Category: Uncategorized
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Day 3: Saint Christol to Grabels (40km) Every cloud has a silver lining.
It is always hard to see the purpose in wilderness wanderings until after they are over. Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan Today’s walk from Saint Christol to Grabels – 10 hours walking, most of it on tarmac and through a concrete jungle that comprises Montpellier and its suburbs. Throw in…
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Day 4: Grabels to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert (33km) Dormitory life.
It was a real pleasure to enjoy Jean Marie’s company in his home in Grabels and I was sorry to say goodbye to him and head off on my way to Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert. Just after leaving Grabels I came across a strange site – a huge enclosure containing thousands of solar…
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Day 5: Saint-Guilhem-le-désert to Lodève (36 km) When the heavens opened!
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! Shakespeare – King Lear The night in the dormitory with 5 other people proved surprisingly peaceful. Nobody snored or went to the loo in the middle of the…
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Day 6: Lodève to Saint-Martin-d’Orb (26km) Peasouper.
[Staring at the fog through his window] It’s a real pea souper! The Return of Sherlock Holmes – Conan Doyle This was a day best forgotten, when there was little to be seen due to the abysmal weather! For most of the day it hacked down with rain and visibility…
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Day 7: Saint-Martin-d’Orb to Fagairolles (39 km) Feast for a king.
Tout vient a qui sait attendre Poem by Violet Fane You know you are getting old when you have been walking for nearly 12 hours non stop from 6 am you feel completely knackered when you reach your destination and feel like crashing out at about 8pm! With 39 km…
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Day 8: Fagairolles to Bouldouïres (37km) Fortune favours the brave.
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves,…
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Day 9: Les Bouldouïres to Boissezon (38 km) Marvellous Mireille
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare This was a day to forget but an evening to remember. Sleeping in a…
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Day 10: Boissezon to Dourgne (34 km) Dan the (congenial) man.
Travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Mark Twain One of the great pleasures of going on pilgrimmage is that you bump into such a variety of delightful and stimulating individuals. Dan was undoubtedly one of them. As I hit the sack the previous evening I had a bit…
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Day 11: Dourgne to Saint-Paulet (40 km) Belt tightening.
The hotel I was staying in at Dourgne had eight rooms. Mine was the only one that was occupied. I got chatting to the lady who served me breakfast. Yes business was very slow she admitted- due to the cost of living crisis in France people weren’t dining out or…
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Day 12: Saint-Paulet to Villeneuve (40 km) Forbidden fruit.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. Jean-jacques Rousseau I left the Villa Caline in good spirits, fortified by the previous night’s cassoulet, 10 hours sleep and a clean pair of socks. Such simple pleasures do a a happy walker make. It was back to three hours beside La…
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Day 13: Villeneuve to Toulouse (43 km) The Code of the Woosters.
You can’t be a successful Dictator and design women’s underclothing.’‘No, sir.’‘One or the other. Not both.‘ PG Wodehouse – The Code of the Woosters I must confess I wasn’t looking forward to the day’s walk from Villeneuve to Toulouse one little bit. After the tarmac crunching through the centre of…
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Day 14: Toulouse to Monferran Savès (51 km) The longest day.
Faber est quisque fortunae suae Appius Claudius Caecus A day which began well nearly ended in disaster 12 hours later, the unlikely person who saved the day, being the proprietor of a Renault repair shop. I set off from my hotel in the centre of Toulouse with the sun yet…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 