After writing the blog, left at 9. It was 2.4 km to the Mairie, where I turned off the route to find the hotel.
I missed the turning after St Jacques Church, which was closed, but met a woman who knew the area and told me to turn right after the street market. I did so, after buying a quiche and two peaches and stopping for a fruit juice at a bar. The official trail was heralded by about 30 cyclists emerging from the road I should have taken. Then we all entered the forest.
After a straight track for 3 km, a blue and yellow waymark told me to turn left. Shortly after that, I made a mistake, but seeing cars crossing ahead of me, decided to persevere. This was a busy N road, with a hard shoulder or cycle lane on the side. I only had to follow it for less than a km before turning off on a D road, also quite busy. Google maps was working today, so I found the turnoff to R_.
The bar was closed so I sat on a bench and ate lunch. Two bites of the quiche suggested it would be better left for evening. The peach turned out not quite as ready to eat as the woman in the shop had assured me. Cutting it up with my penknife, it took half an hour to eat, after which I lay down on the bench and looked up at the trees.
The afternoon walk should have been easy enough, but it was very hot, and I found myself seeking out rocks in shady places to sit and rest. I had agreed to ring Gerard when I reached Seine-Port, but as I was obviously running late, I did so at a crossroads in the Forest, where for the first time I could see a comprehensive map of forest roads. He offered to pick me up by the Pavilion du Roi, and drove me to the gite, where his wife and a pilgrim family – mother and two children – welcomed me.
It was a “pilgrims’ evening”, and Gerard and the children’s mother sat talking with me in a mixture of English and French, maybe for about 2 hours.
After they left, I heated up the quiche in the microwave ate it and the other peach, and had a couple of glasses of wine.
And so to bed.
emeritablog: life after work 