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Day 31: Saint Flour.Time to Face the Music.
The point is, you see,” said Ford, “that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later Douglas Adams – Life, the Universe and Everything. With my train from Saint Flour to…
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Day 30:Le Malzieu-Ville to Saint Flour (36 km) Brief Encounters.
옷깃만 스쳐도 인연이다 – every person you cross paths with in life, even a total stranger, carries a thread of fate. Korean Proverb My challenge for the day couldn’t have been simpler – walk 36km to St Flour and arrive there in time to buy a railway ticket back home…
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Day 29: Les Faux to Le Malzieu-Ville (21 km) Easy Peasy Japanesey
No sex, no drugs, no wine, no womenNo fun, no sin, no you, no wonder it’s darkEveryone around me is a total strangerEveryone avoids me like a psyched Lone RangerEveryone That’s why I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning JapaneseI really think so Turning Japanese – The Vapors In 2002/3…
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Day 28: Grandrieu to Les Faux (23 km) Bison and The Shepherd of Gévaudan
Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? The White Company – Arthur Conan Doyle You’ve probably all heard of Joan of Arc. In 1337, when Edward III, King of England, renounced his claim to the throne of France…
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Day 27: Langogne to Grandrieu (33km) The Beast of Gévaudan
The justice of God, always holy and always adorable, has allowed a ferocious beast to enter our midst, to become the plague of our countryside, and to strike fear into our hearts. Bishop of Gévaudan – 1764 sermon Today I walked across the Margueride (a rocky granite plateau) from Langogne…
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Day 26: Notre Dame-des- Neiges to Langogne (35km) A Scotsman in the Cevennes
I behold The House, the Brotherhood austere And what am I, that I am here? Robert Louis Stevenson – Travels in the Cevennes with a Donkey Midway through the afternoon I bumped into Hay. The weird thing was, I had sort of been thinking about her a few minutes before…
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Day 25: Thines to the Abbey of Notre Dame des Neiges (32m) It’s a Miracle.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. Saint Augustine What makes a miracle a miracle? I spent much of the day pondering this general question and a more specific question. Was what happened in Saumur on the 30th November 2016 to a…
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Day 24: Les Vans to Thines (23 km) An Unexpected Surprise
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short William Shakespeare – Othello Act 2 Sc 3 Unless you are mad enough to be walking the GR4 through the Cevennes it is very unlikely that you will ever come to the small hilltop village of Thines. Quite simply, it is in…
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Day 23: Comps to Les Vans (20km) Hexatrekking.
There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met Attrib to William Butler Yeats I couldn’t set off much before 10am as the chap I was due to return the gite keys to had a doctor’s appointment early in the morning so the owner of the gite, who…
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Day 22: Salavas to Comps (21 km) Au revoir Fawlty Towers and hello to the Ardèche.
American guest: ‘Is there anywhere they do French food?’ Basil: ‘Yes, France, I believe. They seem to like it there. And the swim would certainly sharpen your appetite. You’d better hurry, the tide leaves in six minutes.’ Basil Fawlty – Fawlty Towers I don’t want to be too critical of…
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Day 21: La Bastide-de-Virac to Salavas (15 km) Feeling a bit of a Fraud.
Bard Bracy! bard Bracy! your horses are fleet, Ye must ride up the hall, your music so sweet, More loud than your horses’ echoing feet! And loud and loud to Lord Roland call, ‘Thy daughter is safe in Langdale hall!’ Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Christabel Ok I have a guilty…
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Day 20: Mondragon to La Bastide-de-Virac (35 km) Going Full Tonto.
The word tonto is used in Spanish for ‘stupid’ or ‘foolish’, but one of its suggested origins was it’s use by Apache Indians as a term for the Western Apaches – meaning ‘wild ones’. For the last five years, since I started my first long walk across France on the Via…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 