Palm Sunday

Today is our third day witin  the car.  We don't know where we will be each day so for lunch we have on hand cheese, tomato, lettuce, and each morning we walk a few blocks to purchase a fresh bagette from the patisserie and perhaps some ham from a local shop.  France has amazing delicatessen hams and meats.

This morning when we walked into the town centre to buy our bread, the church bells were ringing and many people, mostly elderly, were making their way to the cathederal with small leafy branches in their hands and we realised it was Palm Sunday.

We spent the day touring the countryside visiting some of the historic villages we came to see in France.  Lorrasingle, Montreal, Forces and Mouchen were the ones we visited today.  Forces was the standout village, absolutely lovely, made even lovelier by perfect spring weather and clumps of purple iris and red poppies growing on street verges and planter boxes of pansies on ancient window ledges. Lorrasingle was especially interesting because it was a small town inside the grounds of a fortified castle surrounded by a moat.  

We drove through beautiful countryside today, green farmland, wine regions, forested roadways, all daubed in the light of a French impressionist painting.

Today we came across our first pilgrims.  We saw 20 or so people in groups of 2 or 4 walking the le Puy route to St Jean Pied de Port.  It was quite a sobering moment to realize we will begin our Camino in just 7 days time.

View from room in Condom