Day 401 - - Vauvert
The rain was heavy, but I was well protected from it at my spot. The one issue is that somewhere I lost the water container that another pilgrim had lost in Lavacolla - - well, I hope that it moves on to another owner who will make use of it. But I had no water left to drink overnight.
This was a really short day, even in hitch-hiking terms. And I started super early too, which is very unlike me, and I got into town at about 8AM ...
Garlic improves almost anything...savory, at least. Just an opinion, obviously, but light-hearted.
Well, I ended up throwing up a part of that pizza in the morning, so opinions might diverge on that one.
Notwithstanding tray pizza and pissaladière, fougasse, some other exceptions - - and you can definitely use garlic in a fougasse - - garlic is anathema to both ways of making pizza in France ; Italian style obviously not, and nor does pizza in the Niçois style from where I live allow for it either. Not even in the spicy sauce that goes on that style of pizza. It ruins the flavour of the tomato. It's not even used in the onion-based pissaladière.
I llove garlic, and used some last night, but it has nothing to do in any pizza.
Anyway, the supermarket in Vauvert eventually opened as I needed resupplies to get over the effects of the pizza, then in the meantime I got a coffee and a beer and some devices recharging at the bar next to it, and looked over my options.
And thing is - - today is payday, and I am close to Marseilles ; so it's time to get a new pair of army boots !! The pair I have now is over 10 years old, and saw me through my 2014, and my 2024 intermediary, and now a part of my Home to Home, but really they are dead.
BTW I have been wearing them every day since January 2023, as well as between 2012/2013 and 2018, plus off Camino in 2019 to 2022, not just for the walking this time.
So I needed somewhere with an Albergue and a railway station, and Vauvert has both. So I called the great hospitalero here, and there we go. Le Refuge des Pèlerins is the one. Upon arrival, I realised that here is where I had slept on the way there, so that's good.
He wasn't back until the evening, so I showered, ate something, took care of myself, had a bit of a siesta.
When he did arrive, we had a good chat, and when he understood my plans, first he said pilgrims returning from Santiago stay for free ; then as he works in Nîmes, he'll drive me there, great as it has more train times than the little station here.
BTW this will be the ONLY train journey on my return home from Roncesvalles and Lourdes.
Does your body allow any walking,
@JabbaPapa? I hope so. And that you can actually walk up to your front door to cap this all off. Bon chemin!!
It's really not a question of willing or able, but this has become my way forward now, since Lourdes.
I have known since the planning stage in 2018 that I would likely only walk some of the return from Lourdes and I had planned to do a fair amount of hitch-hiking from there, and as to the balance between hitching and hiking, that's dynamic.
Anyway, the encounters that I am having along the way do seem to indicate that for the time being, this is the right way forward. As to the very end of it, I'll see when I get there, as some of it will depend on the final lift that I'll get - - but I will almost certainly NOT be walking all the way through Nice again, twice is enough for anyone !! Though I might be able to handle the Promenade des Anglais. I am certainly considering Nice > Monaco as a walk.
But it's all dynamic ; or rather I will just go to where the Camino leads me to.
