Crazy day, not one totally planned. I had a reservation at Saint Paul, but knew I couldn't make it walking there. I thought I would take a bus there. So the day started with a 18.8 km (11.8 mi) walk on a lot of sandy soil to reach Parentis. Pretty flowers along the way and all went well until an "ugly" thing happened. BTW, do you notice the very small waymarker on the tree in the middle of the road fork? I n I did a zig, as my electronic map showed, that put me onto another perpendicular dirt road which happened to be in maintenance mode. A scooper had created a 6-foot deep U-trench with soft sandy sides and had covered up the exact location of the zag. I found the zag, but then had trouble climbing down and up on the other side. After several attempts, I finally managed but was annoyed at this "ugly" encounter. It took me a while to get my composure back, realizing that it was all part of normal life where things don't always go your way. The Chemin/Camino, after all, is just a simplified microcosm.
Now, the only way to go on to do the 13.5 km (8.4 mi) portion was to take a cab to Saint Paul. I hadn't counted on that. But in the end it all worked out well. When I arrived at Saint-Paul-en-Born, the gîte already had one of the two bunks taken by a cyclist. Christian just seven years younger offered to take the upper bunk--I was very grateful! He also offered to cook for us and to use his bike to do the shopping--my contribution was to do the dishes.
