Reminders of Home

Yesterday's walk was quite tough on our paws and legs, so we were very glad to arrive at the Gite Saint Martin, home of none other than a Mrs Georgina Sykes.

You will appreciate that when we saw that name in the Miam Miam Dodo (our accommodation bible - it means something like, munch, munch, sleep) there was nowhere else to book.

It was really great fun staying there with Mrs Sykes, her ex rally driver French partner, Anthony, two girls and Shaun, the huge Alsatian dog. As there was a party of 6 French, self-catering in the gite, she decided we would be better off in the main house, and gave us one of her chambres d'hôte, and we also had a glass of iced tea on arrival: it was delicious, much nicer than we were expecting. It was a great welcome.

We were the only guests eating, and we sat at a huge table feeling like royalty as we dined on wild boar pate and a bowl of fine chilli. We happened to be chatting with Anthony when our wine ran out, and he immediately brought us another half litre - what hospitality!

After her daughters had gone to bed, we chatted to Mrs Sykes until 10.00 p.m. She is a very colourful character and we were regaled with tales of previous pilgrims who have stayed with her, and her frustrations at many aspects of French culture. We were very sad though to learn of some of the cases of donkey/mule mistreatment she has had to deal with. It does seem that a lot of pilgrims are completely clueless, but we don't think we fall into that category - we hope not!

We were quite sad to leave Mrs Sykes this morning, but the pilgrim motto of 'ultreia' ever onwards, beckoned us on, so we set off for large town of Moissac. We got there at lunchtime so treated ourselves to a hamburger and fries (French style) after looking round the famous cloisters.

In the afternoon we had a walking treat: we walked along a canal all the way to Pommevic where we are staying tonight. It was nice, easy, flat walking and, while sadly there were no narrowboats, we did see a few plastic pigs on the way, and several automatic locks.



The towpath was so good that our minders did a large chunk of it in their Crocs. They said their feet really appreciated being set free from their boots.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx