California to Jerusalem
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Walk with the angels fearless in the night. |
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The first two days after our Auch post we walked across rolling grassland and grain hills. The Pyrenees were forever on the horizon like they were the day before Auch in Baran as in the following picture.  As we walked out of Baran and climbed the hills the Pyrenees dominated the horizon over Baron. 21 May 10.  But before we left Baran we had to walk out the city gate. 21 May 10.  The next two days the line of the Pyrenees continued to dominate the horizon. 23 May 10. On the second day after Auch we walked into the Hotel du Lac in the evening. We stayed and rested for an extra day. When we left they gave us a bottle of Chemins de Pelerins wins, Pilgrim Camino wine. We chose to ride 41 kilometers (25.5 mi) and took the train to Toulouse where we wandered for the better part of the morning and early afternoon visiting the cathedral and finding a good French dictionary.  The Hotel du Lac, our home for two days in L'Isle-Jourdain. 25 May 10.  Our gift as we left the hotel. We enjoyed it. Thanks. 25 May 10.  The rose window on the magnificent cathedral in Toulouse. 25 May 10. In Toulouse the land changed. We were in a flat valley. We had arrived at the Canal du Midi, part of a canal system that connects Bordeaux on the Atlantic with the Mediterranean Sea. If you have a boat you can travel the entire distance.  Petra on the Canal du Midi in Toulouse. 25 May 10.  We walked out of Toulouse not knowing where we were going to stay that evening. As the day advanced we checked out a couple hotels. Then we noticed this Chambre d'Hote along the canal, the first boat in this picture. We checked it out and decided to stay. It was an ok first and last experience of the type. Everything did not prove to be totally ship shape-but that's part of a pilgrimage also. 26 May 10.  Walking the canal. The trees along the canal are more majestic than the cathedral in Toulouse. They reach to the sky. 26 May 10.  Some more of the canal. We walked it for the better part of three days. 26 May 10.  One of the locks along the canal. The original canal was built in the late 1700s, just before the United State's Decoration of Independence. 27 May 10.  A village along the Canal du Midi. 27 May 10. After our three days, we came to the place where the waters parted. For a canal to work it has to have a water supply. For the Canal du Midi at this point it is the Rigole, the feeder canal. The waters come down a special canal from the mountains we will be walking in later to a point where some water flows south to the Mediterranean and the rest north to Toulouse. Think of it as the top of a hill. The locks in each direction from here let water to a lower level as they move boats up and down to the next level they want to travel.  The Regole, the feeder canal, a day to the east from the main canal. As we walked up the feeder canal we were beginning our walk into the mountains. 29 May 10.  In Castres Petra holds her hair from the wind as this pilgrim struggles through the wind to move forward. While we were here we visited three bicyclers we had met earlier in Oloron de St Marie. We stayed overnight with Claud and his wife. Thanks so much. 31 May 10.  Now we are in the higher mountains of the Haut Laungdoc. We have left busy roads and are walking little-used roads through the forests. 3 June 10.  On the day before St.Gervais we walked a busy road that was tedious for Petra. But the reward was this view out over the mountains at La Croix du Mounis. 4 June 10. We stayed for three days in a mobile home in St. Gervais sur Mare before moving forward. Now two days later we sit in a fine hotel in the middle of the mountains, a place where we fell on totally by accident. And we are here at the invitation of the woman running the place. Thanks, Margaret. Tomorrow we move forward. Thank you, Universe. Return to where you came from.Copyright © 2010-2012 Mike Metras, www.PilgrimageCreations.com | |