The Gite Comunal in Artherz-de-Bearn did not offer breakfast. In fact, after the woman checked the five of us in at 4:30 pm yesterday, she left. We had the place to ourselves. For breakfast we walked back about 100 m to a patisserie we enjoyed drinks at yesterday. They offered a Pelerin’s breakfast that included: a hot drink, orange juice, half a baguette, butter, jam, and a chocolatine. We sat at the barrel tables with Rene and Leo, and ate what was my favourite breakfast of the Chemin. Why? The bread and chocolatines were just hours old, and my hot chocolate was thick. I used my spoon to scoop the chocolate skin off the top. We bought sandwiches to go for lunch and set off.
Rene is from France. He started in Le Puy on April 3, and is walking very fast.
It rained off and on throughout the day. We donned our jackets for the first shower, but after that, we just pulled out umbrellas for the short downpours. We spent most of the day on roads, but the few necessary trail sections were saturated and slick with mud. The temperature was about 12 C so we were comfortable not wearing jackets.
We stopped in Sauvelade for a noon break, having walked just over half the 30 km we needed to cover today. We sat down at Le P’tit Laa for Coca Zeros out of the rain. While we sat, the hostess set out the chalkboard menu of the day. We had sandwiches with us but translated the menu out of curiosity. She had me at duck.
In an earlier entry (April 5), I mentioned regret for not ordering frog legs and vowed to not let opportunities pass me by. We were in agreement that this was one of those moments so we all ordered the duck. First came a small salad with chicken, then the duck, prepared medium (maybe a little rare for North Americans) but we loved it. With the duck came tasty home fries. I had rice pudding for dessert, Mark D had none, and Mark K had the sampler which gave a slice of two cakes and rice pudding. Hands down, this was the best lunch of the Chemin. It’s hard to believe that two of the best meals occurred on the same day.
It was back to the trail after lunch and the rain kept coming. Two hours later, we walked into Navarrenx, a small walled town. We took photos of an aerial photo of the town, but were too tired to explore ourselves. We found our Gite, checked in, cleaned up, napped (at least the Marks napped). I started to write this entry.
This is another comunal Gite, our third in three days. France has changed the way they are run. They now rent them to a host for a year. The host takes care of the operation and hopefully makes a living. It seems like a smart plan. As Mark K said, “it would be fun to run a Gite for a couple years, but not long term.” This gite is rented and operated by Marie and Aurelian, a couple expecting their first baby. Marie studied International Studies in Sudbury at Laurentian University 18 years ago, then lived and worked in Toronto, and finally Montreal before returning home. The pelerin season is from mid March to late October usually, but they successfully operated the Gite year round, making it more self-serve in the off season. This is their second year and they seem to enjoy it.
We ate a tasty meal prepared by Marie at the Gite this night. This was one of the few vegetarian meals we’ve received. They will become more popular as the Chemin crosses into Spain. We had a purée vegetable soup and curry with rice. None of us had seconds after our legendary breakfast and lunch. Dessert was an apple-chocolate cake with fresh warm applesauce.
We have discovered that there are limited beds in tomorrow’s destination town. Apparently two Gite hosts are getting married and have invited other Gite hosts. They will all be staying in… you guessed it, Gites. We’ve struck out with every call and email. Oh well, as Mark K says, “That’s a tomorrow problem.”