July 4, 2019 - To Puy or not To Puy, that is the question

Today was truly part of the adventure that had really worried me most. After two days in Paris my next task was to travel by train from Paris to Le Puy en Velay, actually two trains, which would take me to the beginning of my walk along the ancient path through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Now, I have travelled only a few times by train in my life. In Canada, when you travel by rail you head to a railway station at the alloted time and board a train when it arrives. A few years earlier, myself, my husband, two sons and a young friend had travelled together from Thompson to Churchill, MB with our dear friend Richard Zimmerman. Sadly Richard was suffering from cancer and being an avid train enthusiast having traveled on many trains around the world, Richard had wanted to experience his final train ride with us. We had a wonderful time together. My job was to organize the food, entertainment and care for everyone. Richard had made the train reservations. We assisted him safely onto the train and we all enjoyed a truly memorable and fun experience on a quinessentially 1950's passenger car exactly like that seen in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (minus Carey Grant and Eva Marie Saint of course). Everyone should experience this at least once in life. Anyways, VIA RAIL had been my only previous experience on a passenger train. I had scoured youtube for every video I could find on traveling by rail in France and those snake-like machines looked fast and frightening to me. Not only that, my research on youtube showed me that there were multiple tracks and so many trains that zipped in and out of European stations. Gulp.

If you have read my last blog you'll remember that the day before had not been one of my more successful commuting experiences. I had booked a dinner cruise for myself along the Seine and after unsuccessful attempts at hiring a Taxi or Uber, I had arrived late to the Quay and had quite literally missed the boat! While still in Canada I had worried often about how to get from Paris to Le Puy, how to book a seat on a train, what app to use, how to find the train station, how to get to the station, how to find the actual train, how to find the seat on the train, what the tickets might look like, essentially the whole thing frightened me. Proof again that I was a novice, and an older one at that. It's one thing to bumble around with a partner or walking buddy. 'Look at those old gals having fun... good for them.' This felt completely different. I was convinced that there was a good chance that I would miss the train, or possibly get on the wrong one and head accidentally to another country. With these thoughts in mind I woke up early, collected my belongings, booked another Uber (sorry Paris Taxis you lost my trust on days one and two) and arrived at the Gare de Lyon two and a half hours early. It turns out that 7:00 am traffic in Paris is minimal and I was grateful to arrive at the station in short order.

Once inside the grandly ornate train station I was easily able to find clear instructions on how and where to board my train on the large electronic schedule board. What a relief. I love the noisy hustle and bustle of airports and train stations. The station was filled with people and languages from around the world and suddenly, right in front of me, next to the huge electronic schedule board was a Starbucks! I'm more of a Tim Horton's coffee drinker but I can't tell you how wonderful and actually comforting it was so see something so familiar at that moment. So with my Latte Grande in hand I roamed around until I found my gate. With so many people it was difficult finding a place to sit but I enjoyed just hanging around taking in the atmosphere. There was a piano available for the general public to play and several people took turns enjoying the instrument. Again I wished that my husband Mark who is an exceptional pianist had been there with me. People would have loved it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ML9VTRfP5g

I learned how to create, find and retrieve my e-ticket on my phone to provide to officials when asked and I think I checked it every few minutes, practicing opening and closing the app and making sure that I knew how to find it quickly.

Gare de Lyons

My worry was for naught and I had a wonderful journey to Le Puy. It was so lovely simply sitting and enjoying the lovely French landscape as it roled by outside as well as enjoying the interesting atmosphere inside the train. I was able to easily whisk out my e-ticket when the conductor or porter came by and because the train was not crowded I was able to spread myself across two seats snacking on the bag lunch that I had purchased at the station in addition to my water and the remains of my latte. Here I was in my element. It really was not so different from our old Grey Goose Bus rides from Flin Flon to Winnipeg. The electronic sign in front of me kept me referenced as to how far we were to Perrache and although it was a little nervewracking transferring from one train to the next but I changed trains like a pro. At one point an elderly woman entered the train with a wicker basket filled with baguettes which was just about perfect.

I arrived in Le Puy en Velay right on time, just before 3pm. When exiting the train and the station I realized that I hadn't the foggiest idea which way to go. I probably should have researched that while I was sitting on the train, but I hadn't and so I just stood frozen in front of the Station entrance. A woman about my age approached and asked me if I needed help. I told her that I was staying at Le Grand Seminaire. Well! When she learned that I was Canadian she was so excited to help me. Apparently her daughter had recently moved to Canada and was living in New Brunswick. She cheerfully guided me across the street and towards the old part of town pointing me in the direction of La Grand Seminaire where I would spend the night. I found my way eventually to the office of the Seminary where I was promptly booked into my room. As mentioned below Le Puy was calm and the room was lovely. I was informed that dinner was offered at 7:15pm which still gave me a few hours to roam around the town. One of the things I still wanted to do was purchase a SIM CARD for my phone so that I would have some data to use should I need while walking and grab some nuts and dried fruit for the next day. The business district was close to Le Seminaire and I quickly found an ORANGE distributor. I had remembered from my daughter Katryn's time studying in Switzerland that she had purchased her cell phone and data from that company. I entered and through my basic french I was able to purchase a SIM CARD with data and a new French phone number. SUCCESS! I returned in just enough time to wash up a little and head down to the dining room. There were between six to eight people eating supper and I stumbled into my first etiquette faux-pas but rebounded pretty quickly. It became immediately apparent that you do not serve yourself. The meal that we ate was so delicious, hamburger patties cooked in between halved tomatoes, salad, and lentils, wine, coffee and bread. I initially reached for the salad when with a little alarm a woman across from me reached it before me and served me before herself. I waited to see what would happen next and sure enough everyone served each other before serving themselves. Coffee in this part of France is actually drunk from a soup bowl-type dish. My husband Mark's family lives in the area and my son Brandon had commented on it when he had visited his cousins two years earlier in Toulouse. It had slipped my mind until that moment, but I soon remembered the custom once I saw the 'bowls' on the table close to the coffee urn.

One of the women at the table was from Vendee France which hosts a solo sailboat race around the world called the Vendee Globe. I am in love with this race! What fun it was chatting with her about her town and the race. After some casual discussion around the table It seemed that I was the only person there who intended to walk from Le Puy to Santiago. For some strange reason that gave me confidence or perhaps gumption as I imagined what the next day would be like. https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

Following dinner, I went to my room excited about starting my first true step of Le Chemin de Saint Jacques, as it is referred to in France, the next morning. I had heard from my son Julian, who had walked it a few years back, that the next few days were going to be difficult. I really had no idea how far I could really walk, whether my backback was too heavy, whether my shoes were the perfect brand for my feet, what was the best order to pack my backpack, or even exactly how to get out of the city. Not that I hadn't spent a lot of time, money and energy on trying to answer these questions but it was clear that you really wouldn't know how well your would handle the trek until you were well on your way. In actual fact I had spent a year finding and choosing my equipment...everything that is except my backpack. A year and a half before this moment I had walked into MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) and decided there and then that I was going to commit to walking the Camino during the summer of 2019. Feeling and looking completely like a fish out of water I tried to casually roam through the store filled with cool young people or a few people my age that you could tell knew what they were doing. I had never owned a Tilly Hat, Trekking clothes, WrightSocks, Trekking Poles or footwear that cost more than $25 from WalMart. How I found and chose all that I did will be another blog post but for the purpose of this one I will tell you that on that day in March 2017 I walked right up to the rows of backpacks and fell-in-love with my back pack the moment I saw it. Truly, it might have been the colour that first caught my eye. I picked it up, then put it down, then picked it up again. Tried it on (I had never worn a professional backpack before). It felt perfect! I imagine that any empty backpack would feel perfect but I took it as a sign nonetheless. The label said that it was designed for women and it was on sale. Not too large not too small, just right in my completely unexperienced mind. PERFECT AGAIN! A year later I started to wonder how well it would fit and feel when it was full? Two months before leaving I did fill it up with all of my belongings, (shocked and relieved that everything that I wanted to bring actually fit in it) and at an opportune visit to Winnipeg, I dragged (and I do mean dragged) it into the store, found a sales person about my age, pulled him aside and explained that I was two months away from walking 1500km and had no idea how to wear the thing. This fellow was an angel. He didn't scoff, or roll his eyeballs,rather he looked excited! He grabbed the backpack and walked me through every strap, pocket and perk of the pack. He put it on me and showed me how to tighten and loosen each strap for the perfect fit. He explained what a perfect fit should feel and look like. That I could change it along the way as my body changed or if I packed differently and the weight was redistributed. My gosh....he even showed me that I have a secret whistle on the front strap. How cool is that! Leaving the store he took me by the shoulders and said 'you are so lucky. You're going to have a great camino!' It filled me with confidence and pure joy. I did practice walking with my backpack in Flin Flon, but the snow had left only a month earlier, I had been busy producing and conducting Mamma Mia until the beginning of May and after a few 'long walks' I knew I was generally exhausted after 16kms. How do people walk 25 - 30 kms in one day? How many times can I stop for a cafe latte along the way? What did Penny Grove and Susan Fulford tell me? That would be something I would worry about tomorrow. I set the alarm on my phone to wake up at 5:30am.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ahxliDIbk

NOTES HOME:

ME: Looking forward to getting on the train. Paris is amazing but it makes Toronto seem oh so Canadian and relatively calm. I think I know what I'm doing. My train leaves in about 60 minutes to Lyon Perrache. I'm relieved to (have the time) to calmly figure it out. And although I don't really like Starbucks I'm so relieved to have my cafe Latte Grande!

Me: Well, I'm on the train... I think the right one. Phew

Julian: Good for you mom! You got this!

Carla:(my sister) Lol Julian is right! YOU GOT THIS!!

Richard Klapecki: (my dad) Hooray!

Mark: Godspeed!

Me: Well I made it to Le Puy and have a ton of photos to send you. First things first (before my phone runs out of juice, I bought a new SIM card (for my cell phone) for while I am in France and Spain so if you need to reach me my number is 064 243 2431.

OK now for the stories.

Actually the train rides were great. The trickiest thing again was getting there but I gave myself 2.5 hrs. I ended up using Uber again. It was a little tricky because once I left the wifi from the loft I rented I could no longer communicate with my driver, nor could I get back into my loft to try again because my stay there was done and I had to leave the key to the door inside the apartment before leaving. Anyways, after about 10 minutes he arrived and for some reason traffic between 7:30am - 8:00am in Paris is nothing compared o 7:30 - 8:00am traffic in large North American cities so I arrived in plenty of time to get my Starbucks and my bearings. Don't know why I was so freaked out about taking the train, it was quite well organized. There truly were thousands of people coming in and going out... even a group of Nepalese or Tibetan monks. Le Puy is night and day from Paris. It has all the beautiful shops and restaurants but not the craziness and everyone seems a lot calmer (I know I am!)

Carla: Wonderful! See! You can do anything!

Mark: Ok great information! So glad you made it safe and sound to Le Puy!

Richard: I'm eating up every word and picture. Keep it coming. Luv yah.

Me: A woman from Le Puy (who was excited to help me ecause she has a daughter living in New Brunswick) directed me to the Grand Seminaire where I am staying. A sweet little nun signs you in and gives you the lowdown on when supper is...7:15, when breakfast is... between 5 - 9am and the passcode to open the huge wooden door to the seminary. (I snuck a photo of her). It is truly hot, so I will be up early, go to the pilgrims mass and see what happens next. was kind of happy that there was a woman a little older than me waiting in line! Not sue whether I will go further than Monbonnet tomorrow...will wait and see.