Day 240 continued...
4 pm to 8 pm……Je ne parle bien le Francais. In fact I hardly speak it at all which is why I thought that tonight I would be sleeping in a bathroom on tatami mats stacked high beside an efficient wall heater. When I arrived in Brecy I had been handed a key to the community hall with detailed instructions including something about a door to the left. Swimming in hazy fatigue all I heard was ‘door’ and ‘left’ so that’s where I headed, out to a cold community hall lined with plastic bucket seats and exercise mats covering the floor. To the side were toilets and a kitchen bench. On the other side a tiny heated shower room. Sometimes surviving this life takes ingenuity, an ability to rearrange what’s on offer to satisfy a specific need. This, I think, is the essence of being practical. I have a sleeping sheet. I do not carry a sleeping bag. I cry when cold. In a split second my mind produced comfort and visions of dreamy, heavenly sleep:
Mattress + heater + an enclosed space = bedroom.
Or so I planned. At 4 pm the local dancing instructor arrived. Shortly after a stream of humanity appeared to jiggle and jump to a selection of pop tunes and soulful ballads. And for the next three hours I waited, bided time sunning myself till dusk, pleased, on lush verdant grass amidst daisies and perfumed, sweet lilac….until I was too cold to stay outdoors any longer. At which point a bunch of mothers and girlfriends and middle aged ladies arrived for circuit training. And I thought, hey, this looks like fun so I joined in, stretching and jumping and contorting myself…..all the while waiting, longing for bed and oblivion. And just when I thought I couldn’t hang on any longer, when the rosy, glowing women were about to leave, someone asked, Why did the pélerine want to sleep in the hall on the cold floor? There is a well-equipped [Gite de Pélerin upstairs with beds and blankets, coffee machine and books (+ fluffy clean bath towels + clean pillow cases + heating)]x (donativo). Just go through the door on the RIGHT, the door with the Compostela sign on it pointing LEFT, and up a flight of stairs to the attic. And then I wept, I wept for a thousand unrelated reasons, but not ‘til the last of the lingering dancers had LEFT
9pm... conscientiousness overrides sleep
State of the Trail & Statistics
Trail (Vézelay to Brecy): easy, well signed. The Compostela signs do not always agree with the map and commentary purchased*. Sometimes signing takes the quickest route along minor roads whereas the maps and commentary take the long way round on dirt roads and field tracks.
*Chassain, Monique. Voie Historique de Vézelay ‘Via Lemovicensis’. De Vézelay à Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port par Bourges et par Nevers en 36 étapes. 5th edition. 2011. (English translation available through the CSJ Bookstore but not in Vézelay at this moment).
Statistics: Refuge de Pélerin, Baugy : in 2010 one hundred and ninety-one pélerin overnighted -77 women and 114 men. Peak months were in May and August.
Gites de Pélerin: Arbourse, Baugy, Brecy. Excellent. In Arbourse and Baugy cupboards had food supplies for purchase (un grand Merci beaucoup!).
-Lovingkindness
.Double Merci!!
