as we went across to the hotel for breakfast. We were on our way by 8.30 having taken today's team photo outside the pork butchers next door where the portraits of the proprietor and his wife display the French equivalent of saucy postcard humour. It was actually quite hazardous as we diced with rush hour traffic in the rain outside the town walls and over the river bridge. We then passed through an area of upmarket residences making the town even bigger.We are now in (French) Basque country with its own separate language for signage although apparently learning it at school is not compulsory. It was a day of mostly road walking with some gravelly paths. . We had a few stiff climbs and subsequent descents but this is all good training for Monday next!
Miraculously after a couple of hours the
rain stopped and the sun came out for the rest of the day. So we stopped mid morning at Rivehaute to remove the rest of our wet weather gear at a most useful halt provided by the local producer of the ”Jean Haget” range of tinned gastronomic delicacies who combined marketing with altruism - and a seemingly genuine delight in talking to the strangers who stopped to enjoy his sheltered tables and benches. There was much loud conversation and macho stomping of boots, rather like the top of a ski lift, as people prepared for the next phase.Just before Aroue we stopped for lunch on some convenient tree stumps thoughtfully provided by the commune of 246 people - their nearby noticeboard described a sad litany of inexorable decline : two communities amalgamated into one, 3 churches but no longer their own priest, and a long list of all who have gone - school, filling station, wood workers and other trades etc.
Shortly after lunch we arrived at Olhaiby, a dot on the map with just a little church and a farm. But from there we rang the taxi number we had been given and sure enough within 30 minutes we were duly collected in a nice clean VW to be take to our overnight stop at St Palais.
We caused some amusement to some fellow walkers as we got out of our transportation and felt the need to explain that we would be picking up where we left off! Three cheers for the Hotel de la Paix as only for the second time since leaving Le Puy did someone take our baggage up to the rooms. Mind you the hotel has been nicely revamped and now has a lift! Nevertheless the lady on the front desk seems to do the lot - checks us in with charm, brings the bags up, serves excellent cold beers, waters the bushes in the tubs outside and subsequently waits at table for dinner. They do have nearby competitors in their tree lined square and they do try hard. The town council is responsible for the background music in the streets throughout the day.The St Palais creanciale stamp incorporates the monument erected nearby at Hiriburia to mark the spot where the routes from Le Puy, Paris and Vézélay are thought to have met. We will see it tomorrow.
Excellent dinner, professionally done - they were almost disappointed that we did not take full advantage of the more elaborate menus to which we were apparently entitled but we enjoyed our Beef Bourguignon and veal casserole. Good puds.
