Touri-grino and Glad

[scruffy1]

I am sure many of us share a family member who consider themselves too timid, too hesitant, too unsportive, too reluctant and who cannot conceive ever walking the Camino. Around this house it is my own dear companion and wife who, while enthralled by my experiences, my photographs, the stories and what appear to the uninitiated as tall tales, just couldn't make the decisive step. So what to do?
Packed a nice fat suitcase and rented a car in Toulouse, and headed for Moissac, in a roundabout eccentric Scruffy type route heading South !!?! As a lover of the Romanesque I couldn't pass the many examples of sculpture by the so-called Master of Cabestany-Saint Hilairie, Rieux Minervois, Cabestany, then well, on the edge of the Pyrenees so its climb up the side of the mountain to Saint Martin du Canigou, Saint Michel de Cuxa, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges Saint Aventine, and then up to Moissac and Isaiah to rejoin the Le Puy Chemin.
Scruffy, being Scruffy, cannot stay on route so from Moissac its off to Rocamadour and Souliac – must say hello again to Jerimiah, then it's down to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie through the Cele Valley to Figeac and on to Conques retracing my Camino back to Le Puy. Whew!
Enough said but there was more including the Millau Viaduc (!!!) the Tarn River Gorges, and our only disappointment, Saint Guilhem in the Desert which has transformed sadly into Disneyland before returning to Toulouse.

Conclusion: it was no Camino h-o-w-e-v-e-r, the wife has had a first taste, three course meal actually, and has agreed that next Spring we should do Sarria until Santiago! There is hope for the uninitiated provided a proper introduction have been taken. A perfect French Spring and initiation to the wonders which will await next year in Galacia!

 

[wayfarer]

Good for you both scruffy, my wife, who is not a walker, walked Sarria to Santiago in 2013 with me and she loved it. She is game for the Ingles later this year or maybe the Spanish section of the Portuguese Coastal.

 

[VNwalking]

Some people dive in to the ocean and others need to look at it for a while, and then they creep in bit by bit. In the end everybody's just as wet. Wonderful story, Scruffy!

 

[billmclaughlin]

Just a word for Saint Guilhem. I spent a few wonderful hours there in sping 2014. It was a Sunday morning. As I was heading out on foot in the direction of Montpellier, the bus loads were just arriving.

It's a small place, so timing is everything unlike, say, Rocamadour, which I caught on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed having plenty of folks about, though instead of buses I recall mostly family groups, often three generations, a festive sunny day to end a dreary gray week.

Bill

 

[jpflavin1]

I am sure many of us share a family member who consider themselves too timid, too hesitant, too unsportive, too reluctant and who cannot conceive ever walking the Camino. Around this house it is my own dear companion and wife who, while enthralled by my experiences, my photographs, the stories and what appear to the uninitiated as tall tales, just couldn't make the decisive step. So what to do?
Packed a nice fat suitcase and rented a car in Toulouse, and headed for Moissac, in a roundabout eccentric Scruffy type route heading South !!?! As a lover of the Romanesque I couldn't pass the many examples of sculpture by the so-called Master of Cabestany-Saint Hilairie, Rieux Minervois, Cabestany, then well, on the edge of the Pyrenees so its climb up the side of the mountain to Saint Martin du Canigou, Saint Michel de Cuxa, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges Saint Aventine, and then up to Moissac and Isaiah to rejoin the Le Puy Chemin.
Scruffy, being Scruffy, cannot stay on route so from Moissac its off to Rocamadour and Souliac – must say hello again to Jerimiah, then it's down to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie through the Cele Valley to Figeac and on to Conques retracing my Camino back to Le Puy. Whew!
Enough said but there was more including the Millau Viaduc (!!!) the Tarn River Gorges, and our only disappointment, Saint Guilhem in the Desert which has transformed sadly into Disneyland before returning to Toulouse.

Conclusion: it was no Camino h-o-w-e-v-e-r, the wife has had a first taste, three course meal actually, and has agreed that next Spring we should do Sarria until Santiago! There is hope for the uninitiated provided a proper introduction have been taken. A perfect French Spring and initiation to the wonders which will await next year in Galacia!

Scruffy:

Like you, I have spun my yarns about the Camino to my Children, Friends and my Spouse. They are not even tempted and question even more why one would walk more than once. That said, I did talk my wife into flying over to Spain, Winter of 2013, and spend three days picking garbage with Rebekah on the Meseta. We did about 12 miles per day. We then spent two days each in Santiago and Madrid.

Her conclusion: She still does not get the Camino but is ready to return to Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London or Dublin. Just not a backpack and Albergue girl.

Ultreya,
Joe