Day Two

Offical Camino Marker

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Day 2, May 19

Miramont-Sensacq to Arzacq-Arraziguet

Distance: 12km

919km to Santiago, 32km from start

We headed off under cloudy skies and fog along a country road. Pretty soon we came upon Eglise de Senacq, an 11^th century church built as a Camino waystation. No one was there but it was open and we were able to walk in to the court yard and into the church.

We got within a couple of kilometers of Pimbo and got on a cart path that turned very muddy . . the French call it ‘la boue’ and it was very deep, slippery stuff.

We met two ladies from Province at the church in Pimbo. Very nice folks. Pimbo was an early bastide town. French Normans launched a hostile takeover of England in 1066, but still had lots of French holdings they tried to hang on to after they moved their HQ to London. Pimbo was established by the English in 1258 for that reason. In this area, they used a series of fortified villages . . . bastides . . . to protect the surrounding area. The churches we often part of the fortification. The French ultimately won with their own bastides.

11th Century Church at Senacq

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After Pimbo it was 7km on good clean lanes to Arzacq-Arraziguet. Spent a little time chatting with an old lady (there are a lot of them in France) who had a peacock in her yard. Made good time, checked into the communal gite, and got some supplies for lunch at local shops.

Then we walked to a bar in town. It was showing a rugby match and playing bullfighting music. We ended up spending a few hours with an interesting young lady from Belgium. Caroline was leading a troubled 16 year old girl on the Pilgrimage. The girl, Daphne, agreed to do this as an alternative to detention. A challenging program. They’re required to go from Le Puy to Santiago (almost 1000 miles) carrying camping equipment and with a very tight budget. Caroline was injured on the trail (bad case of shin splints)and couldn’t continue. They got a temporary person to go with the girl for a few days to see if Caroline’s leg would get well enough to continue . . . don’t know how that’s going to turn out.

Bastide village of Pimbo

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We saw Leo again and a French couple from Versailles who stayed at our hotel in Miramont.

The night was our first real experience in a communal gite. The place Arzacq was very well done. Clean and organized into groups of adjoining dorm rooms of four with a shared toilet and shower. We landed a Frenchman and a guy from Quebec. We had a nice enough conversation before bed with everyone using all the languages we knew (French, German, and English). We went to bed and they promptly began to produce a series of snores, grunts, and old man smells. Almost enough for us to swear off the gite approach from now on.

Villages: Miramont-Senacq,Eglise de Senacq, Pimbo, Arzacq-Arraziguet

Folks we’ve met for more than one day: Leo the german and partner, the couple from Versailles, and two ladies from Province