Once again I'm behind in my blog updates and emails (sorry to all to whom I owe a reply). My main excuse last night was our celebration / farewell dinner with the French girls Sophie and Amandine. It was a lot of fun. We didn't make it back to the gite until after 9.30 - very late for pilgrims - and almost missed the curfew of 10 when the volunteers would have gone home and locked the front door!
And tonight a very fragile internet connection so, although there's plenty I could write about from the last two days, I will make this short and sweet and hope that I get to upload it tonight or tomorrow morning.
Tonight we are in the village of Bedous at the foot of the Pyrenees. We are in a small studio attached to a family home - a working moulin or mill house. We have a log fire and and, right outside our window, an up close and personal view of the Pyrenees. Tonight will be our last night in France until we fly back to Paris on the 15th May.
Over the last few days, we've had conflicting advice about the feasibility of and options for crossing the Col du Somport. But now that we are in Bedous we have more reliable local information and feel we are in a better position to decide what we want to do. We'll sleep on it but, one way or another, we will be in Spain - en Espana - by tomorrow night.
A few changes once we cross the border. The Chemin d'Arles becomes the Camino Aragones, gites become albergues, chambre d'hotes become pensiones, pelerins become peregrinos, vin rouge becomes vino tinto. And my French SIM card will suddenly stop working. From then on, I'll be reliant on free wi-fi only, so that - and my energy and time management in the evenings - will dictate how often I can post an update.
In the meantime I will sign off with some pics from the last two days.
Hasta luego, amigos
J x
