More Perfect Union

I hope everybody enjoyed the picture of the horse yesterday. Matt Harvey was pitching at 730 local time and I had to watch the gamecast on my laptop. How bout those Mets!

Last night I stayed at a truck stop about a half km from the path. It was a little grittier than Le Routier in Old Saybrook but it had authentic French trucks parked outside.  The owner is a friendly guy. I'm thinking my French must be getting better because we got into a conversation about whether dark chocolate or "Melissa Water" is better for overcoming fatigue.

Eau de Melisse might be the oldest continuously produced product in the world. The current concoction has been sold since 1611. It's only sold in pharmacies and is 80% alcohol and infused with nine spices and fourteen other plants. The bottles come with dropper tops and you're supposed to saturate a sugar cube with it and pop it in your mouth. Maybe it's a placebo effect but I don't think so. You're only supposed to do it two or three times per day. After getting my first bottle I did five cubes before dinner and didn't sleep well at all.

Anyway, the walking has been kind of dull. Very nice but pretty much more of the same. Today's route was about 30km, the first 20 of which were alone g the Rigole river, which feeds the Canal du Midi. The CdM  indirectly connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and was built in the late 1600s (I'm thinking it was the result of Eau de Melisse).  Good canal I guess but a canal is a canal, right?  And so damned flat. I took a "variante" for the last 10km which went over some hills and ended up down at the Canal where I'm staying tonight.

This place is a big win. €47 for a room in a place that reminds me of the Montauk Yacht Club. I'm just finishing dinner now. Had the cassoulet which was a sizzling union of meat and bean! 

Note:  I've been trying to upload this for over an hour from my phone.  I had some good pictures but Android and Google Blogger won't cooperate with each other.  Thank God I brought my laptop.  I/m going to watch some Veep!