Well this has certainly been an interesting day. I was planning on a short walking day, so had their breakfast at the sanctuary center in Betharram, and started out leisurely, though the path started out uphill past some beautiful chapels marking A Way of the Cross which was part of the sanctuary. It was cloudy and overcast, so a little cool, but walking was fine, scenery was great, never met another hiker. So I got to my destination in about 3 hours. However either my information was wrong, or outdated, or I misunderstood the French, but there weren't any pilgrim hostels, or b&bs, or hotels or any other place to stay. The best advice seemed to be to continue on to the next village, there will be a place there. So much for my leisurely day. But the next village was only two miles, a 40 minute walk, so not too bad. And I set off. I got there fine, only again there were no hostels, or anywhere to stay. After wasting time there, looking and asking, the best advice was to go on to the next big town where there were sure to be places. But that was a two and a half hour walk! Now this was really starting to mess up my easy, get-used-to-walking day. But it was only 3:30, I could be there by 6 pm, that is if I was in great shape, I'm not and the path from that point seemed to start this steady uphill climb, and I was getting really worn out. My faith wasn't too strong at that moment either, and I admit my prayer at that point was have mercy on me Lord. Finally the path stopped climbing and came out on a road, and I saw a sign for a 'gite' which I think is the French word for 'guest house'. It was a hundred yards in the wrong direction but I thought it worthwhile to check out. I even found a young lady that understood and spoke a little English. I soon discovered that the 'gite' was this lady's grandmother's country manor available for rent for a minimum of one week. Oh well, I could travel on. But this lady was trying to call her grandmother, to see if I could stay there one night. Not having any luck she called her mother, who told her to let me stay in her house in one of the empty rooms. Wow! I went from exhausted and facing another hour and a half walk, to being a welcomed guest with a French family, in this old manor, which was fixed up quite nice, but also obviously quite lived in and homey. I got a hot shower, the use of the washing machine to wash my clothes, and an invitation to super, and a chance to sit in their yard with this most amazing view of the valley I just climbed out of with the Pyrenees off in the distance. Plus the sun began to come out, changing the landscape from dreary foggy to shining clear. It was really grand. By about 7 pm they said let's eat. There were 11 of us around a large outdoor polished-top granite table. Needless to say we watched the valley get dark, and we were still sitting around the table finally getting to the cheese/desert course. I could tell more, but it's so late, I have to get some sleep. Until tomorrow.
