She Follows Shells: A rest day in Racamadour

Today was a splendid rest day. My title says a rest day in Racamadour but actually we are on kilometer away, a half mile in L'Hospitale ( not a hospital but a town I think named after an old pilgrim hospital). It's important to remember that towns have names such as this or have remains of hospitals as their man building. Hospitals, huge bridges etc... Were built by instruction of the Kings ( and Queens) so that pilgrims could make their pilgrimages centuries ago.

From last nights picture Rocamadour looks like a make believe town from the gorgeous view point here where we are. Both stops are huge tourist spots our campground is filled with English speaking campers ( not Ameicans but English, Scotish, Irish). The gal at the reception has been very sweet, she offered us our nights stay for 15 euro which typically in a tourist town is almost 30. Typical camp nights are about 24. They charge for the "tent" space about 4 then over ten years old about 4 and the under ten about 2. So it is based on age and number of people. All campers have one dog!!! It must be the law, and there is tons of love goin around here because of it.

I never " by the shirt" when in tourist towns, I never get caught up in what is being sold ( typically, even here made in China) and never get the expensive icecream etc...but today did find some exceptions, which I don't regret.

There was a precious young man selling dried sausage and upon the million samples he gave us I bought six for a total of 18 euros. These were meat with cheeses in one, truffles in another and walnuts in another. They were fabulous and I adored his spirit.

Down the path, at the very end of town we bought fromage from a hobbit looking house that was dreamy. Fromage is cheese and a staple. Typically gooey Brie like cheese or like Saint Albtey which I buy in the states ( in the US it is way more expensive, about four times more).

These yummy cookies...

We went to a small church service, in French, but the young man at the alter talking to the crowd there was in school to be a priest. He is 22 I think and said it is a ten year education. He took us under his wing to the gift shop to get a stamp, a huge beautiful stamp in our books, and gave the kids a token and best wishes as he understood we were pilgrims heading " all the way to Santiago ". He said daily he will pray for us.

Pilgrim...

Humorous columns ( would love to study this and research these to understand them more)

It is said Roland's knife blade was is here, that a small chunk of it is here. We almost named a dog Durendal, after his sword, and its sister Oliphant after Roland's special objects of sword and horn. I did not know this knife story while in town so we missed the spot where it is said to be sadly. For homeschoolers out there or anyone interested, " The Son of Charlemagne" is a great book about this ( legendary?) figure. Not an actual son but a loved knight. Also a glance at the poem " Le Chanson de Roland" is nice to study. When we go over the Pyrenees in two weeks it is the actual spot where ( the legend) says he dies. We have considered adding two days to our walk just to go there, I have been there with my first Camino however the Norte goes over the Pyrenees heading North. I am entertaining going over the Pyrenees heading west on the high Napolean route and then backtracking on the low route to head North. This lets the kids experience the path Napolean took, to possibly sleep in the auberge that use to stable his horses on that trip and to see where it is said Roland died.

Today we run into Patricia and Enayet in the morning for coffee and in the Holy City, they are heading out this afternoon and we are staying another night so I do fear not seeing them again on this Camino, though like Maureen and Frank I know our paths will cross again in life.

Heading out of the town we chose a scenic route that displays the Stages of the Cross in monument type art. A nice path, we incorporate the Stages of the Cross with our Easter traditions as well as putting up a cross on Good Friday so it was nice for the kids to see this path. I did not grow up with this tradition but my Homeschooling guru who shared many tidbits with me over the decade always said ," build your traditions or others will for you". This has been some of the best advice I have ever gotten though I do love absorbing others traditions into ours.

We have ourselves in a slight pickle... We need to train back to Figac, there is a train that leaves late tonight which leaves us with needing accommodations tonight or a very limited schedule tomorrow with a train leaving at 0645 in the morning, a bus at 2ish and a train at night. We feel we have no choice but to catch the 0645 train. This involves a four kilometer walk in the morning, in the dark! Slightly anxious about this as I hope it is obvious where we need to go, but we all agreed the walk here was a breeze, simple and sweet and we will give ourselves alittle over an hour incase of wrong turns. We have no map for this area as it is not in my guidebooks but David had suggested this day in Rocamadour ( though we made it two) and being a Camino guidebook writer I trust his judgement and thank him for sharing his itenirary with me.

Tristan's little rabbit on his shoulder...