A Detour to Bonneval
Four times now I’ve marched out of Nasbinals in the crisp cool of early morning, with a long day’s walk ahead. And did I ever get lucky this time with the weather, as the skies were already cloudless at 6:15 and before long they had a sapphiric quality to them. Climbing steadily, I left humanity […]
Day 3 – Back in the Aubrac
The hardest question one is asked on the Chemin isn’t “Why are you walking,” or “What will you do with your life when you return home.” No, it’s “Where did you sleep last night.” So much happens over the course of the day that when you finally pause and try to sift through the images […]
Day 2 – Some Sauvage Weather
Plenty of things went wrong today. The bakery in Monistrol-d’Allier was closed, due to illness. The farm snack bar in Rognac was also closed, as was the food truck after Montaure, and—crushing, for me— Chez Jérôme in Chazeaux seems to have shut down permanently. It drizzled off and on all morning, then abandoned all pretense […]
Day 1 – To the Tower of Rochegude
There are loads of differences between the first day of pilgrimage from Le Puy and the first day from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. For one, the former is quite a bit easier. That contributes to a second major difference: pilgrims tend to depart much later from Le Puy. In general, the start time tends to be more relaxed […]
A Whole Day in Le-Puy-en-Velay
Every time I’ve visited Le Puy in the past, I’ve arrived under cover of darkness and left the following morning, so I’ve never had a ton of time to explore. This time around, I was committed to giving myself a day. So what to do with all of that time? I was up at 6:30am, […]
Off to Le Puy!
When I first decided to walk the Camino de Santiago, I dutifully ordered the first guidebook I could find. It was harder in those days; the options were a lot more limited. I ended up with Alison Raju’s The Way of St James: Le Puy to Santiago. It’s something to marvel at today, that this […]
2021 Pilgrimage on the Northern Caminos
Like everything else, the pandemic effectively shut down pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago over the past 15 months, aside from a soft reopening for Europeans last summer. With Europe finally reopening, to varying degrees, the smoke is starting to clear. And, to my great relief, much of the pilgrim infrastructure is bouncing back, with […]
Day 7 – Batavia to Cincinnati, OH – 32 miles
19 months and another world ago, I walked out of Cincinnati. Today, some 2650 miles later, I walked back into it. I probably could have found a more direct route. But we’re all working hard and sacrificing a lot to get back to where we were. ——————- In Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Kublai Khan and Marco […]
Days 5 & 6 – Seaman to Batavia, OH – 43 miles
Wednesday’s story was one of fear. OK, that’s a little strong. But the weather forecast was certainly concerning. Thunderstorms were on the docket, striking sometime around noon and then lashing the region throughout the afternoon and evening. Those tempests would then yield to a wind storm. While a full-blown tornado wasn’t yet in the forecast, […]
Day 4 – Elm Grove to Seaman, OH – 29 miles
You learn a lot of valuable lessons from walking, but one of the biggest is this: the first problem is never the one that really messes you up. A blister on your heel, an aching knee, a bit of tendonitis where your leg meets your foot… none of those are fun. However, it’s rare that […]