nogaro

hi everyone
it seems like a long time since i wrote. I will start where i left off with kathleen going to the doctor.
we went to the hospital in mosiac and there a very attractive. boy-doctor basically told her - what is the surprise? you have been walking 25-30 km a day with a pack in the heat. you have to stop for 4 days and take an anti-inflammatory. then see. so she stayed in the hotel watching cnn and i left with annie and bernard.
the night befor i left her at the hotel was crazy. we wanted to stay in a hotel so we could rest- however, the hotel was on a busy main street and by the park where fireworks ended the weekend celebration: we went up on the hotel roof with the other guests and watched. guess what? it was the identical ooh and ahh and wow. that was great, but the rest of the night was so loud, there was no sleeping.
i walked out of town on the canal midi, i also walked along the canal midi the first ti,e i walked the ca,ino. i am very close to the towns i walked in the first time i was here. the first group of people iwe talked with have left, most fro, injuries or soreness. the heat has taken it's toll. remaining are herve and joseph and annie and bernard. actually we may have lost joseph and herve because they are walking faster.
anyway i walked and kathleen stqyed back. i walked through beatutiful medieal towns which have been beautifdully reconstructed: they qre so lovey: one town had a covered area in the center for a market. you could see written on the inside of various sections of the market maise, millet, and grains i didn't recognise. it was a grain market, like our grain exchange i think. For the three days that kathleen stayed back i walked through rolling hills of sunflowers (now only 5 inches tall- they will be stunning later( the landscape is like a picture, big rolling hills, patchwork of colors of grains and fields some just plowed some hay being cut. all beautiful. the weather was hot and sunny, then it became windy and changed to cool and rainey.
kathleen is walking again. we are going slower and walking fewer kms in a day. the first day back we walked through a really dark woods and down a muddy track to a pond that was so noisy with frogs we just stood there and laughed: i have never heard such noise. then we walked another 50 meters and were on top of a roman bridge. these are the times i shake my head in disbelief at how lucky i am to be here. what a fabulous life. that afternoon we stopped at a roman villa excavation. the villa was from the 4th century and had heated water floing under the floors in the winter and cool water in the summer. it had a spring feed pool with heated water: but the best thing it had were mosaics, beautiful beautiful mosaics:
yesterday and today was walking through vineyards: this is armagnac region, kand they grow lots of grapes (i almost said bunches...)
annie and bernard- i don't know how ,uch i have said about them so i will now. we have known them from the second day, bernard helped me wioth a phone call when i lost my way in the conversation. at first we just kept running into them and now we plan to be together, for the night or for dinner or for a day of walking. i love being with them. annie is 70, bernard 71. they are tall and willowy, fast, and so happy. bernard laughs all the time and annie loves it. they are kind and gentle with each other. they have 5 daughters and 20 grandchildren. they are always on the phone with one or the other child. annie speaks so,e english and loves teaching me, coaching me, encouraging me to speak french. bernard and i have a similar sense of humor. even though he doesn't speak english; he understands my jokes and i his. they have been the best part of my walk so far. it is getting a little sad though because they are finishing soon, and we may even loose track of them before we hit the spanish border. we never know. it is be one of those happy- sad wonderful things. now when we part, we kiss cheeks knowing what is coming.
today annie and bernard saw the pyrenees! it was cloudy most of the day, but when i wasn't looking the pyrenees poked through the clouds: they said there is lots of snow on them. i am so excited to see them. kathleen and i will be in spain in about 10 days. it's impossible. the time has gone so fast. kathleen is uncertain how far she will go. she misses her husband and he her, and she isn't certain about her feet, so we will see. i feel great, i was made for long walks with a big pack on my back. i love eating tuna along the road, i love hearing people speak words i don't understand, i love trying to talk french and searching for words to make sentances. ( it is surprising how much you can say with about 15 verbs; all present tense, and maybe 30 nouns, plus 3 or 4 adverbs.) i love looking for the marks on the trees that show our way, i love meeting people along the way who do tiny acts of kindness ( like the woman who hollered across a parking lot to me that my earring wasn't fastened.) i love sharing food, clothes pins, soap, duct tape etc: with other pilgrims. i am happy, thankful, and excited to continue.
the only stupid thing is my equipment. things aren't made as well as they were two years ago. i have worn through the vibram on one shoe, have a hole in one of my favorite smart wool socks and have repaired the inside of one boot with duct tape. and my shoe laces are frayed. what the heck. i still have miles to go! i will be in tatters when i am walking in spain.
ok this has been really long, but for a change no one is waiting for the computer, and it is nice and light in here, but i'll stop now.
take good care of yourselves.
mary