Day 4:
The day started with a slight accident with my glasses, one lens came out. So that is a job to get sorted in Bourges on Wednesday. Left just before nine. I make the first bit of walking the time for morning prayer using the Daily Prayer app. I was so into it this morning that by the time it ended and I checked my Camino app, I was a good 1km off route.
I decided to take a path across the fields, well-marked, to get back on track. These paths, really green lanes wide enough for tractors etc., are everywhere in France, and effectively form the field boundaries. Often they are mown. The ones I followed weren’t, so I got soaked by the very wet dewy grass from crotch to toe, and my shoes and socks were sodden.
I wasn’t that bothered, the temperature was rising, and my shorts soon began to dry. My concern was for my feet – they are doing fine so far, and I didn’t want to develop blisters. I walked on to Sancergues, then rang two friends, walkers both. The second one answered and recommended changing my socks for dry ones. So I had a break and did. I had packed big nappy pins, so I pinned the sodden socks to the back of my pack to give them a chance to dry as I walked.
The change of landscape between Burgundy to the east of the Loire, and Berry to the west, was really startling. Burgundy was all little hills and vales, quite steep inclines, smallish fields, and villages close together, and big forests. Berry is huge open fields, prairie-like. Less wildlife – walking through or past the fields only the skylarks make any sound. Huge big skies, a bit like fenland, though this is quite an elevated plateau.
The only person I passed all day was a returning pilgrim. We stopped and chatted for a minute or two. I paused for a midday break in the next village.
I am struck by two aspects of life in rural France. First, unless you have access to a car, it is now completely unmanageable.
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| The bus (singular) timetable |
Take the bus service. One bus a day from a place the size of Newark to a city the size of Nottingham. And that leaves at 6:10 in the morning. That’s it. If you are old or don’t drive you are stuck. Add to that the almost total disappearance of things like shops and bakers, even travelling services of that kind, so I have been told, and you have a situation that complicates life a great deal for anyone without easy access to motorised transport.
But this is where the second feature kicks in: I’m noticing a very interesting communitarian spirit. People phone friends to ask for things they need. There is significant car-sharing because people need it. It is all a little reminiscent of Congo, where people would (and still do) sort for themselves ways to get around or to exchange information in the face of an absent state provision. In both places this is made possible by wireless telephony. It is a very resourceful kind of networking.
The roads, on the other hand, untroubled by buses, are in an excellent state of repair!
Coming to the end of my day’s walk I was surprised when a large butterfly got up next to me, flapped a couple of times and then flew off fast. The only other time I have ever seen one was in about 1967 on holiday in the Pyrenees. It was a Scarce Swallowtail, hardly ever seen in the UK, and rare in Eastern Europe, but fairly common in France. Seeing it made me very happy.
Tonight’s lodging is with a lovely young family with three children. I had a drink on arrival, then a rest, and then I cooked supper! The parents met in Taize, did the Camino together in 2010, and now have their hands full, with their children, but also welcoming many pilgrims in a sort of Pilgrim annexe!
Tomorrow, Bourges.
From The Quire 