Lots of kms today, but the surfaces were pleasant, and the morning cloud stuck around until about the halfway mark, so it didn’t feel too strenuous. The scenery changed as we moved into areas of large scale fruit farming (mostly). The other type of farming that’s caught my attention for the past many days, is how many horses and horse farms there are. And I’ve only seen one group of horse riders – and they were going so slowly it must have been a tourist excursion!
U-pick courgettes. Just don’t get caught!Not sure what they are growing, but it sure uses a lot of plastic. Somewhere in the distance are large tractors to give some perspective.Not sure how much drive-up business these wineries get. If the signs are on the camino path, then they’re well off the beaten path!
Tonight I’m staying in a really interesting gîte in Saint Gilles. I intentionally pick one with half pension – if available – on Sundays and Mondays when it’s hard to either provision or find restaurants that are open. There were 5 Belgians (not all travelling together), one Israeli and myself. Conversation was mostly in French with periodic English thrown in. Good food and lots of laughs. Because the gîte didn’t open until 4, the Israeli woman and I decided to find a bar, so the usual order of shower, laundry, beer, siesta got a bit mixed up. The siesta was skipped entirely!
The reception room off the streetThe stairs to the room I’m in. The bathroom is downstairs, and it has a 5 foot high door. Things that could go bump in the night!Gîte front door
Saint Gilles was a roman town and has a strong historical connection to pilgrimage. It’s incredible Abbey was mostly destroyed in the Wars of Religion, bur some of the stine work was rescued and incorporated into the rebuilt church.
The front with the rescued (albeit defaced) stone sculptures from the original AbbeyThe part that wasn’t rebuilt
In 2009, we embarked on a one-year family sailing adventure aboard a Grand Soleil 39, "SV Mulan". Our original sailing blog is linked on this site.
In 2017, Susan, Andrew, Sam & Max walked the Camino Frances from St-Jean-Pied-de-Porte to Santiago de Compostella (and rode bikes from Burgos to Leon as a blister recovery strategy), and in 2018 Jack also joined the crew as we waled the northern section of the Camino Portuguese from Porto to S de C.
In 2019 Andrew, accompanied by Max for the first few hundred kms, and Susan for the Tiscan section, walked the via francigena from Canterbury to Rome. That journey is blogged in this site.
This blog is planned as an alternative to the endless instagram posts used previously to communicate with those interested in our travels - although there is a linked instagram account as well!
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2saunter 