Day Seven, The Meeting of the Ways

Marie at the meeting of the Ways

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Day 7, May 24; St. Palais to Larceveau

Distance: 18km

820km to Santiago, 132km from start

Today is Marie’s birthday. Unfortunately, an easier day is all I’ve got planned.

Several hills but we handled them better today. Quite a relief. An hour out of St. Palais, we arrived at the point where three French pilgrimage routes met. The paths from Paris, Vezelay, and Le Puy (ours) joined for the journey to St. Jean Pied de Port, then over the Pyrenees and on to Santiago. A small stone monument marked the spot.

Next, up a big hill to a small chapel at the top with an oratory and a book for the pilgrims to sign.

Hey, the sun came out! The rest of the morning we had fine sunny weather working our way southwest across the Basque countryside. Got in to Larceveau about noon. Our room wasn’t ready so we drank some more cold malt beverages with guys from the village until they had finished cleaning. These folks take long, well lubricated lunch breaks. Best I can tell though, that doesn’t keep them from operating heavy equipment.

Oratory of Notre Dame

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Not much happened until after dinner when we got one heck of a rain and hail storm.