Once again I am having trouble with this blog. After a promising start on a new blog, for reasons I cannot fathom, when I pushed the save draft tab it kept erasing what I had written. What was that you said? First it was his two fingers now it's his whole hand. I think you are right. So for the third time this evening I'ii try again before turning in to prepare for tomorrow.
The decision to arrive three days before departure day proved a good one. I had time to overcome jet lag, test my legs and strength on a section of the first official start day and also enjoy the considerable charm and special features of the city.
One amazing feature is the Chapelle of st Michel, it is perched on a needle like out crop of igneous rock from an ancient extinct volcano.
Humans in their restless search for the ineffable,the origins of life and what happens after and the mysteries of the universe have chosen natural elevated places to physically and symbolically express their search.
So it has been with this rocky Dyke as it is geologically known in French- there is ahotel in the city with the name Dyke Hotel.
Since the dawn of time and long before Christianity arrived it became asacred place of worship.
Around 969 the local Bishop after a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela decided to build the Chapelle of st Michel the Archangel. At least that's the story we are told. You will recall that these pilgrimages raised significant funds because of indulgences offered to those who paid. The wealthy had a bob each way- many paid a poor person to walk in their stead and collect on their investment when they died. There is no proof that the racket succeeded.
And then there is the story of the doubtful virgin associated with the Chapelle but it will have to wait till the next blog. In the time thanks for your support and encouragement.