LE PUY TO AUBRAC: I HEART THE FRENCH

THIS SHOULD BE THE FOURTH POSTING. READ HOUSTON FIRST......

Well obviously the whole business with my luggage got cleared up. I got the bag Friday morn. Will spare you my travails in the Hotel Ibis !!!!!!!Though I did not get the l'eggs du frogge that I so wanted I had some passable duckling with some wonderful fried potatoes--here for 5 days and still have not had any freedom fries.

Got metro to Gare du Lyon, a wonderful comfortable bullet train to st etienneand a local to Le Puy on Friday without trouble. Delightful countryside: Le Puy is fabulous: I found and got into the gite d'etape (these are the places I will be staying. They are kinda of a step below hostals and a step above massive dormitories. In Spain they are called alburgues and resemble rooms you would see in B movies like WOMEN FROM CELL BLOCK D) I soon realized that my nonexistent French was going to problematic. Still did not make too many fo pahs; Walked around the old part of city and did cathedral: Then dinner: jambon crue; spiced pork sausage with local green lentils; 3 kinds of local cheese and some very strange but nice gelato. That was wonderful and would serve as a nice intro to the wonders of French food and cooking.

Slept well and got up early at 6:30 expecting lots of pilgrims to also be getting up for the 7 am mass and pilgrim benediction. NO ONE STIRRING. I trotted off to the cathedral and found it open with only one congregant. I sat and waited. At 7 the other guy turned on a light and went back to the vestry or somewhere: I was thinking that this was going to be interesting. A mass for only ME, in French no less. I was bound to get a lot of indulgences for that.

No one showed up: I left about 7:15. (Turns out they don't do 7am service and benediction as advertised until later in the season but were blessing everyone after the 9am service.) Still no one up at the gite. I packed up, had a few cups of nescafe AND WAS OFF ON MY PILGRIMAGE.....

I realized outside though that I didn't get my stamp for my credencial. I needed this to prove I had started in Le Puy. For some reason this was very important to me. So I went back to the cathedral and found the sacristy which was closed. In the church a woman was lighting candles but soon went to the aisle and put on a back pack. I went up to her and asked if she could speak English and she replied in the affirmative and we have been together ever since. We even sleep together (you know what I mean, of course.) This is Anne Marie who gets her own chapter:

Here is some info on Le Puy's significance that I downloaded earlier and hence why this entry is before HOUSTON and my travails at the airport.

Sometime between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, a local woman suffering from an incurable disease had visions of Mary. In her visions she received instructions to climb Mt. Corneille, where she would be cured by the simple act of sitting on the great stone. Following this advice, the woman was miraculously cured of her ailment. Appearing to the woman a second time, Mary gave instructions that the local bishop should be contacted and told to build a church on the hill. According to legend, when the bishop climbed the hill, he found the ground covered in deep snow even though it was the middle of July. A lone deer walked through the snow, tracing the ground plan of the cathedral that was to be built.

The statue of Our Lady of Le Puy and the other treasures escaped the pillage of the Middle Ages. The roving banditti were victoriously dispersed, in 1180, by the Confraternity of the Chaperons (Hooded Cloaks) founded at the suggestion of a canon of Le Puy. In 1562 and 1563 Le Puy was successfully defended against the Huguenots by priests and religious armed with cuirasses and arquebusses. But in 1793 the statue was torn from its shrine and burned in the public square. Père de Ravignan, in 1846, and the Abbé Combalot, in 1850, were inspired with the idea of a great monument to the Blessed Virgin on the Rocher Corneille. Napoleon III placed at the disposal of Bishop Morlhon 213 pieces of artillery taken by Pélissier at Sebastopol, and the colossal statue of "Notre-Dame de France" cast from the iron of these guns, amounting in weight to 150,000 kilogrammes, or more than 330,000 lbs. avoirdupois, was dedicated 12 September, 1860.

Known for tanning, lace and green lentils.

Here is a link to some photos of the famous chapel of St Michael that was unfortunately closed.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/555486616UmdXFP?start=12

Well, the route is fantastic. We do about 12-15 miles a day through lovely farm land. It is very mountainous. We pass a little village with a handful of houses ever 2 miles or so. The houses are large, rectangular stone affairs similar to what a child draws as a typical house. Simply lovely; The villages hang off these volcanic cliffs over verdant countryside.

The weather is still chilly though we got some sun today. Snow flurries on Saturday and drizzle on Sunday and wind yesterday. But not too arduous. Mud at a minimum, but that can change.
I think we left the remaining snow drifts behind by now.

Last night we stayed in a governmental gide that was located on a working farm in the middle of nowhere. It was incredible--the "height" of luxury, gite style, for 10 euros. We bought eggs and potatoes from the farm for dinner and raided their larder for wine and butter. Mmmmmm.

Stunning small Romanesque chapels and churches all over. I have seen about 2-3 a day. I have to go back and shower and help with communal meal.