July 12, 2019 Take My Advice

Today I had the distinct pleasure of waking up in the beautiful town of Espalion and ending my day in the even more beautiful town of Estaing. As you can see on the map I walked through serene farmland then followed the Lot River to Estaing. One thing I would like to mention for those of you that will be walking this path, a few days later I would learn from another pilgrim that he had rented a canoe to paddle from Espalion to Estaing. I am so disappointed that I hadn't learned of this when I was in Espalion because I absolutely could and would have done that. I would have preferred it. Living in Northern Canada I am no stranger to the canoe and this would have been such a quick and pleasant journey, but that is the way of the camino, you walk the walk that you are meant to walk I guess.

Before leaving Espalion this morning I had asked for assistance from one of my fellow pilgrims to help me reserve a room at a gite in Estaing for the evening. I had been having a problem with the achilles tendon on my left ankle where a rib on the heal of my boot was rubbing against. Estaing was only 12kms away and I decided to give myself an easy walking day hoping the issue would resolve itself with a less strenuos day. I knew I would be separating from the rest of the gang and so asked young Fanny from Paris if she would call a gite in Estaing to reserve a room for me before we left the village of Espalion (I was still shy when speaking French on the phone. Just as an aside, the wonderful thing about the Miam Miam Do Do app is that it has all of the contact information including descriptions of each Gite along the path at your fingertips on the site which you can access from your phone. If you have a SIM card in your phone you simply need to push the green telephone icon and you are automatically directed to the GITE). This is what happened according to my notes:

This morning I wanted to reserve a room in Estaing. I asked the young girl Fanny to help me. Now Fanny is what one would imagine a sultry gorgeous young Parision woman might look and act like. She reminds me of Sophia Loren. Anyways we call one private gite... a little more money but I was ready for my own space for one night. The great thing about the Miam Miam Do Do app is that the telephone number is right there and just like Whatsapp it can phone the Gite as well for you. So Fanny calls the place for me... on speaker phone so that I can hear what's going on. The woman that answered was very rude when Fanny explained that I wanted to reserve a room and that I was coming from Espalion. 'NON! She is only walking 12km she will be here too early. It is impossible' (of course in French). Fanny tries to explain to her that I will spend some time in Espalion then will go to a restaurant or cafe and wait in Estaing until the gite is open. The woman on the other line starts to complain that that is highly unlikely. At this point (and we are on the street outside of the GIte in Espalion where the reception is better) I am waving my arms mouthing that I don't need to stay there at which point Fanny, holding the cell phone in one hand whips out a cigarette with the other and somehow lights the cigarette in one elegant move...like a magician waving a wand, arguing with the lady while I am frantically now trying to get out of the deal. Finally outloud I say "Je ne veux pas rester la!" 'I don't want to stay there!'. Fanny effortlessly does an emotional 360 and politely tells the woman with a swish of her cigarette wielding hand that I no longer need a room. The woman on the other end of the line says 'd'accord' (OK) and that was that. The next moment a lovely woman from another Gite in Estaing that I had left a message for earlier called me back inviting me to stay there. The Gite is appropriately named the Gite de St Christophe, and I was set.

I remember thinking after thanking Fanny that I was never as sophisticated and confident in my 20's as this young woman and my adult children. But that being said, my husband Mark and I did study for a year in New York in the 80's (our early 20's) and thinking back we did have the same confidence. Youth is an amazing thing to behold. I am always in awe at how smart and capable they all are. Truly they can do anything.

July 12 was a special day for me because it was my eldest son's birthday and it would be the first date of note that I knew that I had to prepare myself to miss. I actually thought long and hard about this before leaving Canada and came up with the solution of making little banners for my backpack that I would display on certain significant days on the Camino in memory of an event. July 12th was the first one and the banner was of my family. I had had them made in advance with little metal gromets that were easily attached to my backpack with my tiny bungee cords which were extremely useful throughout my two month walk.

I can't tell you what a wonderful feeling it was walking with this banner. It was almost as if my family was walking with me. Leaving my gite in Espalion I almost immediately heard music and the sounds of a large crowd not too far away from my door. Since I was giving myself a short walking day I allowed myself some time to explore the beautiful town of Espalion before getting my bearings on how to exit the town on Le Chemin de Saint Jacques.

The sound of music led me to the town square and market. How wonderful! Cheeses, vegetables, sausages, spices or every kind filled the square. This was something that I had dreamt about. I purchased cheese, bread and fruit for the walk lingering as long as I dared before looking for the red and white striped symbol of the Camino that would lead me out of town towards Estaing.

Not too far from the town market I came upon a breathtaking cathedral that stopped me in my tracks. I decided to take a peak inside and allowed myself a little extra time for prayer for my son and his wife, my dad, my husband and my entire family. This was the first time that I would decide to take some time to reflect on my surroundings and it was absolutely worth it! What a gorgeous building.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cBvbcsFA8w

click on the arrows in the photo to see other photos.

I entered through a partially opened large door with ornate metal supports and was awed by extraordinary stained glass windows at the Apse.

These breads were as large as car wheels!

Not wanting to leave this beautiful town and knowing I had not far to go, I roamed around enjoying the sites of market stalls across from the church and found a small book store close by as well. I had decided to mail a few things back to Canada that were taking up unnecessary space in my backpack. I had picked up some homemade soap for my daughter Katryn in the La Lozere district and there were a few pieces of clothing that I no longer needed. Entering the book store I decided to purchase a book written by former president Francois Hollande entitled Les Lecons de Pouvoir, which I though Mark or one of my boys might enjoy and included it in my parcel home. Next task... how do you mail a parcel home? Step 1, find a post office. I was looking for a 'Bureau du Poste' but that phrase was not understood by anyone. Finally I realized that I needed to look for 'La Poste'. Easy enough and one was a block away from the bookstore. 'Bon'. Step 2 - try to get the courage to communicate what I wanted to do. First things first... find a place to leave my walking sticks where they wouldn't be forgotten. It is common courtesy or common regulation not to bring your walking sticks inside a business, probably for several reasons, one being that the picks might damage the floor and the other being that they might be considered a weapon. I leaned my walking sticks in the vesitbule of the small building, walked into the ajacent room and stood paralysed for a minute, looking around, trying to read the signage and get my bearings. Gratefully a young postal worker in one of the stalls came to my aide and guided me to the automated postal machines. The machines looked daunting and he continued to take pity on me and processed the package for me. Luckily there were few people in the post office at the time which probably helped me out. I looked on line for information about the French Postal service and it seems that it can be confusing for first timers. However when the process was explained to me it actually made sense and I had no problem a week or two later using the machines again.

https://job-in-france.babylangues.com/toolkits/la-poste/#:~:text=The%20postal%20service%20in%20France,navigate%20for%20us%20Anglo%2DSaxons.

https://youtu.be/klAQphlezCQ

leaving Espalion

Chateau de Calmont d'Olt outside of Espalion https://youtu.be/LnQ0bAWuw1w https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Calmont_d%27Olt

About 40 minutes after I finally left Espalion, I passed by the astonishing Chateau de Calmont d'Olt magestically standing on its hill. I seem to remember that my son Julian had been so enchanted with the castle that he actually climbed the hill and had a wonderful adventure looking around.

I walked through the village of Besseujouls and visited it's lovely church built with pink stone.

https://www.tourisme-aveyron.com/en/diffusio/sites-visit/eglise-de-st-pierre-de-bessuejouls-bessuejouls_TFO183215160969

This might be a trivial but while walking through a little village I was intrigued by a small car barely fitting into a stone barn. I started to take note of the interesting vehicles in Europe.

Not too long afterwards I found myself in farm country, walking along lovely, and easy country roads, through little villages and past small farms and large estates. I was anxiously checking on the time periodically because I was really hoping to wish my son a Happy Birthday through the magic of Whatsapp. I was distracted. As I was walking past a farmhouse, a kind man walked towards me to let me know that I had taken the wrong road. Fortunately I had not walked too far out of my way and turned around to head in the direction that he had pointed which led me to a small path through a lovely wheat field.

At this point the time was about 1pm and I had been anxiously looking at my clock periodically for quite a while, calculating time zones and waiting for an opportune time to call my son in Canada to wish him a happy birthday. I put down my backpack, and using Whatsapp, in the middle of a french farmers field, I phoned my son to wish him a mother's heart-felt happy birthday. Poor kid! I did try to get the time change straight but I think I woke him up at 7am probably thinking that I was in some calamitous situation. 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIAN!' 'oh, um Thanks Mom. How are things on the Camino?' Anyways, it was lovely to chat and on we went. I realized then and there that I just needed to let go of home a little bit more and enjoy my walk. This lesson comes to everyone at some point or other on the Camino I believe, but if I had to give a bit of advice, it would be that... enjoy your walk and don't worry about home. It will be there when you return.

Walking further I came to the town of Verrieres where I visited the simple yet stunning Chapel of St. Michel. This seemed the perfect place to stop and rest for a few minutes since I have a few Michael's to be thankful for in my family, my grandfather who passed away when my mother was a young girl and my brother Mike. I have mentioned it in past blogs but it is worth repeating how utterly wonderful it is to enter these relaxing and cool churches when walking for hours on end in 30C heat. It is a complete pleasure to stop, unlace or take off your boots and either sit or laydown on the cool pew and enjoy the environment.

A private drawbridge (how cool is that!)

Approaching Estaing (slide show, click on arrow to see other photo)

Although the music in this video isn't my style the walk is exactly as I remember. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe3aRSsW2Ks The hiker points out a detour near the beginning of the walk that day. This was the detour that I had missed and was guided back to it by the kind local. I also remember groaning when 'le chemin de Saint Jacques' veered of the ashfault road onto a narrow rocky path up a hill. But that would be the one and only difficult section on my walk that day and before I knew it I was approaching the exquisite town of Estaing.

Approaching the town I was impressed by the majestic Chateau d'Estaing overlooking the beautiful Lot River. https://www.chateaudestaing.org/lhistoire-du-chateau-destaing/ I crossed le Pont d'Estaing and found my gite, 'Gite etape Saint Christophe' not more than a block away. What a wonderfully welcoming place to stay. https://www.gite-etape-saint-christophe.com/ I was greeted by a young boy of about 12 yrs old who found his grandfather to register me into the gite. The boy proudly explained to me that he was helping his 'grandpere' run the gite that summer and I thought how wonderful it is for grandparents and grandchildren to have such experiences together. Both of my sons have lived with their grandfather while attending university and I am so grateful that they had that experience. Once I had my credential stamped I set my bed for the night which essentially included opening my small backpack (look at supply list for more information) and pulling out my sleeping bag for the evening. The owner of the Gite gave me a security code for the door and following the completion of those tasks I decided to look around this beautiful town. I had received a text from Andree Ann who is fellow hiker from Quebec Canada that both she and Laure, a Carmelite nun on the trail were staying at a rather luxurious hotel close by, https://auberge-st-fleuret.com/en/home/ but more importantly Andree Ann reported that Laure had travelled from Espalion with one of my socks! I cannot express how important and wonderfully kind it was for Laure to retrieve that sock that had fallen off the clothes line that morning and bring it with her from Espalion in the hopes of finding its mate in Estaing. Before leaving my Gite in Espalion I had noticed that one of my precious 'Wright' Socks was missing. Your socks are one of your most important possessions. I had three pairs and to loose one would have been very annoying. With three pairs of socks, you wear one, you have one pair drying on the outside of your backpack which had been washed the night before, and one clean and dry pair waiting to be worn at the end of the day's walk. Losing one sock would throw the whole sytem off. It was such a relief to learn that my sock had been rescued and it was only one block away waiting to return to its mate. I had made arrangements to meet up with Andree Ann in a few hours but I had a mission to accomplish first.

Gite d'etape Saint Christophe

My mission was to go to the restaurant I had found on the Pont D'Estaing and splurge on a delicious meal.

Here is the story of what happened next:

I chose to dine in a beautiful outdoor restaurant on the foot of the Pont d'Estaing and was looking forward to a delicious meal. As you can see from the menue I could have ordered beef filet, duck or trout but I wanted to taste the town specialty A waiter came by asking whtat I would like to order. I mentioned that I was curious about whether Estaing had a special food that I could try. He said yes, then asked me where I was from. When I mentioned Canada he said 'Non, you cannot order the town specialty'. He added ' take my advice you will not enjoy it'. I asked what it was and he mentioned that it was a type of sausage, but I would not like it. I asked, was it like scottish Haggis? or Polish Kyszke? He said a little but that I should order something else. By this point I was pretty determined to try the town specialty and he said 'are you certain?' I said 'yes'. Twenty minutes later it arrived.

I had ordered Tripe. My apologies to Espalion and many of my relatives but it was the worst thing I had tasted in my life. I ate everything I could eat on my plate before tasting a second bite. I even ordered a second glass of wine and then coffee. The waiter would good naturedly come to my table every few minutes to tease me...'Madame, but you are not eating this very quickly' or ' Madame you are not finished yet'. Luckily I had my book with me which allowed me to waste even more time between bites. I distracted myself with car watching. Since seeing the car in the tiny garage earlier in the day I started noting the types of cars that were passing by realizing for the first time that vehicles in France were very different than those in North America. Not a Ford or Chrysler in sight. After paying my bill I waited until my young waiter had returned into the restaurant then I made a hasty getaway. I tasted that darn tripe for the next two days. Take my advice, a waiter tells you not to order something.... listen to him or her.

Following my 'supper' I had made arrangements to meet up with Andree Ann and Laure at the lovely Auberge St Flueret to retrieve my missing sock. I missed Laure but ended up having a truly lovely visit with Andree Ann on her beautiful hotel patio restaurant over a glass of wine. We chatted about Canada, our ambitions and the trek thus far. Andee Ann was intending to walk only a few days further before returning home. After our chat, I happily collected my sock then decided to explore the town.

Special note: Song that my husband Mark wrote for Laure and her mother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mupF9qlh3IA&t=27s

Returning back to my Gite I was pleased to discover that the young Canadian and friend that I had met on the trail two days earlier were also staying there too. Also her friend had become ill and so they had decided to take a cab up 10km to make the trek to Conque easier. I was still having a few issues with my achille tendon and since the hike the next day would be just over 30 kms I was convinced to join them. I had remembered my son telling me that the hike into Conque was difficult and I thought it prudent to give my feet and ankle a little more help. That also was good advice.

All in all it was a fun day

Notes Home on Whatsapp:

Crystal: So am at a restaurant. The server was just asking me what I want... first thought the trout... but there is a regional specialty. Had to convince him to let me try it. It is called 'tripe'? Not sure how to spell it but after much discussion it seems to be a regional haggis. Once he believed that I knew what I was ordering he said 'OK I can have it. :)"

Crystal: (soon after getting the dish) OK truly does taste like salted intenstines

Mark: Oops....your dad may be familiar with it. In English it's called tripe I believe. Sorta thing that my dad's family would occasionally have, but I don't think I ever did more than just try it once. I guess the waiter tried to warn you.

Crystal: another lesson

Crystal: sweet typical French waiter.... just came by, hands on hips, 'I see you haven't finished it!' Funny. We had a good laugh. Happy to be away from the gang actually that I was hanging out with. Enjoyed checking out the churches and figuring things out slowly but surely.

Richard (my dad): Tripe was one of Grandpa Klapecki's favourite dishes in Polish it is called Flatki. Uncle Gene ate it too. Me never. You have 'beaucoup courage'.

Crystal: I think it was one of those times in history when there was no food except some intestines and someone convinced another that this was a 'specialty'.

Richard: Look at it this way, You had garlic sausage without the garlic.

Crystal: Boiled garlic intestines, in a broth

Richard: (about a the creme care with red roof) I think the car is a Citroen

Crystal: Good job Dad. It might be. There are a ton of new Citroen vehicles all over the place. I had never heard of it before. I'll start documenting cars for Alex. One just went by called a Laguna.

- a Twingo just went by. Haven't heard of any of these before. The restaurant's just at the foot of the bridge so easy to observe things.

Richard: Boiled garlic intestines. Yep that's it. Re: Citroen. They tried to introduce it in Canada after the war but I don't think it could handle the Canadian winters.

Crystal: makes sense. A Peugeot just went buy. (Not sure if I spelled it correctly) Oops now a Venga zipped past me. Not a Ford to be seen. Off to find Andree Ann who has my sock and hopefully Laure.

Richard: Re: tripe. You know what they say "No guts no glory' I think we have exhausted the topic. Let's move on.

Crystal: Nope one more, it was a 'gut' wrenching experience.

Richard: Crystal I like that Bravo!!

Carla (my sister): I can't STOMACH any more of this