Nice To Be Back

I'm officially out of the Landes region and in the Pyranees-Atlantic. 

Remember the town where hotels are closed on Sundays?  And the one where bars are closed on Mondays?  I'm in a place called Bergouey-Viellenave where there's no food at all. No stores, restaurants or bars. 

I thought I might have made it to St. Palais today but it was 40km not 31 so 

I'm staying at a studio apartment in the town hall, for 10e. A nice little place that even has a washing machine. There's no clothes line though so I'll just continue hand washing a couple of things at a time every couple of days until the washing machine stars are perfectly aligned. 

News Flash!

A lady just came knocking at my door introducing herself as the lady who owns a fancy charcuterie 20km away. A charcuterie is like a fancy deli and she phoned her husband an order of a baguette, some cheese, sausage, string beans, two peaches, two apples, a yogurt, two beers and a half bottle of red wine. She'll bring over when her husband gets home. Woohoo!

End of News Flash

I'm so glad to be in hilly terrain. Not only is the scenery far more beautiful but the hills really make for a more comfortable walk. Pure flat walking puts so much repetitive stress on the same parts of my feet and legs that after just a couple of hours it's very painful. The hills seem to stretch out my feet and probably bring some extra blood to the legs as well so this was the most comfortable 26km I've had in a long time. 

I took a lot of pictures today but the 10e town hall studio doesn't seem to have wifi. In fact I'm not getting any cell service at all from in here so I'll walk around later & try to post this. 

Pyranees

An hour or two out of Dax I came to the biggest hill of the trip so far. It wasn't all that big compared to what's ahead, but I'd hoped that when I got to the top I'd see some new scenery. I wasn't disappointed, as the front range of the Pyranees finally presented itself. 

St. Palais was one of my favorite towns on the Le Puy route and is 31 km from Peyrehorade, where I am now. I was pretty beat up by the end of yesterday's 24km trek here so I don't know if I'll make it there today. 

Badass Name For A Town

Dax. Very scenic as well but you'll have to take my word for it since I had to leave my camera (phone) back at the O Petit Hotel so it could absorb the 1.8gb final episode if BB. 

I did everything I could think of that didn't require a smart phone. Walked around a lot, got my 'passport' stamped, finished reading "Wild", and even got my hair cut. Getting a haircut in France is easy. One-word easy and for me that word is "trois". The universal clipper language makes it very easy. She asked what to do with the top (bald part) of my head and I gestured "whatever you want". I haven't taken a good look at it yet but walking back to O Petit Hotel I could see the shadows cast by the street lights behind me. I seem to have a tuft of hair in the center-front of my head that's pretty well established and she must've left it intact because the shadows make me look like a unicorn. So I got a badass unicorn haircut in Dax. 

Anyhow, 1.2gb downloaded so far. Only 600mb left. I should be good to go in about 4 hours. Till then I'm taking a nap. 

In Onesse et Laharie, No Food On Sundays

So I'm at the camp ground in my trailer home and although it does have a church, that's about all there is here. 

The trailer usually costs 40e but for pilgrims it's only 10!  The campground has a little snack bar that sells pizza but its closed. The father and son who work here both told me its closed on Sundays but about an hour ago the matron of the place stopped by to say that she'd injured her arm and couldn't make pizzas today. She sis however take me over to the snack bar and gave me a bag of pasta, some butter, bread, a couple of eggs, an ice cream cone, and 2 beers!!

No charge for the bread , pasta, butter and eggs. 6e for the ice cream cone and beer. I love this place. 

From here I really have to design not only my route, but tomorrows destination as well. The official destination, a village called Taller has a pilgrim house that you can get into by entering a code into a digital lock. You get the code at the bar next to the house. However my guide book explains that the the bar is closed on Mondays - no further explanation. 

I've had enough of this super flat terrain and perfectly straight roads. Over the past two days I've probably walked 20 km on the service road next to a superhighway. On the upside, I've passed two 7.50e tollbooths so I somehow feel 15e ahead of the game!

Finally Wearing A Shell

And not one of those store bought shells they sell at gift shops either. 

I never did capture a live clam this past summer but I did find a lot of scallop shells. One of them had a hole in the perfect place to tie it to my pack. Yesterday I finally got a string to do the attaching with - and not one of those store bought strings either!  This is a genuine used French shoelace I found by the side of an industrial road.  Now that "The Way" is showing in France, maybe someone in this part of the country will know what it means. 

I can't wait to get out of this region. I think the only people who travel through here are tractor and fertilizer salesmen so lodging is expensive. 

Tonight I'll be in a place called Onesse et Leharie. I think I've found a campground where I can rent an RV for the night. The guy on the phone might have though I want to park my own RV there for the night, in which case I'm sol. Staying in an RV on the day of the BB series finale sounds aprapo though, right?

I d

Not Fair!

Maybe I mean too fair. Here's how this restaurant charges for their house wine. A clear bottle with markings for each increment. 

- un peu (18cl)

- beaucoup (25cl)

- passionement (50cl)

- a la folie (75cl)

I don't know how they charge for amounts between the lines but just in case it's rounded to the greater amount, once I pass beaucoup I'm going straight for passionement!

Nearing A New Blog Map Solution?

The other day Tara complained that the lack of a mapping component to this blog is hard to deal with. So I've spent the last hour or so trying to come up with a solution and feel so close yet so far. 

The iPhone Photos app has a fantastic feature that when you hit the "Places" icon you get a map of where all of your pictures were taken. Very cool, right?  So now I'm trying to figure out how to share it with you guys.