Day 8 Fichous to Arthez de Bearn, 20 kms

One of the many pleasures of this walk has been the opportunity to reminisce about our time walking these same paths in 2014.

Having met at Le Gite Champs d’Etoiles in Condom, The French and I walked, more or less together, until Pamplona - along with others including two lovely young German pilgrims Max and Sebastian. We thought of them often today and again this evening at the wonderful Gite de la Boulangerie where we had all stayed nine years ago. I have featured them in my photos for this post. In April 2014, we were walking longer stages, and for some days in a row it was cold, wet and muddy - very different to the afternoon heat we have experienced since we began nine days ago.

It’s funny, and sometimes surprising, the things that are easily recalled and those that one or both of us have forgotten. But we have ‘aides de memoire’. I have my blog from 2014 and The French has his photos as well as a photo of each page of his hand-written journal. It’s quite a joy for me to have The French read his reflections from that day in 2014, including references to Jenny, the Australian. And the same for him. We realise how unusual it is to have these first days after our meeting ‘documented’ in this way.

Although we walked only 20 kms today, there was once again a fair amount of climbing in the afternoon and we arrived in Arthez hot, sweaty and tired. The welcome from our host Bertrand was as warm as we remembered and it was a treat to be back here at his wonderful gite. Quite a few of ‘the friends’ we have met in recent days were here also, so that our international community for this night included French, German, Czech, Canadian and Australian.

And together we enjoyed another wonderful communal dinner, with the generosity and ‘art de table’ that is the French way. Merci Bertrand. ♥️Read more