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The Way of St Giles – a pilgrimage from Lake Geneva to the Med.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,- While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; John Keats – Ode to Autumn With the harvest over in south west France, the shadows lengthening…
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Cluny to Cahors (650km) Some final thoughts
Variety is the spice of life Anon As I was waiting at Cahors for my train to Montauban this morning I saw a chap with a beard and a rucksack. Apart from the fact that he was wearing a cap emblazoned with the words ‘Stihl’ he could have stepped out…
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Day 16: Saint Jean-de-Laur to Cahors (47.5km) Journey’s End
The wheel is come full circle Shakespeare – King Lear 35 years ago I limped into Cahors, my feet a blistered mess. I had come nowhere near meeting my objective of walking all the way to the Pyrennees. I crossed the historic bridge, made straight for the train station and…
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Day 15: Figeac to Saint-Jean-de-Laur (41km) Mr.Blue Sky
Sun is shinin’ in the skyThere ain’t a cloud in sightIt’s stopped rainin’, everybody’s in the playAnd don’t you knowIt’s a beautiful new day? Hey ELO – Mr.Blue Sky Eagle eyed readers of this blog may have noticed with alarm9 that for some days there has been no mention of…
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Day 14: Conques to Figeac (48km) The Grand Reunion.
There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow William Shakespeare – Hamlet Before starting today’s blog, I’m holding a small competition. Who, without using google, can name the flag below? If you can, then you are cleverer than I! My stay in Conques more than matched my expectations.…
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Day 13:Espalion to Conques (47.5km) Into Aveyron.
Get into the Carmichael car, Michael Carmichael. Stephen Fry – Moab is my washpot. Walking the best part of 30 miles in 10 hours, attending pre-prandial vespers at a praemonstrian abbey, sharing a 2 hour meal with 10 french people you’ve never met before and then attempting to write an…
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Day 12: Aubrac to Espalion (33km) Mud, wet and childhood tears.
Mud, mud, glorious mud,Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.So follow me, follow, down to the hollowAnd there let us wallow in glorious mud. The Hippopotamus – Flanders and Swann To say the weather was bad when I woke up and poked my nose out of the door would…
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Day 11: Aumont-Aubrac to Aubrac (36km) Return to the Tower of the English
The wise speak only of what they know. JRR Tolkien – The Two Towers I woke at 7am and had checked out of my hotel 15 minutes later. Armed with a couple of pains au chocolat and a chicken bap for lunch, I hoped an early start would let me…
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Day 10: Saugues to Aumont-Aubrac (46.5km) In search of aligot.
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more clearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn…
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Day 9: Le Puy-en-Velay to Saugues (42km) Meeting Jean-Claude, the world’s greatest nut spitter
No great genius has ever existed without a touch of madness. Aristotle The day, which started with high solemnity, was clouded by tragedy and ended in high farce. I have little memory of the last time I was in Le Puy-en-Velay some 35 years ago when I embarked on the…
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Day 8: Chomelix to Le Puy-en-Velay.(37km) Full Circle.
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely,”and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland What a difference a day makes. Whereas yesterday’s walk was sometimes an arduous trudge through apocalyptic weather conditions, today’s weather was largely benign and…
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Day 7: Marols to Chomelix (37km) Singing in the Rain
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! William Shakespeare – King Lear It was hammering down when I woke up and I was in no hurry to depart Jacques and Sylvie’s. The previous evening we had spent a…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 