En Andernos-Les-Bains

Just when we think our holiday is over, we found another magical
beautiful French seaside. We are staying in a belle chambre d'hote
avec Pascal et sa femme.

We lucked out big time. We went to Cap Ferret to see the ocean and
what a beach! We stopped in a beautiful quiet little village L'Herbe
dans le Basin D'Arcachon. We had a cafe grand cafe and then headed
for Cap Ferret and the beach.

We soaked up the tres privat plage dans le soleil. Palge sauvage avec
le sable au dela l'horizon.

After many hours in the sun we visited the point to view the sand
dunes and the huge lighthouse.

Then it was find a epicerie pour acheter du vin, de la biere et de la nouriture.

Returning to our B&B La Villa Hebert we enjoyed some gambas
(shrimp/prawns), the beer, chorizo sausage, du pain et du vin de
Cahor.

Malheuresement, c'est la fin de notre vacanse demain. I'll faut
remericier Dieux. Grace a lui, nous avons passe un bon temps en
France et en Espayne. This vacation exceeded our expectations for
sure.

More pictures to follow. Love/amor..

Pintxos

It's like Rio without the heat or the favelas.

San Sebastian/Donastia Spain

Here we are finally having a stay put holiday in beautiful San Sebastian (Spanish name) / Donastia (Basque name). It is a land of beautiful scenery, beaches and great food. We picked up the keys to our apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean yesterday and have been exploring the pintxos bars and ocean side promenades.

Today after a great sleep, we hiked up to the Monte Urgali to see the Cristo Redemptor (Christ the Redeemer) statue and took some photos of the beautiful scenery overlooking the ocean and city.  There was a wedding ceremony about to take place with beautiful bride and groom and plethora of baby's breath.

It was the first sunny day after 6 weeks of rain!  Needless to say we headed for the beach to enjoy the sunshine and many more natural sites.  Life is good in San Sebastian.  Off to the pintxos bars for the Saturday night life shortly.  Some of the most exquisite tapas in the world and vino.  Ole Ole!

Bilbao Magical Mystery Tour

Stairway to Heaven

The Program

In Spain, you eat breakfast at 8 am, a tapas or two at noon, dinner at 2 pm and lunch at 8:30 pm. We finally got with the program today in Bilbao. Note the new scarf!

Paye Vasco/Paye Basque

When we were on the Camino de Santiago Frances 3 years ago, we met a few pilgrims from the Basque region of Spain. They were very lively and said we had to visit their 'country' someday. Well today we did.

We took the train from Deba, a small basque village to Bilbao the capital of Paye Vasco/Paye Basque. Wow, hemmed in by the steep green hills on one side and the Atlantic on the other, we were treated to an Alice in Wonderland experience.

Town after town full of 10 story apartment buildings all joined together looking out at the steep hills. Bilbao is this magical place filled with a winding river, cobblestone streets, stairways to heaven and pintxos, those tiny little seafood tapas delicacies.

Well we fell in love with this magical place. Turns out Paye Vasco/Paye Basque is the wealthiest region of Spain with GDP/person 40 per cent higher than the rest of Spain due to iron ore and other resources. They are one of the 17 independently managed communities of Spain. And yes they have perhaps the best food in the world as we hope to confirm in Donastia/San Sebastian starting tomorrow. Ciau! A few more Bilbao pics to follow.

More mother Marie

Mother Marie

Oops!

Mother Mary everywhere

Dave in Lourdes

Lourdes June 18 2013

Oh it rained!

LOURDES France 2013

Here we are rain and all in beautiful Lourdes!
Now I realize when Dave and I walked El Camino Spain 2010 we walked with St. James to Santiago de Compestella for 29 days.
This time a little different with shorter walks for me and a 10 day walk for Dave and a rented car and more private accommodations. on this pilgrim we walked and visited more with Mother Mary, Mary Magadeline and St. Joseph ( Fr.Medaille founder of Sisters of St. Joseph) and St. Eugene de Mazenod( founder of the Oblate Fathers).The history and journey with those sacred people is special.
Being at Lourdes today was astounding even though it rained. We attended Mass, stations of the cross and adoration. We were touched and grateful for such a blessed opportunity.Pictures to follow.
Sent from my iPhone

Le Canal du Midi

The Canal du Midi was built in the 1600s to enable shipping from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean to bypass Spain.  Declared a world heritage Site, we took a leisurely cruise today.

Cathar Country

We left the Mediterranean yesterday and headed inland to Cathar Country.  The Cathars were a duelistic group  
who ran afoul of the Catholic Church in 1209.  They believed in a simple life free of Bishops control and worshipped 2 God's (1 good representing all the things you cannot see in life) (1 bad representing everything you can physically see).  They also believed in reincarnation - you could only escape if you led  a 'perfect' life free of material things.

Well St. Dominic tried to correct their beliefs thru rational preaching and Pope Innocent sent various emmissaries to negotiate a solution, but these efforts failed. When one emmisary was murdered, the Catholic Church had had enough.  Pope Innocent hired various Knights from Northern France to come and exterminate the heretics.  At Beziers, the lead knight was asked how can we distinguish between Catholics and Cathars - "Kill them all, God will know his own." came the response.  Several thousand were put to the sword and fire, and thus was launched the Inquisition.

Enough of that.  We stopped in Narbonne and looked at the famous Cathedral and visited a huge covered market.  We the toured the medieval Abbaye Fontfroid.  It was built in the 1100s by the Cistercians and at its peak had 100 monks.  Today it looks just like it did then - the hall where the monks slept and the meeting room where they would meet each day to hear instructions from the Abbot.  The rest of the day was spent in prayer (8 times a day) and in total silence.  Fantastic church and rose gardens.

Now in Carcassonne, a world heritage city where the medieval walled city sits on the top of the Hill. This is where many Cathars were hiding during the Albigensian Heresy described above.  The city reached and agreement with Rome and the Cathars were eventually all burned.  We are staying at the Notre Dame Abbey where the Pope celebrated a mass in 1096. Wonderful place.  Heading out for a Canal de Midi cruise and will post some pics.

Dave in church of grotto Mary Magadline

Stuck in the sand beach in France

Grotto Mary M.

Mary Magadeline

More grotto pics

Grotto St. Mary Magadeline

The Tour de France

After leaving Aix en Provence we rented a car and head out to A9 hwy off to St. Baume St. Maximen ( marche day)to hike and explore St. Magadeline grotto 500 metres in the Mountain. That was worth the journey, very sacred and silent place as we explored the Church inside a cave, wet, dark and very different, with her relics and many statues and pictures.
Then we drove to St. Marie's del Mar along the Mediterrrean Sea where they honor all the Mary's every year with a festival and throw flowers into the Sea. This is the place where Mary Magadeline came after the Ressurection.
Today we drove to Gruissan Plage and got stuck in the sand. It took 4 strong men to get us out. The sun was hot all day and what a journey. Dave drove and I navigated. The beach was worth the wait. Now we have a tan.

Aix Pics

In Aix

After Marie's 10 days in Le Puy and after Dave's Chemin de St. Jacques, we took the TGV train to Aix-en-Province.  We booked into the beautiful Oblate Mission House on the Cours Mirabeau, right in the middle of everything.  We were welcomed by Frere Benoit and had dinner with the 2 Oblate priests present and Benoit.

Well the next day was a market day.  The Cours Mirabeau and all the surrounding squares were plene a craquer (packed) with food, clothes and flower vendors.  Not to mention the smell of lavender and other delicatessen fragrances for which Provence is well known.

We toured the sites where St Eugene de Mazenod was born, grew up and founded the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate with which Dave is associated.  Benoit gave us a private tour of the original mission house and surrounding town.  We attended 2 masses in the original Oblate church that had been a Carmelite abbey products to the 1789 French Revolution.  

We also did some souvenir shopping and sampled the local wines.  We were treated to jazz music in the cloister as there were receptions each night for various groups.  It was absolutely fantastic and drinking in the history of the Oblates was very moving for us.

We'll we left in a rental car for St Maximum de Baume to visit. Marie Magdalene"s grotto where she settled after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Saviour.

 See the pics attached.

Conked out in Conques

Well I made it Conques Saturday afternoon as hoped for. As my Chemin
de St Jacques ended it is with a lot of emotion.

200 kilometres of waking in 9 days with elevation changes totaling
over several kilometres, it was physically exhausting and
exhilarating. Meeting and making 30 new friends de toute sorte de
nationalite, was socially rewarding. Spending time walking alone was
an inner journey I feel stronger for having made.

Conques is a world heritage medieval city and was a nice place to say
our goodbyes. Visited the Abbaye Church of St Foy for Sunday mass.
What I understood of the homily was that it is one thing to walk in
nature and see God's creation but to be a Christian requires a leap of
Faith to a higher plane. And that sums up what I felt and experienced
in this pilgrimage.

Merci Dieu et au Seigneur pour votre amor.

Made it back to Le Puy using La Male Postale minibus service in time
for the celebration dinner Sunday night with Marie and the Little
Design Community retreat participants.

The journey is the destination. And it's not over.

Day 9 Le Puy

The days are flying by and after tomorrow we leave the Centre.
Here is where I stayed for 10 days with 10 other ladies and one man.
It was a very informative and special time to grow spirituality and internally.
Dave will arrive tomorrow after 10 days of walking the Camino.
Le Puy is such an old city with great history, churches and statues. The people are so kind and helpful. The scenery is beautiful. The trip to Lyon was interesting.

That was tough today

Covered about 25 km but it was up and down all day and it was hot.

I arrived at the gite d'etape in Golinhac but my bag was not there.
Seemd one truck dropped it off and another picked it up by mistake. I
got it 2 hrs later by taxi.

At one point I got loat and after calling out in front of an open
window, the lady invited me into her house to speak to her. She told
me how to get back on the GR65 and then explained her husband died 3
years ago and she is trying to seel her big house. I guess she was
80+. Wow how many people invite a pure stranger into their home? I
gave her a Canadian flag pin a s atoken of thanks.

I walked most of the day alone but then Met Ingrid from Norway and we
chatted the last 2 hrs.

At 6:15 pm in walks friend Sunny. So we went to the Auberge for
dinner, and sure enough we found Nicole and also John and Claire who
walked 35 km to catch up to us.

We plane to celebrate tomorrow evening in Conques.

None of the Francais avec lesquells J'ai parle, have heard of "The
Way" movie with Martin Sheen. They are most interested.

A demain a Conques. Ultreia!

L'esprit du Chemin de St Jacques

Well people walk the St James Way in France for many reasons I am finding out.

There are many francais who take "walking holidays" and stay in the
gites d'etape (pilgrim hostels). There are some who are getting over
an illness or loss and seeking new strength. There are some who like
the freedom of being outdoors, away from city noise and having some
good food.

However some are indeed very spiritual. Today as we came into Aubrac
a little hamlet, there was a statue of Our Lady of Aubrac around which
a group of adolescents were standing. One of them started a prayer and
then they all started singing a few hymns as the cows in the field
gazed on.

For me it was a moving moment to see the young people visibly engaged
in their faith. It was a spiritual signal that I new would come at
some point.

Thanks Lord for all your blessings and mercy.

Day 6 LePuy

June 4,2013

Day 6 in LePuy France,known by the Catholic Church as the most sacred place in the world.
The mountains and the monuments that are erected from volcanic rock are amazing. The St. Michael Rock is awesome with many steps to climb up to the chapel called St. Michael the Arc Angel. Today was perfect weather, sunshine and warm.

Les gens

On the Chemin de Saint Jacques most pilgrims are from France. I have
also met another Canadian, a couple from Perth Australia, a lady from
South Africa, several Swiss and 1 American.

Some interesting people:
- Alain from Switzerland who is a Templar
- Sonny from Toronto who did the Camino in Spain last year and is now
doing it again all the way from Le Puy
- Ursula from Switzerland who is walking with her dog from Switzerland
to Santiago
- John and Claire who flew all the way from Perth, Australia to hike for 2 weeks
- Vincent the chef who made us Aligot a melted mixture of cheese and potato
- a nice older couple from France who hike all over the place

It's great to quickly make so many friends in a foreign land.

LePuy 2013

Choses Differentes

Here in France there are some differences in etiquette.

Last night I was privileged to have a 7 course meal. Not knowing each
time more was coming, I filled up on whatever Monique (Chez Monique
B&B) brought. Mistake, half way thru I could not eat anymore. We had:
- apperatifs
- hordourves
- soup
- pasta casserole
- chicken and rice
- cheese plate
- fruit and tart desert
- coffee/tea

Another oddity is les francais drink their morning coffee out of a
bowl after dipping their toast into it.

Tonight dans Le Gite de la ferme au Sauvage there were only 4 courses
so I got off easy.

Gaining weight sur le Chemin de St Jacques..

LePuy June 2 2013

Salva Regina! The bishop from Le Puy
Wrote this prayer,

Today was amazing, walked to this statue.
Mass at the Cathedral Notre Dame for the procession " Corpus Christie" feast day,

I've Survived 2 Days

I am in beautiful Sauges, a medieval town full of narrow cobblestone
streets, boulangeries and friends.

Today was the most difficult walk of my life. From Montbonnet to
Monistrol d'Allier, a mere distance of 13 km, the rocky muddy trail
went up and the down 650 m. I was exhausted when I arrived at
Monistrol. So, a nice man named Henri drove me to Sauges (12 km but
up 650 m again) after serving me lunch in his restaurant!

I am now esconced in Chez Monique B&B awaiting the 5 pm cathedral service.

I will decide tomorrow if I will have my bag sent ahead to lighten the
load. (Henri says the Camino is much easier from here on.)

Just ran into friends Sonny from Toronto with Sophia from S. Africa.

Life is good when their are angels like Henri and Monique.