Aveyron - France Profund

Aveyron – the French Countryside.

On Sunday we took an Uber to the Montparnasse Train station, and caught a TGV (high speed train) to Toulouse. Only part of the trip was on the high speed rail network, so it took 5 hours to get to Toulouse. The INOUI train was very comfortable, with a bar car. We picked up an Enterprise rental car at the train station, but when we pushed the start button, nothing happened. It was a hybrid, so they explained that the engine does not start until needed, we only needed to put it in gear.

Our drive was partly on a toll Autoroute, and then on roads that became progressively narrower and more twisty. We arrived at John and Alison's house without difficulty. They have an old stone house, hundreds of years old. They have a “maisonette” or guest house, which is where we are staying. The beams are hewn, not sawn. The stone walls are at least 18 inches thick. Alison fixed us a nice dinner.

We are in the department of Aveyron; Rodez is the largest city, with a population of 25,000. We are in a tiny community, surrounded by other tiny rural communities. The closest store is about 10 minutes away.  Alison thinks that we are in "deep France", or "France Profund".

They do have fiber internet. There was no wifi in the mesonette, as WIFI signals do not go through thick stone walls. I suggested John order an outdoor WIFI extender, which I installed in the window, and provides decent internet inside their guest house.

Monday we did a little work around the yard, and then visited a local antique shop. Alison fixed us another nice dinner.

The church was painted everywhere

Very fine stone carving

Tuesday Sandi and I went to Albi, which has an unbelievable brick cathedral, reportedly one of the largest brick buildings in France. The interior is painted everywhere, and there is an incredible amount of very detailed limestone carving. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We also visited the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, where we saw his early work painting people and animals, and also his better known work with printed posters promoting books or performances. We visited a religious goods store, run by a loveable franciscan friar, who looks at his work as evangelization, as young people come in to talk.

Wednesday we drove two cars to Rodez, for the farmer's market. We had a fine meal at Touosto. Sandi and I walked to the Musee Fenaille, which ranged from stone age artifacts to Roman busts to medieval church objects. The day was very hot, so in the afternoon we relaxed in our cool stone house.

View from the castle

Castle drawbridge

Thursday we drove to Belcastel, which we liked very much. We started at the reconstructed castle, with somewhat hokey animatronic monsters, but it was cool to see the castle. We had a picnic from Alison that we ate near the campground, which looked very nice. We visited the chapel. Then we stopped in a couple of craft shops, where Sandi bought a few items. We also visited the blacksmith shop, which also had exhibits on fishing, making sabots (wooden shoes), as well as art carved from the trunks of trees.

Friday was a longish drive to Conques over small twisty roads, which took us over an hour to drive 35 miles. We had a good lunch at an organic restaurant. The church was very medieval, and did not have the opulence that we saw in Albi. The monks finished singing midday Vespers as we arrived. We visited the treasury of the church, which had a number of impressive artifacts from up to 1000 years ago. We also visited the museum, which included tapestries depicting Mary Magdalene.  Conques is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Richard enjoyed chatting with some French pilgrims. The drive seemed even longer on the way back. The area is called the land of 1000 valleys; it seemed we went up and down a good percentage of them. ;-)

Paris

On Tuesday we drove to the airport and parked at the Parking Spot, which gave us a deal. With Sandi's knee, she lined up a wheelchair, which took us to the Delta Club. The 5:40 PM Air France flight left on time. The premium economy seat was good, and the flight attendants were attentive. We arrived in Paris Wednesday, a bit early, but had to wait for a gate. The young lady who drove the wheelchair was great; we sailed through immigration and customs with priority, and took a taxi to the Hotel Darcet, which we liked, partly due to the employees. The elevator was too small for two people with luggage, however. We had a good lunch at Le Petit Poucet, around the corner, and went to sleep. We had dinner there as well.

On Thursday, we walked to the Montmartre cemetery, which was an interesting above ground cemetery, and found the graves of the painter Degas, and the scientist Foucoult (think pendulum). We continued walking towards the Sacre Coeur church, but turned around, as we were moving slowly. We came back to the hotel, ate, and tried to take a bus to the Louvre, but the bus never came; we took a taxi. 

 The Louvre was amazing, huge, hard to get your head around, and hard to navigate. We enjoyed being in the castle moat, and seeing the Louvre Couture exhibit, which put designer clothes in the midst of Napoleonic settings. We tried to take a bus back, but it did not show up, so we took a taxi. Sandi had walked too much; my phone said 7 miles! We had dinner at Little Italy, near our hotel.

Friday Sandi decided to stay in the room and rest her knee. We had breakfast at Le Petit Poucet again; it is a classic sidewalk cafe. Richard took a bus to his favorite, the Musee d'Orsay. He was interested in photos from 1945, showing the return of prisoners to Paris. The Impressionists were impressive as usual. The Musee d'Orsay is generally works from 1800 on, and is in an old railroad station, a dramatic metal and glass structure built in 1900. Richard and Sandi had dinner at Mont Liban, a Lebanese restaurant, where we chatted about Trump with Catherine, a Parisian exploring the neighborhood.

 

On Saturday, we took a taxi to the Batobus, which is a hop-on hop-off tour boat on the Seine. We caught it near the Eiffel Tower, and continued to Invalides, where we ate an excellent meal at a Lebanese restaurant. A bag in the store window caught Sandi's attention, so we stopped and talked to the artist for some time, and bought a few bags. 

 We got back on the Batobus to Notre Dame, where we were able to go to mass. We took a taxi back to our hotel, and packed to go to visit our friends in the country.

Madrid and home

 

I walked to a 9:30 bus to Madrid. As the bus was going to the station, I noticed the Museo de America, which I had planned to visit. I walked to the museum, which as organized by topic, not by area or culture. Not my favorite museum. I took a metro to my hotel, but found it uncharacteristically confusing. I asked for help, and got where I was going. When I arrived at the plaza del Sol, I found the tail end of a pro-palestine demonstration.

I checked into the hotel and retrieved the bag I had left two weeks ago. I went to mass at a local church, and then heard a marching band, so I followed. It was a religious procession, with a statue carried by dozens of men, people in street clothes carrying candles, etc. They like processions in Spain.





There was a Viva Madrid music festival, so I participated by going to a basement nightclub. The leader was Carla Lourdes, a singer-songwriter of the pop rock persuasion. She had many followers there who sang along. I enjoyed it.








Sunday I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum, a huge museum with art from the medieval era up to the 20th century, and a good amount of impressionist art. 











I took a nap, and visited the cathedral and its crypt. After a Ramen dinner, I went to the Plaza Mayor, where they had set up a huge stage, with pop musicians. Antonio Orozco, Conchita, and David Demaría. These are big stars here; folks knew the words and sang along.  I enjoyed Conchita.





Guernica




Monday I walked to the Reina Sophia museum. Most of what I saw seemed to be between about 1900 and 1940, with quite a bit of material from the Spanish Civil War. There were a couple of interesting metal pieces, one of them was a 38 ton Serra sculpture that somehow disappeared from storage. What was on exhibit was a re-creation. The other was a Alexander Calder sculpture, the mercury fountain. The model did not actually contain mercury, but the real fountain, from 1937, had mercury circulating in it with a little pump. The flowing mercury would’ve been quite spectacular, I’m sure.





I walked up to where I was going to catch the bus in the morning, to make sure I knew where the bus stop was. I repacked for the flight. I did a little shopping for gifts in the afternoon, and went to a jazz show in the evening, the Daniel Juarez quartet at the Cafe Central.

All day I was just feeling that I was so grateful that I could even be here. Actually, I’ve been feeling very grateful for the entire trip. As usual, we cannot count our blessings. I have been praying for some friends and family facing serious health issues.

I woke Tuesday at 5 AM to find an email that my flight was now 5 hours late! I went back to bed. Later I got up and went for a real breakfast, not the croissant and orange juice that had been my standard on this trip. I walked to the bus stop, and paid 5 euros to ride a crowded bus to Terminal 1. I was very early, so I hung out at the airport. Delta gave me a 13 euro chit to buy food, about $2 per hour of delay. :-(

Terminal 1 is modern; I walked what seemed like a long distance without leaving the terminal. None of the electrical outlets worked, including ones with big signs saying “Charge Here”. Luckily the Delta aircraft had a USB outlet that would charge my phone. It was a long flight. I did not try to sleep. When I got to Atlanta I was worried I would not make the connection, but with the help of Global Entry I sailed through immigration, and made it to my new flight before they started boarding. I took the bus to Fort Collins, where I learned that Uber may not be helpful on Tuesday at midnight; I called a taxi, got home around 1 am.

Salamanca

 

I took a bus from Leon to Zamora, and then Zamora to Salamanca. I checked into Hostal Granada. Went to a local restaurant to get a serious meal, then headed into the old city, where I visited the tourist office first, and then three museums. The first museum was an art nouveau and art deco museum, which was quite interesting; It had many extremely beautiful small things, such as small statues. I always like art deco.

Citroen DS-23

The next museum was a car museum. This was a little different take on a car museum than in the US, in that it had mostly European cars.

My next stop was to the archives of the Spanish Civil War. Franco centralized his police state like records here, and they’re stored in there for researchers. for some reason Franco was fixated on the Masons, thought they were communist. Apparently the Masons were the intellectuals of the day, and Franco did not like those folks. It sounds a little bit like 2025…..

On Friday, I signed up for a monument tour, in Spanish, because that was what was available. It was an excellent tour; it took us to the university of Salamanca, which is the oldest in Spain, and one of the oldest in Europe. we also visited the new and the old cathedral. The new cathedral is very difficult to get your head around. It is huge and extremely high. Lots of beautiful artwork.

Salamanca has a unique arch, came from the Muslims

They replaced some deteriorated stone carving
with new stone carving.  Look for the astronaut.

In the afternoon, I decided to visit two more museums, because of course you can never visit too many museums. The first one was the museum of commerce, which I enjoyed very much, with a special exhibit on radios and a lot of old photos. The second museum was the contemporary art museum called Domus Artium., a converted jail. As is often the case in contemporary art museums, there was a lot there that I did not understand or appreciate. I tend to think that art needs to show a certain level of skill, and so much of the contemporary art does not. There were some good photos, however, and a well done video of women singing a woman’s story of spousal abuse and jail.

Sometimes I joke, and I’m not sure it’s a joke, that I could go to a big city, and visit two museums a day for a week, and think that I had a great vacation. ;-)

Photos- Carrion to Leon

A somewhat typical view of the trail.  It is flat, and we often walk next to a road, usually a road that is not busy.  You can see a few pilgrims in the photo, but not many.   

Hanging out in the sun on the patio of the albergue.

This area has quite a few underground houses.  Most are no longer occupied.   This is the nicest one that I saw.   Some are just piles of dirt with the chimney and a door.

This is the French lady who walked 2200 km from her home in northern France to Santiago.

The cathedral in Leon.

Carrion to Leon

From Carrion de los Condes, I Walked 17km to Calzadilla de la Cueza. This is probably going to be my longest day on this trip. Walked most of distance with two Australians, Peter and Hetty. He was a retired teacher, she was a mother who raised six girls. He was a year older than I am, but I noticed that he used a baggage service, so his pack was very small. The only other person who I have met, who is older than I, was not caring a sizable pack, either. I guess I am just a purist. I checked into a private room at the Hostal Camino Real. Had dinner at Hostal, ok.

Thursday I Walked to Moratinos. I visited Rebecca, someone who I had met years ago at a pilgrim meeting. She and her husband live there. Ended up staying at the Albergue with bunk beds, first time this trip. Had a small pilgrim dinner. Slept Ok

Friday I Walked 10km in substantial rain to Sahagun, where I had a reservation in the Benedictine Albergue, which is now run by the Marist priests. I attended a coffee for pilgrims with Mateo, a Marist priest from NZ. Attended the pilgrim mass, and the blessing after. For some reason I was really touched by the priest putting his hands on me for the blessing. We had a pilgrim dinner after.

Saturday morning I went to the laundromat. I walked only 10 km to Bercianos, as I could not find a private room in the next town on a Saturday night. I felt a few drops, so I put on my poncho, but it never rained seriously. I walked much of the day with Katharine, a German social worker. She was having trouble with her knee, so she was walking slowly, the same speed that I was. She was bemoaning the fact that even with two incomes, she and her boyfriend were not able to buy a house. 

Sunday I called a taxi to take me back to Sahagun for mass, and then back to Bercianos.   I walked the 7 km to Burgo Ranero, where I stayed at Piedra Blanca Hostal.

Monday I walked 13 km to Releigos, where I stayed in La Parada Albergue. Hung out a bit with a Basque from Spain who's a retired metal worker, Juan. I had dinner with Robert who's from Hamilton Ontario, recently retired.   The employees claimed that my Spanish was better than theirs! (probably just more formal and correct). A nice Albergue.

Tuesday, I was apparently the last person out of the Albergue, at 8:15. There's no one on the trail that I can see. The people come in waves. My boots failed. I was kind of expecting it, I even brought glue with me. It's not that far to Leon, so I will just use my shoes the rest of the trip. I stopped in Puente Villarente, at the Delfin Verde. Had lunch with a French lady, Anne, who I kept seeing on the route. This was the first time I spoke to her. A few years ago she walked from northern France to Santiago, about 2200 km, by herself! She spoke of the magic of the Camino, something I feel too. Apparently, Internet is down in the entire country. This also happened when they had the massive power failure a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday, I walked about 12 km into Leon. I walked partway with an Italian lady Silveran, and walked into Leon with a young German man, Fabian. Stopped at the Cathedral, walked to Hotel Zentral. Somehow, my phone figured I walked 14 miles! That would include my walking around town. My hotel was well north of the center of town, so that probably contributed to the mileage. Anyway, I don't really believe I walked 14 miles.

Somehow, my Camino is over; not surprisingly, it was a little anti-climatic. But the last day was a good day walking, and I enjoyed talking to the Italian and the German. Mostly on this trip, I am walking slower than other people, so I did not have as much opportunity to chat as I walked as I might've preferred. At the moment I kind of feel done. Not exhausted, but happy to have completed. My Camino has been dragged out over many years with various health and other concerns, causing repeated delays. I have talked about possibly doing something else that's Camino related in the future, but no definite plans.

It will take some time to absorb the fact that I finished; I will probably publish some retrospective thoughts later.

I am having trouble with my editing tools on my phone. I will probably end up posting the text and the photos separately, at least till I get home and sit in front of a real computer

Fromista to Carrion

The amazing ceiling of the cloisters at Zolio.

A typical street in Carrion de Condes.

The German who bought my shell.

Many, probably most, pilgrims use a luggage transport service, 
and carry only a tiny daypack.  I am too much of a purist for that.....

Note that beer is cheaper than water or Coke!

Sunday was a rest day in Fromista, a modest town, but with local spirit. I walked the town a bit, and visited one of the other churches. I had dinner at the same restaurant as before, at the pilgrim's table.

I slept poorly, so I did not get on the trail until 11 AM on Monday. I arrived in Villalcazar de Sirga at 3 pm, later than I would prefer, especially since I did not have a reservation. I stayed in Las Cantigas bar/hotel. There was a festival in this town as well, they were playing ninepins in the square. Unfortunately, I did not sleep well that night either.

Tuesday I got on the trail at eight. As I was arriving in Carrion de los Condes, I saw an open door on a church, went and found Mass, and found that this was part of the convent, with the cloistered nuns behind a metal grill. I ended up staying in the convent Albergue; I had a private room with a bathroom down the hall, at a reasonable price. As I arrived in town early, I had time to explore the city a bit. The city is very cute, tidy, narrow streets, just has a good vibe. in the afternoon, I walked to the San Zolio monastery, which has an astounding cloister area with busts of religious and Old Testament figures covering a huge area of the ceiling. I had dinner with the Norwegian American couple.