Day 4 Vendargues to Montpellier, 12 km

Blessedly short day today. I slept in, dawdled over my nespresso coffee and did not leave the gîte until 10. Beautiful sunny day but a bit chilly. Two jacket morning. The route today connected the bedroom community of Vendargues to Montpellier. Last night the gite owner called it 12 kilometres of ugliness. It wasn’t. It certainly wasn’t the most beautiful landscape, but it was fine. Leaving through the outskirts of a town is often not beautiful. But it’s interesting. You see people at work. And in this case there were lots of people around, like the man on his bicycle who stopped to chat about the Camino with me. He has walked it (which one exactly I’m not sure) four times. He loves it. Me too!

The Camino followed a paved bike path, always separated from the road and, at times, through some really nice parks, including one with a lake (though we might call it a really big pond). I walked past some very tidy suburban sub-divisions that reminded me a lot of Southern California. Lots of landscaping, the low stone walls or pillars at entranceways to the communities. Nothing obviously out of place.

Just outside Montpellier I stopped at bakery to get a small quiche for lunch. It was shockingly good. The other day I had one that was so horrible I did not finish it.

Montpellier is big and has a beautiful old centre. I’m staying in a hotel and was able to check in early. And then the highlight of the day - some seriously fancy coffee at a cafe that gives you a choice of beans and makes a perfect flat white. Also nice that the cafe had a dog assisting behind the counter!

Normally to get a stamp in your credencial or pilgrim passport you would go to the church. I chose the wrong huge church, and the man there sent me to the gite. It was in a massive building behind the church. Maybe 25 tall steps up to the second ( first to them) floor. A door so heavy that I could not actually figure out how to open it when I was trying to leave. The hospitalera was tiny, under 5’ and quite elderly. But somehow she got that door open and closed.

There were a few other people there. A man and a woman came asking if a group of 12 could sleep there that night. They did not have reservations! The answer was no. Not surprisingly. Two young women were checking in. Another woman was picking up a new credencial because she has retired and is going to walk starting next week. Somehow those tasks took over half an hour. So I had time to look around. Incredible building. Will probably last another few hundred years. But was it freezing!!! Huge stones. Impossible to get warm. I felt bad for the young women who were going to sleep there. And relieved that I had chosen to book somewhere else.

Dinner tonight at a wine bar with the Belgian woman who stayed in the same gite last night. So urban!

Another 12 kilometers through the outskirts on the other side of town tomorrow before getting back into the countryside.Read more