It's Saturday afternoon, a week since my last update, and The French and I are in Le Puy en Velay, the starting point of our next walk, The Stevenson Way, named after Robert Louis Stevenson who walked this path with his donkey Modestine in the autumn of 1878.
The book Stevenson wrote about his adventure - Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes - made him famous for the first time. It is said he walked the path with a broken heart, trying to forget American Fanny Van der Grift Osbourne. Robert and Fanny married some years later.
The book Stevenson wrote about his adventure - Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes - made him famous for the first time. It is said he walked the path with a broken heart, trying to forget American Fanny Van der Grift Osbourne. Robert and Fanny married some years later.
It's not our first time in the beautiful town of Le Puy, but it is our first time here together. Domi was last here on 1 April 2014. I was last here on 4 April of the same year. Three days apart, we set out from the cathedral to walk the Chemin du Puy (Camino Le Puy). Around three weeks later, on 22 April, we met for the first time in a pilgrims' gite - Le Champ d'Etoiles (field of stars) - in the town of Condom-en-Armagnac. The French and I returned to that same gite a few nights ago - and shared a wonderful reunion with hospitalero, Charlotte, who welcomed us back with open arms, even though we arrived this time not on foot but in a car. Merci Charlotte. Amities et bises.
Our gastranomique road trip had finished in Annecy the night before. Domi did an outstanding job with our itinerary and accommodation - from our ski chalet gite in Les Vosges to our ferme chambre d'hote on a working farm just 10 minutes drive from the centre of Annecy. With Domi's local knowledge we enjoyed towns, villages, scenery, stories, food and wine that were new to his Aussie tour group. And we were welcomed by kind and generous hosts along the way. On our last day together Rosanne's friends Jonathan and Christiane, who live in Annecy, were added to our little group and together we spent a wonderful day high up in the mountains, followed by a stroll around the lake in brilliant sunshine. Thank you to Rosanne, Ross and Wendy for your company and spirit of adventure - and to Domi, our tour leader, driver, culinary and cultural adviser and translator. Bravo French.
On Tuesday morning, with Rosanne and Ross and Wendy heading to different parts of the Italian lakes, Domi and I exchanged 'the tour bus' for a smaller car and made our way 750 kms across France to Charlotte's gite. The next day to Saint Jean Pied de Port and the following day on to Pamiers and Toulouse, for various visits with friends and family. In the three days and 1400 kms between leaving Annecy on Tuesday morning and Toulouse on Friday morning, we managed to visit with Charlotte, Victoria and Derek, and Hamish and Emma in Condom, dinner with Pierre and Nadia in SJPP, lunch with Christine and Didier in Pamiers and and dinner with Doug and Patrice in Toulouse. Leaving our rental car in Toulouse we had a 10 hour journey to Le Puy via four trains and a bus. Whew!!
From tomorrow we'll be back to walking so perhaps more free time in the afternoons and evenings to post an update. After a week's absence, rather than a collection of photos of our travels during that time, I thought I'd just give a flavour of one of the many beautiful stops on our gastranomique tour - Auberge Chez Soi, a charming chambre and table d'hote on the banks of the Doubs River, with equally charming hosts Nicole and Dirk, formerly from Belgium. What a find - merci Domi.
Time to sort out our packs for tomorrow and then head out for dinner - and to catch the light show which started in Le Puy just a week ago and will run until the end of September. If the weather is kind and I can work out what setting to use on my new camera (we're not yet on good terms), I will have some photos to share.
J x
