I successfully set the alarm on my mobile for 6.45 and we were down for breakfast by 7.30 as agreed. Today was to be a bit longer and merited a prompt start. Breakfast was comfortable and plentiful at a communal table with a Suite by Lully playing in the background to accompany the brioche. Very civilised. We had a prompt transfer back to Larreule at 8am following warm farewells. The morning promised to be fine and it it fulfilled that promise. Despite a little mist we slapped on the Ambre Solaire and set off for what was essentially a long, flat walk. The countryside was the same traditional farmland as yesterday with some early distant views of the Pyrenees. We had phone contact from Geoff and Sue Todd who have arranged to join us again this year for a couple of days and they were now parked outside Maslacq. It was agreed that they
would set off towards us and eventually their smiling faces hove into sight near the Chapelle de Caubin, 10k this side of Maslacq. They had thus seen what there was of our lunch destination of Arthez-de-Béarn which is basically a 2k street of houses along a ridge. So we stopped for a drink (where we had a cheerful call from James) and then pressed on out of town for a late but pleasant picnic. When shopping I had admired the 'first cherries of the season' (at 7 Euros a kilo!) so the shopkeeper gave us one each!!We were then less than 8k from Maslacq. Des identified on his map a pylon line in the distance that we would have
to walk under. Someone facetiously said 'we couldn't walk OVER' but by a strange coincidence when we arrived at the spot a team with elaborate equipment were re-newing a pylon like a huge Meccano set and the new cables were at knee height and in fact we did walk over.We eventually arrived at Maslacq by 4pm where in a quick succession of bridges we had to cross over the hurly-burly of a TGV mainline railway, the broad and big Gave de Pau river and the A64 motorway before entering town and finding the Hotel Maugouber. From the amount of baggage waiting it seems a popular pilgrim stop. Needless to say we had established for football-fanatic Clare that they had cable television to cover the Man.U. v. Chelsea match in Moscow but in fact it was Channel 1. As a bonus our rooms were on the ground floor near reception so there was no lugging of cases upstairs. However there had been blister trouble today so a certain amount of restorative work had to be done. It was decided the swimming pool was TOO refreshing.
The dining room was nice and buzzy. We had agreed with the lady behind the bar (who controlled the TV) that we would be watching the match and so we were seated for dinner first. She was a "Chel-Sea" supporter "as they were French". We had a decent meal of locally cured ham, steak/frites and tarte. And who did we see in the dining room but the mustachioed Belgian gentleman last seen in Conques (two years ago to the day!) and still with his two ladies. We warmly greeted each other: they were spending two nights at this hotel while they shuttled to and fro to cover their distance. They were only going to St Jean this trip but would be back to do the Pyrenees in the summer, so we may well see them in Spain.
The match was most exciting - certainly to a neutral.
