Day 3 Gallargues-Le-Monteux to Vendargues - 25 kms

And then a bus and tram to Montpelier. 

We all took the bus today from Vendargues to the centre of Montpelier. Neither the long concrete walk in nor the bus ride were ideal options for me, but the latter was definitely the better of the two. We are now happily ensconced, showered in a bright, clean, spacious and modern gite run by a lovely couple - and we are their very first guests. They opened for business on 1 April.  We have the gite to ourselves, we are all showered and changed, the washing machine is on, and Martine is playing the piano in the sitting room. As I'm reminded on every Camino, what a difference a day makes. 

Last night we were in an old school building in a small, cramped dormitory for 8 - with 3 seats of narrow bunks and 2 single beds and little space in between. Our room mates were three men who had been at our gite the previous night (in another room upstairs) including 82 year old Didier, who had also walked yesterday's 33 kms. He leaves by around 6 am. Incroyable. 

One of our other 'dorm mates' snored so loudly - and violently - that none of our band of four had more than two hours sleep. So we were tired before we even started today, all the more reason why our bus/tram into Montpelier was the right choice. We'll do the same tomorrow morning to move beyond the city's outskirts, then walk around 20+ kms to Saint Guilhem le Dessert, with time to enjoy a leisurely afternoon and evening there. Saint Guilhem is one of the jewels of the Arles Way. We're all looking forward to our time there. 

How to get into Montpelier wasn't our only choice today.  Shortly after we set out this morning, we had two options - to follow the original Chemin (pilgrims Camino path heading to Santiago de Compostela in Spain) or continue on the GR 635 (GR stands for Grand Randonee -- a large network of long distance paths in France). For today's walk, they used to be one and the same, but now the paths diverge in sections. This is what Marcel and Therese spoke to us about at the gite in Saint Gilles on our first night. 

There are 4 main Camino routes across France, paths that have been walked for more than a thousand years. The GR network has been around for a considerably shorter time. As the GR trails were established and way marked with the red and white horizontal bars, it made sense that GR paths would include the 4 Camino paths - Le Puy, Vezelay, Tours and Arles. These days the Arles route for the most part is one and the same as the GR 65-3. And pilgrims in France rely on the more frequent red and white GR signs as well as the typical blue and yellow scallop shells and arrows of the Compostela . The 35,000 km GR network is managed by the French Hiking Federation while the pilgrim paths are cared for by groups of volunteers in local associations. For the most part it seems they work together or at least co-exist without incident. But not always. 

For most of the path we walked today we were following new blue and yellow signs, freshly painted by Therese and Marcel, our hospitaleros from our first night. They had to do this to waymark The Way because the original GR and pilgrim signs had been removed or crossed out by the GR hiking federation. It seems enterprising business owners in some neighbouring villages 6 or 7 kms off The Way had 'lobbied' the hiking federation and persuaded them to change the GR so that instead of going through farmland and forests, the signs would be changed to pass through their villages. But, not content with bringing general hikers onto the 'updated' route, they wanted the pilgrims to be led the same way. So over a period of months, all the signage on this original section was removed. When the local pilgrim association got wind of it, they out the word out for volunteers. And thanks to Therese and Marcel, we were able to stay on The Way today, at least until we hopped on the bus!  

Later - my final reflection tonight is that Montpelier might have been given a bad rap. While I'm thankful not to have walked through the ugly concrete sprawl to arrive here this afternoon, tonight we strolled through the centre of the old part of town and I liked it. And can recommend Chez Felix, just off the main square, for a delicious and good value dinner. 

A bientot. 

J X

Day 2 Saint Gilles to Gallargues-le-Montueux - 33 kms

Our second day - a longer distance but pas de probleme. The usual path of 30 kms includes a temporary detour due to TGV works - so an extra 3 kms this afternoon, but we still arrived in our gite around 4, having left Saint Gilles at 8 this morning. 

The weather was similar to yesterday, cloudy but dry in the morning with light rain in the afternoon. We enjoyed our lunch stop at 18 kms in Vauvert, arriving in time for the Saturday market. We bought baguettes from the boulangerie, chorizo and jambon from the charcuterie, and fromage from the market. Yum. And Guy and Martine shouted a very decadent gateau from the patisserie. We sat at an outside table of a cafe on the square, ordered coffees and made our picnic lunch. You can't imagine cafe owners allowing you to this in most places, but it's quite 'normale' on the Chemin. 

I was going to write more tonight but we will leave the gite shortly for dinner - and our team meeting about our next few stages. There is a difficult decision at least for Domi and I. We are heading to the city of Montpelier tomorrow - large, sprawling and apparently not a lot going for it - other than a place to sleep. If we walk all the way, usually my preferred option, we have about 10 kms of industrial sprawl going in, and similar going out - making both stages around 39 kms. 

Guy and Martine are definitely taking the bus from where the sprawl starts - and again the following morning for a similar distance to get out of Montpelier. And we have also to consider the beautiful towns coming up that we want to make extra time for, and that Martine and Guy need to arrive in Toulouse by Day 18 to take their train home early the following day. I'm sure we will explore all options and come up with a good decision!  

Before I sign off, we very much appreciate the messages from home over past few days - from Jill, Pat and Dick, Paul and Pauline, Helen, Marian and Mandi. Merci amis . And special thanks to Helen and Mandi for the photos of Zaccy. They reminded me to confess that, before we left Arles, I made two 'unscheduled' purchases that are now travelling with me along The Way. Just couldn't resist. Photos provided. 

 

Time to eat. A manger. A bientot. 

J X

Day 1 Arles to Saint Gilles - 22 kms

Our first day on the Chemin d'Arles - and we are immediately in pilgrim mode. I am writing this entry from a top bunk in our dormitory room at the Maison des Pelerins in the village of Saint Gilles.

The gite is run by volunteer pelerins (French for pilgrim, or peregrino in Spanish). This afternoon we were warmly welcomed by Therese et Marcel - a French couple from Nimes who are volunteering here for one week. They are experienced pilgrims, on the Chemin d'Arles and others caminos, and have already been a valuable source of information which will come in handy over the next few days. More on that another time - tomorrow perhaps. And they are sharing our dormitory as well - or, more correctly, we are sharing theirs!

We didn't see any other walkers today, though there are four others - all men - in the gite. They are in another dormitory room upstairs. One of them is 82 year old Didion from Nancy in France (where we boarded our train two days ago). He moved into a nursing home and was unhappy there. So he decided to walk. This is now his seventh time on The Way! C'est Le Chemin. 

The cost of our accommodation tonight is 12 euros per person and includes breakfast tomorrow morning. We could buy some supplies and cook in the gite kitchen tonight but a local restaurant offers a menu de pelerin tonight (pilgrim's menu) for 10 euros - pourquoi pas?  Why not?  They are always great value.  This is good news for The French and me. After an indulgent week - charming chambre d'hôtes and great restaurants - we are keen to tighten our belts a little (figuratively - and literally for me). We'll be on The Way for more than six weeks, so our idea is to 'go pilgrim' most nights with more luxurious accommodation (ie our own room) once or twice a week. And the odd splurge as well. Voila. 

So, back to today. It was a very good first day. A short distance - the options were 22 or 40 kms. And cool temperature, just 11 degrees maximum in Arles and surrounds - yesterday was almost double that. The path was flat, though that's not always good news for me. On the few occasions I've had an injury with the potential to 'ground' me for a day or two, it's been shin splints from walking long flat distances with little variation. So I'm mindful to be aware of any early signs. Thankfully no problems today. As well as the easy terrain, there are no villages on The Way between Arles and Saint Gilles - no second coffee for Martine and me - so, although we walked at a leisurely pace, we made good time. We arrived at tonight's stop just after 1.30, five hours after our departure. 

Grey skies all day but no rain until around 11am. It's been raining ever since, though it didn't cause any problems. In fact, it gave us an early opportunity to use our umbrellas. This is the first time either Domi or I has walked with an umbrella - in place of a poncho. For today's conditions, it was definitely a success. Our parapluies are small, lightweight and strong. It means, of course, walking pole or poles are held in one hand, or go back in the pack. But it's great to be dry on the top half - including face and hair. In difficult terrain, I expect I'll forego the umbrella for two poles - but we still have waterproof jackets and rain covers for our packs, so that should be fine. We never worry about the bottom half. Whether hiking pants or bare legs - they dry quickly. 

A longer distance tomorrow - and likely some more rain - but again the terrain looks quite flat. I've read that these first 3-4 days to Montpelier, while not the most scenic, provide a good opportunity to prepare for the much more difficult stages. Unlike the Camino Frances (a difficult first day), Camino Mozarabe (a gruelling first day), Chemin du Puy and Camino Primitivo (a difficult first week), the Chemin d'Arles starts easy and then just gets harder. After one day, it's easy to say that we're looking forward to that. But tout est possible en Chemin. As the French says, 'nous verrons ca'. We'll see that. 

J x.