Le Puy-en-Velay

Jet-lag almost avoided. The sun was up before we were, and it felt like morning. We had breakfast at the hotel, as is the case every day on the walk. Outside, we could see people heading off down the path to Spain ( or Cahors in our case) with a dog carrying its own packs.

Breakfast was simple and easy. . We met a group of four American women who are doing the same walk and have had their tour organised by the same company... so we might meet them often, I expect.

We walked up to the chapel on top of the pinnacle in yesterday's photos. Sanctuaire Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe was started in 961. The first pilgrim to walk from Le Puy to Santiago - Gotescalc- was the bishop who consecrated it. It was rebuilt and enlarged over time and has a few tiny chaprels on the way up. Plus a fresco from c 1200. around 1100AD.

From there we went down and up to the garish 1870s metal statue of Mary + child. It is 835 tonnes of metal from 200+ Russian cannons captured in Crimea, with a few left for decoration. It had a very narrow cast iron circular stairwell inside and a small perspex topped dome inside the halo of stars so one person could peer out a little both looked to be the same height, but from the statue one looked almost straight down on the other chapel.

Then the local cathedral cloisters, with an amazing collection of old embroidered robes, and afterwards we sat in the cathedral as the organist practised. It was quite something when he practised the low notes.

We had beentold about a 5pm gathering of "pilgrims" so we went. I had expected some sort of lecture, but it was simply people meeting. We only really talked to two people: a 30-ish girl from Angiers (one of the few French towns we know because the barge went there (nearly) in 2002) who plans to do the whole walk to Spain in 90 days, and a 30-ish Canadian girl who lives in France and wants to walk for 40 days and see where she ends up. Surprisingly, it seems like the people doing the walk are mostly women (biologically speaking) and mostly around our age, or older. That view may change in a few days, but there seemed a common theme today.

Most restaurants seemed closed, but we found one about a 10 min walk away. quite simple, but fine. It was called Merry and Pippin, and was all Hobbit themed. It snowed ever so slightly on the way there, and while we were there, but not enough to leave anything on the ground. It doesn't feel like it's freezing, except in the wind. During the day in the sun it was pleasantly warm, although Anne was wondering about wearing gloves when we went out for dinner.

The bag saga continues. AF say they found it, and when we rang them around 2pm we were told it was yet to be picked up, but that that could happen any time. Their website says it is out for delivery....but that likely means it arrives somewhere tomorrow. Ideally before 8am here, but Air France baggage handling is apparently not ideal.

It's 9pm here and still light, but we aren't yet fully on local time. The one bag we have is picked up at 8am tomorrow, so we have to be up before then. Some may have noticed there were no photos on Sunday… even the internet takes a break in the evening…and apparently on Monday mornings. Perhaps its just this hotel.

AppartHotel les Capucins: 1. the receptionist who specialised in gloom, and the one who made coffee and smiled, 2. being able to access the room from the street without a key (but the door had a keypad), 3. Sunday morning 740am breakfast frenzy that died away in 10 minutes and wasn't there on Monday, 5 a corner room looking down on the people starting off to Spain (or SPd'A), 6. The Hogwarts style-steps, doors and changing levels to reach our room.

14,633/ 10km and 75 flightsLäs mer

After meeting the group formally and learning a bit about one another, we headed out for a tour of the town, led by Janet, a lovely English woman who married a French man and has lived in France for many years. Janet provided us with some of the history of the Way of St James (Jacques in French). Interestingly the Way of St James is the oldest pilgrimage trail, but it was lost during the religious wars of the 15th & 16th centuries, and was only rediscovered in the 1970’s. About 30,000 people from all over the world do some of or all of this pilgrimage trail each year. Interesting fact, the first record of someone doing this pilgrimage was Bishop Gottschalk. We know some Gottschalks in Melbourne, and will need to check if they are descendants.

We left the hotel and wandered through this very picturesque town (known for the quality of its Puy lentils) heading towards the Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy. This Cathedral was built on a volcanic mountain and looks down on the city of Le Puy-en-Velay, as does the Rocher Corneille et Statue Notre-Dame de France.Läs mer