Today was a good and long day. We are tired. Have done some errands for tomorrow and now are getting dinner. Looking forward to a shower and sleep. I will intersperse beautiful landscape photos in between my funny stories.

So the other day we got a message from our accommodation that said they could offer us a crepe. This was all in French, of course. It explained what was in the crepe which we understood was toad, bacon, cheese. Ummmm no thank you I have not nor do I plan on eating toad.

Well, we started asking people at the places we stayed about this Crepe du Morvan (our understanding is this was toad crepe). We were assured that it was not. However it was going to be quite expensive. So we still opted for no toad crepes.

Apparently the crepe is not toad it’s a crepe with three kinds of flour with cheese and bacon. Well for breakfast we still got the “toad crepe” so we felt obliged to try it. It was just meh 🫤 fortunately there was bread and jam so we had a decent breakfast.

Another story. As you know we have been traversing through forests with warnings of boars, wolves and hunters. We walked through a section of woods that was called the Park of Boars (Parc de Sanglier) Noël commented that he wouldn’t mind seeing a boar at a distance. I replied, “hey open your phone to google, type in boar and see all the boars from a distance that you can. That’s as close as I want to come to a live boar!”

Then while sitting in a cafe I was looking around and saw a boar’s head over the door to the kitchen. I said, “Hey Noël, I have a surprise for you!! Look! It’s a boar up close!!” 😂

Last story slightly embarrassing. I have this amazing gadget called a SheWee. It is a FUD a feminine urinary device, which allows me to pee standing up. Very convenient when walking long distances with no toilets. Well the other day when it was raining all day 1 km from our accommodation it was necessary to stop and pee. So I got my pack upclipped, I got my coat out of the way, got passed my rain pants and my other pants and my underwear (so I thought) and relieved myself. As I was getting everything back in place I realized I hadn’t gotten past my underwear. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So washing stuff in the shower was necessary. Just an ordinary day in the life of a pilgrim. 😂

Hope you enjoyed these fun stories. Just a little something different. Thanks for following along.

I’ll explain the title, I promise but let me say we had a good day despite the constant rain. We got dinner for a couple of days and even found a cafe open. And this little guy spent time on both our laps.

The terrain and landscape today were breathtaking even in the rain.

We had a little incident at our last accommodation while trying to get geared up and leave, which is sad because we had such a lovely stay.

As we were trying to get out the door into the pouring rain we forgot to ask about the cost of the accommodation. And the host didn’t say anything either. After about 500 meters down the hill we got a phone call from our host and she was very upset because we didn’t leave any money. She is a donativo which means you pay what you think is right. We had no idea that she was a donativo and when we book with booking.com it’s already paid and you just leave. Long and short is she thought we had taken advantage of her. Which, of course we would never do. We have friends who have donativos!!! And after walking over 1000 kms this is the first time this has happened!!Anyway we turned around and walked back and made it right but it left us feeling a bit weary, drained emotionally and mentally.

However, as always we have learned a lesson. Always double check, the devil is in the details. My blog “tripping into grace” is all about learning from mistakes and moving on…after you trip and fall…stop, learn, get a new perspective and move on!

More photos!

Regardless we are good. Nice accommodations.
Hope you all are well!!

Today’s walk was supposed to be 15 kms and miracle of miracles it was!!! We had such a lovely day, no stops, well no official stops. We made our own.

Wait, let me back up. Last night’s dinner and stay was absolutely perfect!! Our host and friends had a lively conversation with Noël (in French) to which I kept up and followed pretty well. They gave us tips which we hope are helpful. Such as if you can’t find a place to stay call the Mairie (town hall) and they will find you a common place to stay, as long as the Mairie is open. 😂🥰

And breakfast was yummy too. Only the second time I have been offered a bowl of coffee. Delicious. Our host gave us a discount. Super nice!!

As we made our way out of Anost we headed down. Which was funny because we thought we were already in the valley. But down we went in order to go up.

NOW: The Dance of the Climb! As we started up into the forest the path was wide enough that we could zigzag the steep path. Zigzag you ask? Well you walk at an angle from side to side saving your knees and other joints. When we walked the camino Frances someone came up to us and said, “I’ve been watching you and it looks like you are dancing!”

So aside from zigzagging our way up and even down the steep ways we also noticed that as we headed up a climb we got overheated with all the gear. So before climbing we took off the neck buff and the gloves and opened the coat. Once we got to the top and had the wind blowing we had to put it all back on. So the dance includes realizing what you need for any particular part of the dance. I guess you might say it’s about costume changes.

So how does this apply to everyday life? When I came home from my first pilgrimage I wanted to carry what I had learned into everyday life. I wanted to be an everyday pilgrim. It’s the simple lessons that I learned on the camino that began to translate into everyday life.

Just some bullet points that I want to elaborate on over the next couple of months. so stay tuned.

Okay we saw tracks again today. So I downloaded a couple of free tracking apps. But they were not helpful. They really made us laugh.

For example this picture came up as 94% mountain lion.

This one 78% cow

We think wild boar!! 😳

I don’t have the bear looking track that said it was 75% alligator. If alligators show up on these mountains so far away from water climate change is a lot farther along than we knew. (P.S. we believe there is climate change)!

So whoever has a good tracking app for animal tracks please share.

Thanks for joining us on our journey!

Today was just a quiet kind of day. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and got started just before 10. We said goodbye to the ponies on our way out of town.

We had a day of more downs than ups, well as far as elevation. We had more ups than downs as far as a really good day. we also saw the biggest goats I’ve ever seen.

We did not make it into town in time to go to the store because it’s winter vacation. The store is open in the morning but not in the afternoon. So we will go by first thing in the morning because we need to get a couple of meals for the next few days. We are eating with our host and some family and friends of theirs. I’m sure I will feel lost because it will all be in French, that is cool and should be fun. At least another opportunity to work on my French.

We met a Dutch couple in the little cafe where we had lunch. It was a fun and lively conversation going from Dutch to English to French and around again. 😂

We were able to get a stamp for our credentials and found out the church was open. The sanctuary was really beautifully simple. We, of course lit candles.

We had some great conversations today about how to proceed on this journey. More later.