Day 5: Cuinzier- Charlieu

Sunday 22 April

At the end of breakfast time Mme Destre and I sang 'Ultreia' together -thanks Lyne for teaching me that!- then I headed off to find the marked alternative route from Cuinzier to Pont de Mars, to rejoin the Chemin.

The sun was shining, and the walk passed through some beautiful countryside.

Looking back at Cuinzier

There were a lot of Charolais cattle in the fields today. If I understood what I was told correctly, this was part of the area they originated from.

It was very much a 'spring' walk today- with quite a few blossom trees, and also some rather muddy paths after the rain yesterday. Again, there was much 'up and down' walking. It tended to be a mistake to take too much notice of roadsigns that indicated a distance: often that distance was a direct valley route that was several kilometres shorter than the more picturesque but hilly route that we were to walk! But by now, on day five, my body was getting into more of a rhythm, and as I started each hill, I just slipped into my slow but steady rhythm, and just kept on going- like the tortoise rather than the hare. (I was glad to stop at Charlieu though rather than walk the extra 9km on to the gite at Briennon: I found my days were quite tiring and long still with all the hill climbs.)

I think the village up ahead with this interesting looking church is Mars- but we never walked through it. The chemin took a route through countryside rather than the road route that went closer to this village.

Time for a note about these little flowers, which I think are a wild variety of polyanthus. They appeared often in the Burgundy region in the early spring season while I was walking there, and in French were called coucou. A Camino friend used the phrase 'coucou' often in her e-mails and I hadn't been sure what it meant- but this flower is its origin.

There were often trees in the landscape today. Some told the story that it was 'still winter', while others carried more of a 'spring greeting'.



One of the things I love about walking on these long distance paths is the way you end up paying attention to what crawls along at your feet. Today the iridescent blue of this beetle took my eye. Beautiful.

Charlieu was an interesting town with much of its medieval past still evident at its heart.

I had some time to explore and Mme Destre had told me to make sure I visited the Abbey.

The cloister was beautiful, and there were 'shells' in a few places that told a story of past pilgrims passing through this area.

What remained still was impressive, and it must have been even more so in medieval times.

I had absolutely the loveliest of evenings here in Charlieu with the kindest of families. Mme Destre had rung ahead for me. Both of the people who were on the list here as offering 'accueil jacquaire' were otherwise occupied as it was a Sunday. (Mme Destre explained that Sunday was very much a 'family day' in this region, so often this happened on Sundays.) But one of those AJ people organised with friends of their's that I could stay the night.

It was such a pleasure to share a meal with this family in the evening, and I felt very much 'at home' with them. I'd managed to break my walking pole during the day, and the husband found a way to mend it for me. The son returned home from a Scout's event in Le Puy that weekend, and it was interesting hearing about the kind of service scouts rendered in France, eg helping the disabled on the Le Puy Chemin over summer. Election results came out for the first round of presidential voting this evening, and my hosts were very concerned at the increase in the extreme right vote (as were others I was to meet over coming days in France.)

Francis rang during the evening, and we had a long convo. I told him how I was a bit concerned about a couple of my toes after the descent into Le Cergne. The woman I was staying with had overheard, and organised a basin for me to soak my feet in. It was like a 'washing of the feet' but was so natural.

This was an evening to remember, and to be thankful for.

Day 6: Charlieu- Noailly

Monday 23 April
There were a few 'jobs' to do before I left Charlieu. Firstly, off to the nearby supermarket. But I managed to get confused and lost on the five minute walk back to the family's home. Honestly, it amazes me how I can find my way around the world and safely home again, yet get muddled up with left and right if I turn a few corners... I was so confused, I ended up ringing my host's phone number, not realising it was the mobile that the husband had at work. He came and rescued me.

With that all sorted, it was time to walk down to the Post Office. I had a few 'surplus' items to send on ahead to my friends in a gîte in Moissac. (You'd think that having walked one Camino already, I would have packed 'better'.) But finally, much later than usual at around 10am, I was ready to leave Charlieu. I hadn't managed to organise the night's accommodation yet- as it turned out, a phone number had been changed from what was in the guidebook. And my host told me that if I had problems getting a place for the night to ring them back again, and the husband would come and get me, then return me next morning to where I had finished. I tell you, sometimes on the Cluny route I was just blown away by people's kindness.

On the way out of town, I walked down the Chemin de Compostelle. It was so far to Santiago from here, yet the route was already heading that way, a reminder of past pilgrims.

I know I keep saying it's hilly on this route, but I don't show you much evidence. However, the scenario in the photo above is fairly typical. Notice there is a flat road below the hill- you could reliably predict we won't take that, but will take the alternative hill climb road!

And this photo looks back down that hilly road climb, back to Charlieu.

The route kept meandering up and down for quite a while through some beautiful countryside. There weren't many signs on this road, and I was seriously hoping I hadn't missed seeing a turn-off somewhere. This was another place where the altitude profiles in the Amis guide were shown to be quite inaccurate: they showed the whole day's walk as quite 'flat'.

Finally as I neared a crossing over a main road, there were more signs on the route. I passed a small chateau and some more donkeys.

It was supposedly only 4km to the next town of  St-Nizier-sous-Charlieu, but it seemed to take me ages. However, I arrived in time for the restaurant to be serving lunch, and I had a good hearty meal there surrounded by workmen.

As I left the next town, also by the Charlieu river, another river crossing was just ahead- over the Loire River.  Some years back, I had cycled along routes on the lower reaches of the Loire, and I was really looking forward to seeing it flow higher up its route, such a natural river still, providing plenty of habitat for birdlife.

Some nine kms after the day began in Charlieu, I arrived in Briennon, where there was a gite that the others I had met on the road were staying last night.

And the route now became much flatter- which seemed almost too hard to believe! I was in a 'valley', with attractive bush as well.

I was really looking forward to arriving in La Bénisson Dieu, as Francis had sung the praises of the old abbey here, and I had seen some impressive photos of it.

It was nearly 4pm by the time I left the Abbey, and I was getting a bit anxious about the onward walk still ahead of me to find Noailly, which was off the Chemin a little. There I was hoping to meet up with Lyne and Denis who I'd come to know along the Camino in 2008: if I'd waited a little longer around the Abbey, I actually would have seen them arrive there in their rental car to explore.

A somewhat adventurous stream crossing appeared ahead of me on the way to Noailly- the stream was full and fast flowing, and the stepping stones looked slippery. I was so glad to realise there was a wooden footbridge nearby for crossing!

And despite my anxiety about finding Lyne and Denis, all turned out fine in the end. I had only just stepped off the forest path of the Chemin to take the road to Noailly, when a car drove past. It was my Camino mates from Quebec- perfect timing! They took me by car the last km or so to the village. Then they spoke with locals about the gîte, found out the Maire was open, and we were able to go in there and arrange for all three of us to stay the night in the local gite. Just like old times! Well, almost... I still had to do my pilgrim washing, as I had some very stinky clothes, and it was a bit of a mission working out where to put the drying racks so it could get dry. But my Quebec friends had lots of clothes to change into from their suitcases!

We decided to 'eat in' as that gave us more time to talk... and we eventually found the local shop. The strange combo of food we found made it an 'odd' kind of meal, but we'd had some of those as pilgrims in 2008 as well! It was a cold night, and the communal part of the gite downstairs was pretty hard to heat, so we soon moved upstairs into the dorm to talk. Being in a dorm was like old times as well. Later a gite resident of five months standing arrived home, and he had already heard we were there: the news about two Canadians and a Kiwi arriving on the same night had quickly gone around the district. Soon it was time to take to our bunks for the night, like old times...

Day 7:St-Haon-le-Châtel

Tuesday 24 April

Lyne, Denis and I had breakfast in the gîte, then packed up ready for departure. I took one step outside the door before re-entering to put on every layer of clothing I had: it was a bitterly cold morning. (Francis, who only ever saw me walk in shorts and jersey, would have been hugely impressed!) Then L&D took me in their rental car back to where I had left the Chemin the previous afternoon. I waved them goodbye, -with their suitcases and car transport and many choices of clothes, and their car heater!- and headed off alone along my pretty forest path.

Despite the cold, it was easy walking along a flat path through lovely valley countryside, and the path wasn't even very muddy. I hadn't been walking long when I saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky, that somehow seemed to 'atone' for the cold I was enduring!

I made it to St Romain La Motte in time for lunch, and enjoyed a very good meal there with friendly service.

The history of this area was clear in some of the road names. The loss was clearly mourned of some who had been deported off to death during WW2.

And although this route didn't have a whole heap of pilgrims along it during these modern days, we were 'remembered' in its name.

There was a very busy national highway to cross during the morning, but I didn't really mind, as it meant the route wasn't quite so solitary.

Once safely across the highway, it was back to a more sedate pace of traffic on the route. You can see how flat much of today's route was- across river floodplains basically, like near the Manawatu River at home. 

There was a bit of a diversion alongside railway tracks to a 'safe' crossing point. I always had an urge to jump on a train for a wee break from walking whenever I passed railway lines!

More flat countryside- but you can see the hills up ahead. They were to keep me busy the following morning, walking along between towns and villages all perched on the hillsides.

There were some lovely blossom trees again. Although the rain threatened, I didn't need quite so many layers of clothing as the afternoon progressed.

Finally about 3.30pm I arrived in St-Haon-le-Châtel, a beautiful small town. I was expecting a bit of a climb up to the town at the end, but it wasn't too long or hard. I couldn't see the gîte immediately but found an info centre open. The friendly woman in there switched to English for me, and rang the gîte owner to get me organised. I think I was probably a bit lucky to stay here, as more usually bookings were only taken for groups. But the other six pilgrims I had met had stayed here the night before as it turned out, and had talked about me. Preparing the way!

The gîte owner was a lovely young farmer, and she had realised I would be surprised by the fact there was a mid-week 'closed' day in the local shops. So she had brought along some pasta from her own pantry so I had some food to cook. She also added a kiwifruit in honour of my nationality! It turned out this lovely woman had even come searching in her car along the chemin routes for me during the day since it was so cold, and was going to offer to carry my pack for me to make life a little easier in the cold weather. But she couldn't find me...

Once I had showered and done my laundry, I headed out to explore the town a bit. There were medieval walls and many old buildings to see. And even if it is bitterly cold, you can't 'stay home' and not explore when these kind of 13th and 14th century walls are still standing.

The local church was an interesting mix of styles from across the centuries, some parts dating back to the 12th century. Typically, I was seduced by the flowers in a vase!

As evening came, I locked myself into the gîte where I was spending the night all by myself. It was a very comfortable gîte, but this was actually what I found the hardest about the Cluny route- the solitary nature of so much of the walking and quite a few of the evenings. When I'd walked with Francis he had taken my hand on my walking pole at one stage, and said to me that Jesus would be walking with me each day. Somehow when the rainbow had crossed the sky this morning, I'd been very mindful of this. But I still found the evening loneliness quite hard...

The local primary school, over the road from the gîte.