Here Comes The Sun

Day 5 - Sunday, 29 September 2024 - Aumont-Aubrac to Nasbinals (~25.5 klms)

It's amazing but not surprising that a change of weather completely changes the mindset. Funny creatures we humans.

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know that the theme or the title of the blog comes to me at some stage during the day. It might be early or it might be later. It's rarely a conscious thought, but rather something that just pops into my head.

So today's title Is fairly obvious. But it could easily have been others, which I'll refer to later. Here Comes The Sun is obviously a metaphor, but it's also a double nod to Howard, who features in the Messages from Home section. I thought that I'd used that title previously, but it wasn't quite the same; see here.

First, a quick recap of last night. We dined at the hotel (next to the Parisians) and feasted on aligot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps a bit rich for the others. As we left town this morning we said au revoir to the Parisians who were heading home. You can just make them out in the middle left of the photo below:

The walk was exceptional today, even more so because of the comparison with the last two or three days. Even at some 25+klms it was a largely flat day, and not particularly physically hard. I don’t have a great deal of commentary, rather I will let the photos tell the story of the scenes that we walked past and through today.

We are comfortably settled into our daily routine. Trish and Helen tend to leave a little earlier than us, but Trish likes to walk a bit faster, so we end up with Trish leading the field, Janet and me next (having overtaken Helen earlier in the day), and Helen bringing up the pack.

Whilst I'm not going to comment on today's photos, I will make an exception for the ones below. Janet and I find donkeys the most adorable creatures. And this one, who was standing in the paddock, wandered across to say hello to us as we walked past. I couldn’t resist a couple of photos and a small video.

The rest of today's photos are a bit further on.

Alternative Title 1 - Day of the Dog

I could just as easily have called today’s post The Day of the Dog. I learned yesterday that Saint Roch was the patron saint of dogs. Every picture you see of him he is standing there with his dog. When we arrived at breakfast this morning we were greeted by a gorgeous Australian shepherd puppy named Jack (or perhaps Jacque in French). Four months old, he was such a sweet little thing.

And so I guess this is a good opportunity to introduce our new family member, Harper, who is waiting for us at home. She is 7 weeks old, and Janet will collect her when she returns to Australia in about 3 weeks. Harper's the daughter of Willow who lives across the street from us. Here she is:

You can see why I might have decided to call this post The Day of the Dog.

Alternative Title 2 - Messages from Home

But I could also have called it messages from home because in the last couple of days I’ve received some lovely messages which are worth either repeating or responding to here.

From Howard, a world traveller and resident of both Sydney and Brittany:

I’m really enjoying your blogs for this trip. Maybe even more than usual because you are travelling our adopted country. Full of interesting tidbits about parts known and unknown to us.

Can I take the liberty of clarifying one thing? You have, as I understand it, quite a few followers. Some of whom may use your blogs as a definitive sources of information for their own future travel. Based on the information and photos in your most recent blog, the accommodation you were staying in with the other group of people looks to me like hostel type accommodation, which translates as ‘auberge’ or in the context of a hostel in the countryside specifically for walkers or cyclists as ‘gîte d'etape’. ‘Gîte’ on its own translates as ‘cottage’, and in the context of accommodation it could be an apartment or a house, and is usually self catering, and private and not shared with anyone. I mention this because we regularly stay in gîtes as well as Chambre d’Hôtes and Table d’Hôtes. Wherever we can, we avoid auberges and gîtes d'etapes.

I think that I had some sense of the above, but Howard had explained it more clearly than anything else I recall.

And then this from Chris, also a world traveller, and resident of Perth, in response to my somewhat grumbly comments in the last couple of days:

I have been following your recent posts with interest and have reflected lightly on the metaphorical similarity between your current challenge in completing another walk and my recent challenge in securing employment at the grand old age of 65.

1. Sometimes it really is just a case of putting one foot in front of another until the journey is completed.

2. There will be days when your mind wanders to the prospect of simply giving up.

3. The elements will conspire to throw obstacles in your face.

4. The end of the journey is not the end, but simply the beginning of another journey.

Not sure any of that is relevant to your current journey, but it does appear that persistence is indeed the key to any challenge in life.

Wise and thoughtful words.

And lastly from another Chris, also a world traveller, from Yallingup, who provided an interesting bit of info about ex Crimea canons and the Victoria Cross, and who also enquired whether I was wearing the same hat as last year on the Via de la Plata. Answer, yes.

And just to clarify, I wear a different hat in the Himalayas.

Alternative Title 3 - Signs

This is a title I had used previously However I have been struck by the effectiveness of the signage this walk. I'd expected lesser signage, and have been most impressed.

The red/white blaze shows us the path to follow. The arrow (photo 3) tells us to turn left or right. The red/white cross is the wrong way. The yellow blazes signify a different GR route.

I think on reflection the signage may well be better than that we experienced on the Camino Frances.

Today’s Photos

Nasbinals

Because it was such a beautiful day and we arrived relatively early I took the opportunity to go for a wander around Nasbinal. I think this is the most beautiful little French town that I have seen, and I know that that’s a big call. I’ll follow this comment with a few photos below. I walked past the church which is always the centre of town and there was music being played so I popped my head in. There was a man playing guitar accompanied by a woman singing. And maybe 20 or so people in the church singing along to an organised song sheet. It was all in French, so therefore I didn’t know what was being said other than with a little bit of help from Google Translate. But it really was quite lovely, as best as I can tell. The theme was all about St Jacques de Compostelle and the chemin. One song which was quite lovely was by the famous, now deceased, French songwriter Jacques Brel. I’ve been a fan of Jacques Brel's music for a long time, so listening to that was actually very sweet.

There was a one man market stall in the main street. He was selling breads and sweet pastries and cheeses and of course, charcuterie. The bar looked like the happening place with lots of people sitting in the sunshine having a drink and a chat.

Tomorrow is an easy day; a mere 16klms or so. Until then ...