven't heard the final outcome. It saddened me because Anita is one who gives her all to the spirit of Camino--my prayers are out there for you, Anita.

The sunflowers smiled at me as I passed them, and I hoped they did to all who need a brighter day! My main goal for today was to walk about half the 33.1 km and see the famous battle area for the Battle of Tours, aka the Poitiers Battle of 732, then take the train to Poitiers. It took me out of the way a few km, but was well worth it--just mulling it over in my mind how significant it was, even though it only lasted a day.

It's basically an outdoor area meant to be walked or cycled; I focused on the starting area that explains what went on. Here is the first major clash between Europe, King Charles Matel and his forces against an Islamic Invasion, the army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by 'Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus. Rahman was killed the first day and it was all over. But it could have turned the other way!

Am sleeping at the Auberge Jeunesse (youth hostel) in a 4-bed room reserved for pilgrims--and I'll be the only one in this room--nice place. There seem to be quite a few people here, just not pilgrims. They wave the 10€ membership for pilgrims!

Easy 15.9 km (10 mi) on small paved country roads--all level. I had a spacious Gite last night all to myself above a veterinarian office that luckily didn't board any animals. All for 10€, and tonight is even better. I'm at the Le Chillou D Ozon Campground in Chatellerault with some 30 or 40 families. But mine is a camping trailer maybe a 20-footer fully equipped for pilgrims, a Gite, but again, I'm the only one in it (in a pinch, it could hold 6). It's situated on the Vienne River. And the price for pilgrims is 4.32 €!

Being St Jacques' Day today, I had to Facebook an appropriate photo of him overlooking Paris. Although I didn't take the photo, I was at the tower whose top he adorns. Tomorrow will be a long-distance day to Pointiers with a must-stop at the famous battle of 732 against the Arabs on this side of the city.

Yes, I found the energy to go the few km into the town for some cheese tasting, except we did it on a crepe--fantastic!

Today was filled with unbelievable coincidences. It was a great walking day for doing 21.8 km (13.6 mi). My Belgian roommate parted ways at 10 am, and I headed for a boulangerie / pâtisserie and had some pastry and coffee. We ended up going completely opposite ways--mine possibly a few km shorter although it didn't seem like it. We talked about a good village for lunch, that I aimed for. We both enter the village from opposite sides (after 17 km--10.6 mi) at exactly the same time! We couldn't have planned that. We ate, both had the Ftench version of bacalao (salted cod)--fantastic meal, and went our separate ways--he's only doing a one-week stage starting at Tours and ending at Pointiers.

We're staying in different villages, although I thought it was the same. I ended up having to walk an extra 5 km. I picked up the key at the office de Tourisme. Got a liter of Perrier on the way to my Gite--got settled into a place with three double beds, but I'm the only one in the place. While going to find my Gite (kind of a fully-equipped place, but it doesn't seem different from an albuerge), I crossed the River, la Vienne, spelled exactly like Vienna! A good omen!

Here I am at a Pizza Restaurant, and as usual, the first guest at 7:30. I couldn't help doing their pizza with ham and local goat cheese (chèvre). Fantastic!

Had generally a cloud-covered day to trek the 23+ km (14.4 mi) and started down the Camino waymarkered path until I took a spill among logs and branches strewn across the path. Then I came up to a blockage I couldn't pass. So I backtracked and made sure to stay on small paved roads.

The day wasn't going well until I found a great place to have lunch. It was in the town of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois on the St Joan of Arc Plaza and ironically a young fellow sitting several tables away ended up being my roommate at a small "albuerge" I arranged to stay at through the Office de Tourisme. They also got me a reservation for tomorrow night. All good signs.

My roommate brought to my attention that the town we're staying in, Sainte-Maure de Touraine, is very famous for its goat cheese by the same name. But we're over a mile from town and I may not feel up to going into town for some of that good cheese.

For the first time in France, I faithfully followed the waymarkers for the entire nominal 16.2 km (10+ mi) route. Mind you, this was not the GR 655 (long-range hiking tour) which goes more in the fields and forests, but rather the sanctioned Camino Route--and it worked. I asked the Tours Office de Tourisme to make me a reservation with "City Hall" Mairie here, and I ended up in a 3-bed albuerge type of accommodation and so far I'm the only one here.

I chose to get my 20+ km (12.5 mi) in from where I left off the day before at Monnaie by walking along the scenic Loire River to Vouvray and back (a few pictures of the Loire are included). As it turned out, this was along the sanctioned Camino Route. On the way back, I had lunch at the Guinguette de Tours sur Loire, one of several locations of this restaurant right on the bank of the river.

Fanny, Sébastien and I went for an evening walk to show me some of the sights and sounds of Tours. The city by night is amazing and we ended up at the Tours Guinguette for a bottle of wine. A picture is included that captures some of the atmosphere.

Tried to get an early start for this short 15 km (9+ mi) walk because of the sun. The picture of the sunflowers welcoming me along the way aptly set the tone. At Monnaie, I caught the train into Tours and had no problem finding my Airbnb host family. They welcomed me for lunch and we spent hours talking (in English).

Tours is celebrating the 1700th anniversary of St Martin (he was bishop of Tours), and highlighting each day is a magical sound and light show illuminating the Cathedral's facade--I was mesmerized for the 30 minutes and my pictures don't do it justice. The red cloak of St Martin appears in several pics--its legend is well known and ultimately, we get the word chaplain from the priests who were the guardians of the reliquary that contained half the robe (the other half he gave to the needy soldier)--they were called cappellanu. Note his robe cut in half!

The Cathedral's interior was overpowering with its sheer space and number of stained glass windows. I singled out one glass set, namely the "St James the Great Stained Glass Window" that captures some of the great moments in St James' life.

My goal was to walk the 26 km (16+ mi), but since I had a tight window in which to catch the train back to Vendome, I opted to walk the same distance but in a big loop to a closer town (Saint-Amand-de-Vendôme). I passed picturesque little villages. And, being Sunday, the stores were open until noon, very different from Poland and Germany. Four points to make:

First, a picture of my lovely host family, with one member absent, the oldest daughter, Marylou; on the photo are Alice, Samuel, Eliot, and Romane.

Secondly, and barely out of Vendome, I ran into a French-American memorial that takes us back to the Revolutionary War. Native Son Rochambeau along with a French Expeditionary Force were sent by French King Louis XVI to help Gen Washington.The rest is history!

The third is life-saving advice from Pierre in Paris: "if you ever need water in France, go to the nearest cemetery." Today I needed some, and in a small town with a tiny cemetery, I found a spigot with cool water--a life saver! Thank you Pierre.

Fourth was most unusual. The local St Jacques Chemin (Camino) coordinator and his wife happened by and stopped the car on the road after they recognized my shell. We talked for 10 or so minutes and they gave me some helpful hints for lodging, as did Alice when I returned.

I took the bus from my Airbnb base in Vendome to where I left off yesterday and started walking back the 17 km (10.5 mi). Only a noontime bus was available so the heat in the sun soon hit with full force, even though it was only in the low 80s.

With nearly 1000 miles behind me, I took this picture in the small, sleepy village of Pezou, with under 1000 people and about 100 mi southwest of Paris. It stopped me in my tracks as I felt the deep pain for France. Je suis très. . . non, nous sommes très désolés de cette tragédie! We all feel the pain. For the next three hours I kept getting reminded by their flags (sometimes with the black ribbons) of Bastille Day's terrible tragedy.

A scenic 25 km (15.6 mi) trek weaved in and out of the picturesque sights of the Loir River (not to be confused with the Loire River, France's longest at over 1000 km and studded with over 1000 chateaux). But I was duly impressed with just the one chateau that I saw today.

The fountain I captured has served many a pilgrims over the centuries and was restored in 2002. The family I'm showing was truly a set of trail Angels; they immediately recognized my shell and insisted that they feed me and give me something to drink at their house. I graciously accepted and luckily for doing that because it was the only substantial meal of the day! (My fault--I had chances, but I missed them.) In return, they asked only that I pray for their family!

The Chemin de St Jacques marker stayed with me all day and filled me with warm confidence. After 25 km, I took the bus to Vendome, for my first Airbnb experience ever. Just did a replan of my next four days up through Tours, the next big city to take advantage of available lodging.

I took the train from Chartres in the morning to Illiers and walked the country roads in a generally south direction with a slightly west heading. Nice, cool day that made the 29 km (18 mi) on flat countryside doable even for a while in drizzle. Passing through the small villages delighted me but their lack of eateries frustrated me as well. At one point I gave up and pulled out half of my dry baguette and ate it with my water. Later I even pulled some beans off a stalk in the field thinking that they would round out my diet--they were good.

Then I entered the town of Dangeau and again I looked around--but nothing available (it was also Bastille Day). Then I spotted a fancy restaurant, stepped inside, saw the exquisite table settings, and decided not to enter. At that instant, I looked at the menu outside and saw mainly 5-course "menus," starting at 45€. I was still hungry and figured I might be able to find something a la carte, so I decided to go in.

The name of the restaurant was (loosely translated) The Postal Coach Stop at St James. It's directly on the St. James route and the church across the street is named St James--wow. It was established as a hotel in 1490.

I noticed the a la carte items would have added up to more than their least expensive menu, which I started to order. Then the server saw my St James shell, and she told me that all the plat du jour selections were half price! This no doubt was (and will be) the climax meal of my Camino: escargot, duck, a cheese platter with 20+ cheeses to choose from, and then desert. I just couldn't bring myself to ordering wine--it would have wiped me out for the remainder of the walk! Two quarts of water did the trick. The emotional ride from dry bread to a three-star meal was more than I could handle! I was overwhelmed. Thank you!

The plan said I did 25.4 km, but the road signs give me credit for 36 km (22.5 mi), and it felt like it, too. I started with the trekking route (GR 655) for about an hour, but that led me to a crisscrossing maze of paths in a dark forest and slowed me to a crawl while checking my route every few minutes. That's enough, so from now on it's the bicycle route (near my electronic track). The bike route had excellent way marking--there weren't any markers in the forest!

And a statue of a pilgrim is always a good sign that you're on the right track! Ideal hiking weather--cool and even a slight drizzle. I returned by train for my third night in Chartres, and will leave tomorrow just when I get to know my way around pretty well.

This morning, a couple of Belgian bicycle pilgrims convinced me to use Airbnb for a source of lodging at reasonable prices. I joined, was impressed, and booked my first two nights (for days 85 & 86). I've known about them, but never explored them. It was time; Booking.com and HostelWorld have tried my patience!

If I had more time, I would explore Illiers because of its association with Marcel Proust, considered by many to be one of the greatest authors. As a tribute to Proust's literary masterpiece (In Search of Lost Time), the people of Illiers decided, in 1971, to change the town's name to Illiers-Combray, on the occasion of the first centenary of the author's birth--Combray is Proust's fictional name for Illiers!

Simple day, simple blog, but powerful image seeing the Chartres Cathedral emerging from the fields of grain. It was almost mystical when you consider that the cathedral is at a high point in the city and one first needs to go down before climbing back up.

I took the train back to where I left off yesterday and started walking the back trails of GR 655--with its beautiful scenery. But after a few hours, I switched back to country roads walking through some picturesque villages.

Last night it was a bitter defeat "al final" for France, but they can hold their head high. It was a great soccer game for the 2016 European Championship.

I walked along the GR 655 (I explained the GR on day 80) for some 25+ km (15.6 mi). I am using Chartres as a home base for 3 days at the Youth Hostel. I'll use one more day going back, and one day going forward.

For much of the way, I couldn't help but feel gratitude for attaining day 81 without any problems and able to bounce back after what seemed like a grueling day yesterday. Super tired--YES, but no pains. THANK YOU!

Visiting Chartres ranks as one of the Camino's highlights. In fact, Chartres, for a long time, was the most popular pilgrim's destination within France. And, seeing the Camino Shell and distance marker from the cathedral to Santiago was very special (only 1625 km; whereas my plan using the del Norte Route has 1603 km to go--about 1,000 mi). I now have confidence again in being on the right path.

According to tradition, Chartres Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres) has housed the tunic of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sancta Camisia, since 876 (a picture included next to the main altar). The current Cathedral was dedicated in 1260 (a number of previous structures did not survive), and has survived the French Revolution as well as both world wars--I find that remarkable!!!

I went crazy taking pictures, but will only post a few, including one of nine portals, the main altar piece, rose stained glass window on the north side (all the stained glass windows form the most complete collection dating back to medieval times), the labyrinth on the floor in the nave once used by contemplating monks and later by pilgrims (the path out is 964 feet).

Short blog: Panicky day, and I had to come up with a new route on the fly!

Regular blog: Heat was beginning to show itself, but luckily only low 80's. Thinking I had a 33 km day in the plan, and starting the GR tracks (I'll explain shortly about GRs), I figured to start the day by taking the train for about 9 or 10 km. So I walked for 3+ hrs to do at least 15 km (plus 10 for the train) that would leave me only about 8 km. Instead, Google Maps indicated I still had 24 km to go (making it a 39 km day). Then I added the distances up on the electronic tracks and came up with about 35 km still to walk to my destination hotel. I panicked!

I stopped for lunch to rehydrate and get some food in me, and then think about my problem. The problem, it turns out, is that there are two sources of distances: Google Maps with the "walk selection" and the meta data for each track I downloaded from the GR source site--they're vastly different! The GR, Grande Randonnée, are long-distance walking paths chosen to go through forests, along rivers, etc. The region I'm in is full of GRs. The sum of the segments for today's walk total 55km--I never saw that when I put the plan together. So while I walked some of the GR-655 / GR 11 (with a few pictures), I modified my route, and ended up walking about 34 km (21 mi). I will need to make adjustments where I have GRs.

Some thoughts about last evening: after we went to the indoor fresh meat-fish-cheese-vegetable market for the dinner ingredients, Pierre prepared a scrumptious dinner last night. Between him and Edith, I probably gained a few pounds these last five days.

When I left this morning, I dwelled on leaving two good friends who gave their all to make sure my stay was comfortable and who enriched my experience beyond any words or any gratitude I could show. That's the awkwardness of being a pilgrim: you graciously take, but can't return their generosity except perhaps in the mysterious ways of the universe when two lives briefly intersect, each one being the better off. Enough said.

My walk, once beyond the périphérique (the beltway) turned into a pleasant mix of walking / cycle paths (Promenade des vallons de la Bièvre), a kind of green belt that went on for miles. Then it turned into a forest path equally pleasant, but with fewer people. The pictures try to give impressions.

Can't wait for tomorrow's football finals. Of course, it won't be the same as being in Paris!

My 22-km walk on July 7th from Roissy to Pierre's flat near Gare du Nord, was totally eclipsed by our experience of France beating Germany in the soccer semifinals that evening. We had dinner in the Latin Quarter with another friend of Pierre's, Stephen (a Scottish expat), and watched the entire game at the restaurant. Yes, I finally got to enjoy some escargot! After the win, Paris went crazy.

We walked all the way to past the Place de la Concorde and half way down the Champs-Élysées, which the police had blocked off to cars-you can see the swarm of blue lights from the police vans. I mean, how often in one's lifetime does one get to walk down the Champs?? It was crazy, but fun crazy! On the way we saw the Eiffel Tower in colors and then sparkling at midnight. By then, I was more than exhausted.

On Friday, Jul 8th, I walked the short 3.9 km from the flat to the Tower of St Jacques, the starting point for pilgrim's beginning in Paris. Then a visit to Notre Dame de Paris, a ride back on the Metro, and time with Pierre finished the day.