Étape 13: Jourdain - Lamothe Gîte (basically nowhere) 33 kms, Sunny, 24

Where Are All The Pelerins?

The simple answer is that we haven’t seen one in 8 days. We understand from the gîte operators and the tourist info folks that there have been about 6 through in the last few days, but as I say we haven’t a sole walking. Apparently two are to join us in our remote gîte tonight, but it’s past 17:30 and still no one else. This walk is a treasure and everyone seems to want to keep it a secret, so don’t tell anyone!

Amazing early morning light on the lake out front our place where we stayed last night as we left just after 7. 

I slept poorly in a too soft bed last night so wasn’t exactly in a get up and go mood as we walked along the first 10kms to Monferran-Saves, but this sometimes happens. However, the early morning golden light didn’t disappoint.

And then the sunrise happened though I had to walk up a steep bank to the National highway to catch it.

We walked into the old town, 

and were fortunate enough to find a small store open where we loaded up on lunch supplies. I also purchased some cold ice tea and after sitting in the sun for 15 minutes sipping I started to feel my old self and the energy returned and stayed with me the rest of the day. One for the tea!

Some kind sole left us a place to sit outside their farm. Nice boots huh!?

We continued our steady climb today. Lots of hills, but the general feeling was a slow increase much of the day. Really beautiful country side to walk through!

As I told you Bob, it’s not unusual to find discarded boots on the caminos, and in this case a gîte owner found something useful to do with a few.

At some point we passed through Giscaro and enjoyed a look at the outside of this little church which has been part of the Camino for a long time.

On the way out of town we were interrupted by these two who had many, many questions for us. We stopped to chat, but they asked too many questions, so we moved on. This fence was about 3 metres above us! A small fluffy terrier mind a big old basset hound.

It was a long haul to our lunch stop, but you can see that we were equipped for lunch today. Annemarie had the baguette and I carried the heavy glass jar of pate and a small chocolate bar. However, it was a long way and there was much beautiful scenery to enjoy!

After tomorrow we will slowly work our way SW towards the Pyrenees.

Ah, as I write this, two ladies have arrived at 18:15! Very late, but we will have company for dinner. That will be great!

Finally we arrived at the small church at Cahuzac where we’d planned to stop for lunch. A tobacco shop was still opened so we were able to get some cold refreshments to go with our lunch which we ate in the foyer of the church. The doors are beautifully carved with images of the apostles and that’s Saint Jacques on the top right.

The inside was a real delight.

The roof was very unusual.

The outside of the church was pretty much non-descriptive, so no need to post a photo. Goes to show you that the outside doesn’t always betray the inside. Usually it’s much the same with people.

The walk in over the last 8 kms was more of the same...hard to get tired of this!



And now we’re here and all our laundry is done, and I’m wondering what’s for dinner as I enjoy a well earned cold beer:) Mom, for your reference ‘here’ is 8 kms to the west of where we had lunch if you’re looking for us in the French guide I left with you. 

Best laid plans: before we left, Geoff spent some time going through our guide in order to identify stages that would be reasonable lengths and would allow us to see and do the things we hoped to do. This includes finding food, places for breaks, places to stay, highlights we may want to visit, and understanding the terrain we will be traversing. There’s a lot to consider! As we have been walking each day we have encountered things that weren’t in the guide...distances that were longer or shorter, stores or restaurants that should have been open but weren’t, or visa versa, missing route markers, etc. For people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers I expect there may be similar experiences...the individual may be having a particularly good or bad day. Some key item may be misplaced and a long time is spent searching for it. An activity they used to do is no longer available to them. Whatever the plan might have been, it is subject to alteration to meet the needs of the day.

Étape 12: Toulouse - L’Isle-Jourdain, 27 kms, warm, sunny, 20

Finding Our Groove, But Not The Variante!

Last night we enjoyed a nice evening out by eating cassoulet. I didn’t find it quite as good as the first time I ate it in Bayonne in 2014, but it was pretty good. This one was duck and sausage with white beans. Very filling, and happily washed down with a nice red from the Cahors area just north of us on the Le Puy route.

Went for a walk and we found a few lights, but we didn’t really see much of Toulouse, just as we experienced in 2016 when we were transiting and needed to briefly stop on the way from the airport to the train station to purchase a guide book for the Le Puy Chemin.

We said our goodbyes in the hall way outside our rooms and this morning we were up early in order to pick up breakfast food on our way to the train station. We had considered taking a rest day in Toulouse, but neither of us felt the need and we really seemed to want to find our rhythm again. We had a wonderful time with Kathy and Bob, but with that behind us we knew it was time to press on while we held a decent weather window. 

We decided to follow the generally accepted procedure and not try to walk out of Toulouse due to the very heavy morning traffic and kilometres of industrial areas one must walk through. So we walked across town to the train station instead. I like French train stations. Besides being able to find tea, they also play a little jingle when they make train announcements. David Gilmour used that jingle as a core part of a recent song, and I found myself annoyingly playing this over and over in my head as I walked later in the day!

and caught the small train for Pibrac. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to walk out of a big city. We enjoyed a bit of breakfast on our short train ride, more a commuter train, and enjoyed the quiet company across from us.

A very short time later we arrived in the pelerin friendly town of Pibrac and located the route just a few blocks from the train station. Just up the hill on the way into the centre we picked up the sunrise.

We found the markers for the trail, and after passing the church we set of in search of the variant route we had decided to walk. 

At first it was ok, but then it was as if some key rote markers had been removed. With the help of a few strangers we managed to find our way eventually to the village of Brax where we reoriented ourselves and set off again. However the problem of the missing signage turned out to plague us for much of the day. Happily we are getting by quite well with our basic French and where we found gaps, we found willing help from the locals. The signage has changed. Gone for now are the red and white markers, to be replaced by these.

We were able to look back towards Toulouse as we started the climbs off the ancient lake bed.

We both felt some pleasure as we left the rather flat countryside that we’d been crossing the past 3 days. 

We began to take in some nice distant views of the Pyrenees which made me excited knowing that we will turn southward in about a week and cross them about 4 days later. Fingers crossed already for a good weather window!

We arrived in the village of Pujaudran at 12:30 just before the small grocery closed and picked up our lunch supplies which we enjoyed while sitting on a small park bench beside the elementary school where there was a courtyard full of young kids playing.

We kept the Snickers for later...my first on this walk! The duck patè was very nice thank you:)

Then it was back to the upward trending roads, but the scenery as we went was really pleasing to the eye.

And still feeling fresh, our destination came into sight, still some 3 kms down the road.

We thought we were staying at a place very close to the centre of town, but turned out it was well out on the other side of the town. We’d hoped to eat at a small place, but it looks like that won’t happen so we’ve asked for demi-pension here tonight which will likely work out a bit cheaper in the end. We really don’t need to add another 5 kms of walking just to eat! We have a moderately long stage tomorrow.

As we walked today we discussed our time with Kathy so that Annemarie could write something to be posted. At a certain point I put all the emotions of the past week or so away and just got down to some good solid walking. There will be time to perhaps reflect in about 800kms from here as I pass across the flat Spanish Meseta. After all, what else will I have to do there for 8 days?! Walk and reflect, reflect and walk:)


Reflections: 

Geoff and I shared our reflections on our time with Kathy, and the conversations we shared along the way. Kathy speaks in simple phrases, rarely full sentences. Her commentary during more superficial conversations (such as family dinners) often seems off topic or unrelated. This makes conversation very difficult, especially in terms of ensuring a common understanding. Our conversations while walking gave us a chance to get better insight into how she feels and what she is thinking. I tried to avoid distractions, and to give her time to get her thoughts together, and I asked lots of clarifying questions... if I was off track she would clearly tell me. Geoff and I were both struck by her insight into the effects the disease has had on her. Her intelligence and wisdom are still there, it just takes more effort for her and those close to her to access them. While she has short term memory loss, she still surprises us sometimes with things she does remember. As she was pondering, I was never sure if she was thinking, or if she had forgotten the question...it was about a 50/50 split. Her long term memory is still pretty good, so many memories of other trips were triggered for her as we walked along, and we enjoyed sharing these with her. Despite concerns expressed about the risk of further progression or disorientation due to the many changes she was experiencing each day we saw no evidence, and when I asked Kathy about it, she said she didn’t feel like it was a problem...she would just follow our instructions or follow us along, and she felt totally comfortable with this. Kathy left this Camino full of confidence and wanting more. We left her with some reassurance that the Kathy we’ve always known is still in there.

Étape 11: Port Lauragais - Toulouse, 28 kms, Sun, Cloud, Windy, 15 (6 below normal...brrrrrr!)

Walking & Talking

It was a cool, windy morning as we set off along the beautiful Canal du Midi. A much nicer walk into Toulouse than the standard route. 

I think this was the first time that we’ve had our advertising posted here in full walking gear. Kathy kindly took the photo for us.

So a last day to walk together. Clearly it was bitter sweet for all Le Trois Pelerins. We’ve had lots of fun, and one of the things we spoke about today was what’s next for us? Where will we travel to or what else can we do together to keep the fun going. Kathy has clearly enjoyed this experience, so we will have to think about next things. I think Annemarie is writing something about this, so I’ll leave those thoughts for now.

We did manage to catch part of the sunrise, though for me not quite as spectacular as yesterday. 

The Canal runs a very long way and is an active travel corridor complete with a series of locks and Roman bridges. So it was a real treat today with both hard surface and trail walking as we moved towards the city. I think my pal Dennis will experience a déjà vu as he looks at some of the photos after his barge ride in the UK this spring. When I get home he will likely tell me all the fine details of the lock functions as well...sigh. 

The walking and talking was in full force early on, and Annemarie is busy typing away opposite me in a small French cafe where we’ve found wifi and a very nice bar tender who saw us writing and asked what we were up to. We explained and showed her our shirts, and her response was very positive. Now we hope that the blog link will be distributed to a on few folks in France on social media. Very nice:)

The first Roman bridge. I liked it!

And now you pretty much have most of the walk! Repeat, repeat...

After walking for 5 stages and over 50 kms just look how confident Kathy looks. It’s wonderful to see! Today when I told her that she’d walked half the distance needed to earn a compostella, she said that she could probably walk the required 100 kms. Nice.

We extended her walk on the fly this morning, but all too soon it was over and Bob was waiting. We celebrated!

We walked on as Kathy and Bob headed off to drop the car off at the airport and to see a bit of Toulouse.

Another Roman bridge of the horizon?

No spring flowers, but I did find some fall beauty.

I think this is a very old route marker along the canal. It’s numbered.

And who doesn’t like to share a fish story?

Then there were the live aboard barges that were pretty cool. 

And some very nice taging on what turned out to be a bridge we had to cross. Got me thinking about the big green one by Astoria which I should cross in about 5 weeks from now. Remember it Rob?

Then we were at the end of the metro line which we road into the city centre to save a bit of time to have with Kathy and Bob. We quickly showered, went out to get our phone sorted out (couldn’t make calls) and picked up our stamp at the basilica.

A very, very pilgrim friendly welcome. Much of the basilica is dedicated to the Chemin. The ladies were very friendly and they told me that Jean-Philip has not yet checked in. Will email him tomorrow to try and reconnect. 

Conversations With Kathy

It’s a tradition when we near the end of a travel for us to take time to identify highlights and lowlights of the trip. I asked Kathy what she liked best about our time together here, as well as what she didn’t like. She told me she loved the walking part, especially the last two days. The scenery, being in nature, and the opportunity to just drink it in, were all important parts of the joy of the walks, and our conversations together were also a highlight for her (more about that later). We talked about how much she has always loved being in nature and how walking is a perfect activity for her. She then said she has liked “all of it”, which is the same answer she gave when I asked this question at the end of our trip to Greece last year. I then asked what she didn’t like, and she struggled for words, but said that it was when she knew what she needed to do but couldn’t get her brain to cooperate...we had a number of these times, as she sometimes struggled with her poles, or following a direction we gave her. As the walk progressed and she became more confident these moments reduced. I then shifted the question to ask what the positives and negatives of living with Alzheimer’s are for her. One obvious positive has been the travel she has done since being diagnosed...two trips to Hawaii, one to Greece and this one, as well as some more local holidays. These likely wouldn’t have happened in such a condensed time period (two years) were it not for her diagnosis. On the down side, she said it’s when people avoid her or avoid the subject of Alzheimer’s. She said she is very aware of what’s ahead for her, and while there’s nothing she can do about it, she can focus on making the most of the present, and it is helpful to talk about it. This is why she has enjoyed our conversations. She confirmed that I got it right yesterday when I said the past and future don’t hold as much importance for her as the present. While Kathy and I have always been able to talk about things, this opportunity to walk and talk, and for me to ask the tough questions, and get her honest answers has been beneficial to her, as well as to those of us who have benefitted from her wisdom. I told her about the comments we have received from some of you who are following us, admiring her courage and willingness to share her thoughts and experiences...and she said that its important to her to do so. Last year her catch phrase was “walking, walking, walking”. This year the catch phrase is “walking and talking”. These conversations have been truly special for both of us, and I’m inspired to continue to walk and talk with Kathy when we’re both back home. Tomorrow I plan to post some of my personal reflections from these conversations.

Tonight the four of us plan to enjoy the complexities of cassoulet together. There will be wine, there will be laughter and most of all...there will be love at the table.

Bon Chemin!