Unfortunately, upon arriving in L’Estrade I discovered (thanks to the kindness of the local resident pictured below) that I was not in L’Estrade at all, but rather the much smaller village of Les Enfrux — a tiny hamlet that lay on the “GR6” hiking trail that I had taken from St. Chely, NOT the Camino’s […]
Even when we are lost (or hurting, or exhausted, or destitute, or depressed, or terrified, or confused), if we but pause long enough to look around, we can see that there is always Love to be given — and that there is always Beauty to behold … 😉 “Gratitude goes beyond the ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ […]
The first town I reached while trying to find my way back to The Way was the little village of Bonnefon — a village aptly named “The Good Fountain”, for it was a village where the church in which I paused provided quite a soothing solace indeed, as I rested for awhile under the compassionately […]
Well, it turned out there was a little Gite (the French equivalent of a pension) located right next door to the church — a Gite that had quite a few cars parked in front of it and quite a few folks milling about nearby, so I decided to enter and ask for directions therein. I […]
There were several fundamental guidelines (a.k.a. “rules”*) to which I adhered during the entirety of my Walk — using no money, carrying no tent, and having no personal ID being among them. That having been said, there were several other more minor “rules” that came to being along the way, and one of these was […]
It was quite a few kilometers of walking from Bonnefon back to the Camino’s primary GR65 route, and I will freely admit that I found myself on more than one occasion that afternoon doubting whether I would indeed intersect with that glorious Path again that day. And yet I knew I walking in the overall […]
It didn’t take long after rediscovering The Way for me to encounter yet another remarkably kind fellow pilgrim — this time it was Susi from Berlin, who was walking the Camino with her beautiful dog Pina … 🙂 “Whenever two immigrants meet in a strange or forbidding place, the desolation always eases and things feel […]
Susi & Pina turned out to be two of the sweetest people I met on the entire Walk — open-minded and insightful and caring and warm-hearted, and it was truly a privilege to walk & talk with them both on this day … 😀 “Friendship is two people who walk together, sometimes day after day […]
Susi & Pina & I eventually made it all the way to the incredibly beautiful city of St. Come d’Olt, where we parted ways in graceful gratitude (with Susi & Pina stopping on the outskirts of town to pitch their tent at the local camping ground), and I proceeded onward alone through the gorgeous city […]
No sooner did I enter the St. Come sanctuary than I met fellow pilgrim Alice, and no sooner did I answer Alice’s intrigued questions about my Walk than she took me across the street to Gite d’Etape del Roumiou — where her friend Sylvain (the owner thereof) took me in for the night without pause […]
I woke up earlier than usual this morning and was already ready to set forth by 5:15am, and yet it felt somehow Right to wait and say my farewells to Sylvain in person instead. So I rested calmly in peace at the empty breakfast table awhile, until a few fellow early-rising pilgrims straggled in to […]
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