Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow

William Shakespeare – Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2

If they gave stars for accommodation standards by host families on the major pilgrim routes across France, I’m not sure Agnes would have secured even a solitary star.

The two up, one down accommodation boasted a cellar which was cunningly disguised just inside the front door by a couple of planks of wood which had been laid across the floor to prevent pilgrims disappearing into, head first.

The downstairs loo, whose hand basin doubled up as the kitchen sink, was hardly big enough to swing a cat. The loo itself, was positioned so close to the door (6 inches) that you needed to be double jointed or a circus contortionist in order to actually sit on it and ‘do the business’.  Agnes does take one award though – for the smallest loo I have ever had the misfortune to use in all my years of globe trotting!

At least there was ample fare in the fridge for a decent breakfast. Thankfully the flying ants which had expired in the previous night’s bottle of wine had not gained access to the jar of jam and yoghurt pot. However, as I made small talk with the Polish pilgrim, whose name was Agatha, I noticed a large spider on the wall behind me, greedily eying up my breakfast.

Agatha did have a few words of english. She divulged that she was walking from Poland to Compostella. She’d been on the road for 2 months and thought it would take her another 2 months to reach Compostella.

Agnes arrived at 7.45am and kindly agreed to give me a lift back to Romagnieu, so I could complete the walk back to Abrets-en-Dauphiné where I had spent the night.

As Agnes drove her rather battered Citroen back to Romagnieu, she asked me how I had found the accommodation.

Wanting to be diplomatic, I mentioned that the boards across the cellar inside the front door were an “interesting touch”. Agatha, agreed, somewhat grudgingly that this was the case and that it would probably not be prudent to allow pilgrims with young children to come to stay there.

I mentioned the dead ants in the wine bottle as well as the large spider on the dining room wall. The ants were the fault of the previous owner who had left the open wine bottle in the fridge before she left she told me. As for the spider – I should count myself fortunate as spiders are deemed to be a sign of good luck amongst the amero-indian peoples! For once I didn’t have an appropriate riposte to hand!

Agnes dropped me off beside the church but before she left, suggested that if I was going to finish my walk on the Mediterrean at Le Grau-de-Roi, then I should definitely stay at the appropriately named, Hotel d’Angleterre!

Having quickly googled the Hotel d’Angleterre I couldn’t help but chuckle. More of a contrast between Agatha’s house in Abrets-en-Dauphiné and the Hotel d’Angleterre in Le Grau-de-Roi, you could scarcely imagine!

In all honesty, today was a pretty uneventful day. The scenery was pleasantly pastoral but mostly unremarkable. I didn’t meet anybody all day and shortly after lunch, it started to drizzle.

So my thoughts turned to more abstruse subjects such as the state of my boots and the nature of omens.

Firstly, my boots. They are German made (Meindl) and for the past few years I have been a devoted disciple of their boots. A bit like Audi cars, they do the business for me and, more importantly, they don’t give me blisters. So I tend to wear them, until they fall apart at the seams. Unfortunately, that is what currently seems to be happening to them! All of which is more than a bit disappointing as I only bought them last year!

The big question is whether they will fall to pieces before I reach the Med! Hopefully this morning’s spider is a good omen. If not, I’m stuffed!

I eventually made it to Charavines at about 3pm. My host for the evening had suggested that I didn’t arrive before 5pm, so I had a couple of hours to kill.

Charavines boasts a beach and is obviously quite a big tourist hub judging by the size of the well appointed tourist office. So I wandered down to the beach.

It was deserted and there was a large sign saying, ‘bathing prohibited’. It had also begun raining. The only sign of life was a young mother with a very young daughter pushing a pram on the sand and clutching a mobile phone, which I presume was a toy. The mother looked depressed and was also staring disconsolately at her mobile phone. Both of them were oblivious to the world and to my presence. Charavines had a distinctly end of season feel about it!

On the dot of 5pm I arrived outside Dorothée and Joel’s apartment. Dorothée was working until 7pm, but she showed me to my room,  the bathroom and suggested I make myself at home in Charavines. “Why don’t you look around Charavines”, she suggested. “It has a lovely beach, You could go and have a swim”.

I smiled sweetly as I had already decided how I was going to spend the next hour – soaking in the bath and rejoicing in the fact that it had a bath plug in it! The spider at Agnes’s had been an augury of good luck after all!