Monday 30th October
Rain fell last night so the morning is a sea of mist. It clings to the hair but doesn't create too much bother. Later in the day the mist turns to actual rain and we are fortunate enough to find an overhanging roof of a barn protecting the hay bales. We sit on a piece of farm machinery to eat our morning fruit and watch the clouds dump their contents before we continue on our way. But I digress- back to our host of last night.

Our host the boulangerie normally invites the gite guests to have breakfast in his boulangerie as he is there early in the morning and can't be attending our dietary needs back in the gite when we need him to, but today (Monday) the boulangerie is not open so we miss this interesting experience. Bertrand still turns up to provide us breakfast but it is a breakfast that is a pastry man's delight and worthy of his talents the usual croissants, pain de chocolate, beautiful baguettes and brioche with prunes. You can forget anything like juice or yoghurt or cereal that is not going to happen but that is alright as we enjoy his fine cooking skills.

And now to return to last night.....
We were told dinner was at 7 but it could be a little late like 7.05pm. Come 7.30 we are still sitting in this enormous large dining room - a bit on the cold side as there is no heater or fire and wondering if we misunderstood the information as there is no sign of action, no smells of food and it is dark outside and our tummies are rumbling.
Then the sound of a car, men's voices and in comes Bertrand and then in comes one man, another man, another man, another man and another man. One man carries a big black box another man carries a long narrow box, another man carries bottles. Out come tapas of superb bacon, ham and nuts and aperitifs, lots of chatter and me trying to get to the bottom of what is happening. The door opens and then in comes a lady and a much older lady. There is much greeting and kissing of cheeks. The ladies sit and join in with the aperitifs.
It transpires that Bertrand, our host has finished his day of work, brought his workers around to the gite for the end of day aperitifs and his sister, brother in law and nephew as well as his mother have arrived as they are visiting the village to see the sick grandfather. So all these people are here with us. After aperitifs the workers leave and out of the boxes our dinner is served. Bertrand apart from being a pastry chef is also a chocolatier, and a caterer. He works seven days a week and does not know what a day off is all about. His dinner consisted of a fish dish with chicken, a chicken and guinea fowl dish, followed by a paella and then an ice cream cake with puréed fruit. It is all delicious and hard to believe it came out of a box.
The young man sitting next to me is the nephew, Clement and he tells me he is learning English. He turns out to be quite an interesting young man as apart from studying for industrial maintenance he is aiming to join the French Special Forces. He is learning to parachute, paraglide, play karate, kayak and so the list goes on as a way of showing in the potential future interview that he is ready to take on what the training will also provide. On top of all that he was extremely pleasant and you come away feeling that this young man deserves to achieve and if this country is made up of young men like this then it is a country that will succeed for sure.
The dinner is finished and as quick as a wink Bertrand has all the dishes collected, cleaned, stacked and put away. He is an efficiency machine as well as what we would call a gentle giant - a large man with strong hands for all that kneading required for the bread making but when he shakes your hand it is held with respect and softness.

So back to this morning- it is a long stage again today of over 33 kms which we know we can't do so we asked last night about a taxi to take the pain away and bring the day back to a more manageable 20kms. We were assured that it was possible and the 8am departure will be fine. It turns out the 'taxi' is our young friend Clement who has a week of university holidays at the moment and is very willing to be a driver. It is extremely nice of him and we are extremely grateful. At our drop off we come across another French pilgrim just starting his day. We remember him from Condom and he had told us his plans of going to St Jacques but he too was suffering pain in his shins and wasn't able to walk too far.

It's a good walk today- perhaps a bit too much asphalt but like a lot of the walks it holds a surprise. We are coming up a hill and without any warning we look to the side to notice a welcome sign to stop our journey- curiosity of course takes over and we walk into a clearing in the woods. I will try to describe the scene- there is a fence below the clearing with two guard dogs called goats munching away nochantly and not at all concerned about our arrival. There is a home made wooden swing hanging from the tree and then there are the decorations which are many. They are in the form of many little blackboard signs hanging in the trees, some written in French, some in English with interesting philosophical sayings some on the wire fence, some hanging in the trees and some hanging in the two little wooden open air cabin type arrangements that house a leather lounge chair each and a small table in front. We sit on these old leather chairs and put our feet up and feel sad that the timing is not suitable for our meal break.
We particularly like some of these sayings -
We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us
All you need is less
Exist to be happy not to impress.
One sign advises us that the goats have a strict organic diet and are not to be fed and they seem to accept this. In the bush below we can hear children's voices and I can dimly see many different constructions in the bush- it must be paradise for a child to be able to run and play in the woods and make cubby houses with all this freedom.

Our destination today is Navarrenx on the Gave d'Oloron River and one of Regions oldest bastides - fortified town - fortified wall still exists as well as different buildings like the ammunition room which were used to protect the town. Last year they celebrated their 700 anniversary ( wow!!)
As we walk into the town we notice a machine outside the boulanger that is an automatic dispenser for baguettes- how bizarre but also how wonderful and practical.
We have been told about the Welcome to pilgrims at the church which will cease on the 1st November ( All Saints Day) The welcome is from a man who we originally thought to be a priest but find out later to be a volunteer who had walked the Camino and discovered his calling in the way. He has been given the job of looking after the gite that provides the accomodation of those needing help
It is fascinating hearing him talk about the history of the town and the conversion of Jeanne d'Albert ( Queen Regent of Navarre and mother to King Henry IV leader of the French Protestants ) to Calvinism leading the region to terrible religious wars. Apparently though the city was never conquered. There was a grand total of 5 of us all together in the church- one of us, a German gentleman leaves us to go inside his camper van parked outside in a park and we head off to another building with an aperitif and a chat with another volunteer. The volunteers are very warm and welcoming and encourage me to add a pin into their map of the world to show that there had been representatives of Sydney visiting the church (& its aperitifs)

Our gite was in the Main Street with not one but two beautiful flower shops opposite- for such a small town I don't know how two survive. The footpath is overflowing with flowers, pots full of colour chrysanthemums as they are getting ready for All Saint Day where you put fresh flowers at the graveyard. The proprietor has tried to think of all the things to make a pilgrim happy - cold water with syrup on arrival, clean towels and a bath mat, wonderful wifi, an offer of a washing machine. It is easy to please a Pelegrín with the simple things in life. He tells us that many many Australians have been through his gite and have told him about all the terrifying insects, reptiles and animals in Australia. Their scary talk has horrified him and he says that if he ever goes to Australia he will only go to Melbourne or Sydney in order to avoid these deadly creatures. ( I don't tell him that probably there are just as many scary things in these two cities as in the rest of the country)!!!
He cooks our dinner for seven of us - zucchini soup, a meat dish that was cooked inside a pumpkin, goats cheese and then stewed fruit.