When we used to rent a cottage with friends, Ray would take Boo (our chocolate lab) for a long morning walk around the lake. She’d come back, tired and happy, and curl up in front of the fire. Ten minutes later, someone would head out for a cross-country ski and Boo would jump up, full of energy, and bound out the door to join them. Ray’s like that too. It’s not unusual for him to head out for a long cycle after we’ve just returned from a hike. He also takes daily morning walks (usually before I’ve even dragged myself out of bed), and evening walks.
Me…well, let’s just say my energy level is more feline than canine.
Ray’s done more hiking and biking than I have since we arrived, but we’ve also done some together. We’ve been walking portions of the Camino de Santiago*, also known as “The Way of Saint James”, the “Chemins de St. Jacques”, or “the walk in that movie starring Martin Sheen”. In the Middle Ages, Christians would make pilgrimages from their homes to Santiago de Compostela, in northern Spain, to visit the remains of Saint James the Great. Prisoners were also sometimes given the option of walking the Camino as penance. It could take months or even years to complete and many didn’t survive the journey. The pilgrims came from all over Europe, so many of them passed through this part of France on the way to Santiago.
The Camino has grown in popularity in recent decades, with hundreds of thousands of modern-day ‘pilgrims’ reaching Santiago each year. Ray walked a 2-week portion of the Camino in Spain some years ago.
On days when Ray feels like doing a more strenuous hike at his speedy pace, and I feel like having a quiet day on my own, he heads for the hills.
This past week was meant to be a fairly social one, with group activities scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Monday we had a lovely hike with the Anglophones Pau Pyrenées group, through the vineyard and valleys near Monein.
Wednesday was May 1st, Labour Day in most countries outside of North America, so there was a holiday hike scheduled in our village with four routes to choose from. We thought it would be a good opportunity to meet the villagers, so we showed up at 8 am, picked up our map for the 11 km route and headed out. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the memo and about 98% of hikers chose the 14 km route, but we still had a nice hike with perfect weather and the usual company.
Friday we were meant to join a monthly cycle out of Sauveterre de Béarn. The group leader, an Australian, said it would be a 45 km cycle with a stop for lunch, and that it would go ahead rain or shine. The forecast was for rain, so I decided to give it a pass, but Ray was still game to go. Turned out the ‘rain or shine’ didn’t include pouring rain, so the ride was cancelled.
We’ve done some shorter cycles to a few sleepy villages in the area. Villages typically have a church, graveyard and war memorial, but most villages in this area also have ‘lavoirs’, communal wash-houses from the pre-washing machine era.
My favourite houses are the stone ones. And I love turrets. Ray says if I want a house with a turret I’ll have to buy one as he has no intention of building me one.
Don’t know what’s so hard about building a turret.
* Ray pointed out that we’re not actually walking the Camino de Santiago, we’re walking the Camino de Le Puy which leads to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port where the various French Caminos converge and the Camino de Santiago begins.
Aw come on Ray. Build a turret for the lady. How hard could it be?
Ah, this made me laugh. Funny thing is, Ray’s first response when I asked him to build me a turret was, “Russ will build you one.”
I think Rays being VERY unreasonable!!! I am referring to turret building you understand xx
That does seem to be the consensus opinion!