Day 15: June 18: Auvillar >> Lectoire (33km)

LONGEST DAY YET:      TODAYS PICS:

So last night at the Gites (Pilgrim Hotel), I rand into "Dandelion", an Austrailian I had briefly met earlier along the way as he had made friends with others that I was friends with. I also rand into a lovely lady named Josey (Josey & the Pussycats) who I had met earlier as well. She is another inspriation to me, she is tiny and in her 60's or 70's and every night I see her inthe kitchen, she obviously walks with some pain, but she continues on through the hills and mud and more. A few  days ago, I came up her "stealing" cherries in a cherry orchard, it was so cute , her look of guilt and surprise. .

I also met a couple new pilgrim friends, Jill a cattle farmer from Austrailia and Lucy (lulu) & Bernarhd from France. I nicknamed her Lucille Ball - it helps to create nicknames when meeting new people to remember their names. It turns out Lucy works in the Lindt Choclate factory, so I found the famous lucy clip in the chocolate factory and shared with her.

There was a nusical festival in town in the evening where they served TEX-MEX Barbecue - now aint that a shit!'

Today I started walking with Dandelion, and was quite surprised when he took his shorts off once we got outside the village - he likes to walk in his biking shorts, and keep  his shorts clean - as I believe he has only one set of clothes. He is taking a year sabbatical from his life and work - to find himself - and doing this by stripping away all but the essentials - hence the clothing is a metaphor for this.

He walks with a steady and strong pace, and the day went by fast as we seemed to talk the entire way through. At 23 km, we stopped in a lovely small village for an omellette. This was meant to be my ending point, but I decided to continue on with him and to my surprise, I finished strong  - tired, but strong.

Most of the day was nice paths, and just a few with the mud like before, we made good time and after a 8 hour walk ended up in Lectoire - another beautiful village on top of a hill. And to my surprise, Siggy was in our Gites - a great reunion. A fun time at the bar, an interesting pilgrim dinner in our Gites - which was hosted by the church - bed, dinner and breakfast were their gift to us; yet a donation was suggested. There was a young seminarian studying IT at the university and also while also pursing priesthood - interesting.

A great night sleep ensued to an easier day tomorrow....

Bon Nuit!