The Old and the New

 

Day 17

     The heat of the day seems to control our itinerary.  Out walking at the crack of dawn. Wait! isn’t this supposed be like vacation!  To be honest, today’s landscape was pretty boring,  We walked the whole day through scrub oak forests with miles and miles of old rock wall fences. 

     A couple of highlights were the old and the new. Dotted about the forest are old shepherd shelters made of rock.  They’re also dolmens from the Stone Age.  But we also came across a modern pilgrim shelter shaped like the upside down hull of a boat with actual scallop shells for shingles.

     If last night’s host were persnickety, tonight’s was the exact opposite.  It literally took us an hour in the unbearable heat, walking in circles around this tiny town.  At one point I left Esther with the packs in the shade to find it, to no avail.  Ironically, forty-five minutes later we.discovered that she had been waiting in the shade of the back way of the gite we were looking for.  The host, Niko, was very friendly and fluent in English. But a was definitely the loosey goosey variety, which sometimes comes with less than the cleanest facilities. The place filled up and we are three men and four women- one bathroom and hot as the dickens.  We enjoyed learning more about French culture from our dinner conversation.