Le Pélerinage et Too nice to be called La Popie!

Le 11 Juin 2009
June 11th, the start of our small piece of the pilgrimage "Santiago de Compostelo" and a beautiful journey for the memories. Our hotel breakfast was from 6 to 6:30 and we had to be at the Le Puy en Velay Cathedral by 7:00 for mass. I ate breakfast quickly and started the 20 minute hike to the Cathedral. Arriving early I realized that I desperately needed to go to the bathroom before commencing the pilgrimage. I couldn’t find a bathroom anywhere (no surprise, there are never bathrooms in France) but I was desperate so I found the friendly looking Priest dressed in the fancy red robe and asked him as politely and French as possible if there was a bathroom that I could use. He showed me back into a tiny room that was marked “Privé” and I thanked him profusely. 5 minutes later he was starting mass. He led us by singing and with a beautiful unfaltering voice. He seemed so solemn the whole time. After the mass he had a separate meeting for the pilgrims. He welcomed each of us and asked us individually where we were from. I have never met someone so friendly and happy in my life! I’ve always pictured priests as serious people but he seemed so real to me. He told us after the meeting how he used to teach French in Iowa. Turns out that he speaks English as well, but he was impressed that we all spoke French and kept speaking it. Then he gave me a charm that represents the Saint Jacques path that all the pilgrims walk which I vowed that I would hold throughout the whole journey.

Me with Saint Jacques

The start of the pilgrimage is a descending stair from the middle of the cathedral! How poetic..

We started heading down hill following the “balises” or path indicators. I was separated from most of the group for a good while, but admittedly that’s how I had hoped that it would be. The time alone was really peaceful; the scenery, noises of nature were quite conducive to the endless comparisons of this pilgrimage to my life and Christ's. I remembered that the priest had prayed that we (those on the pilgrimage) would be able to find Christ, the path, and ourselves while doing the walk of Saint Jacques. What a beautiful prayer! I had earnestly chimed in with my 'amen' at the end of his blessing.

Part of the trail I hiked
epic scenery

epic scenery

epic scenery

Random longhorn that confused me for a second- "Could I possibly be back in Texas?" Haha.. no.

We hiked approximately 4 miles of rough terrain through beautiful scenery till we arrived at a little church and pilgrimage rest stop. It took us less time than expected to do such a short distance so we sat there in the little gathering place for 2 hours before the bus showed up. I took this time to wander through the small surrounding area and cathedral that was there. Unlike the endless cathedrals that we have been visiting of late, it was small and homely, which made it that much more endearing to me. It was dark and cool inside, a welcome feeling; the small worn hymnals and glowing windows were perfectly picturesque. Malheureusement, I have no documentation of the little chapel.

the tired hikers

the fountain at our stopping place

From there we rode the bus to a store called Géant Casino, which is a French Walmart but not as cheap. Everyone got lunch there. We drove to Rodez where we put up our bags and had dinner. It was a fish and trout entrée, then duck, then a white and milk chocolate moose bar sort of truc. The hotel didn’t seem too pleased with our group and the little amount of food that we ate off of our plates. They probably thought that we were too stuck up for their food, but I ate all my fish and other mystery food thus I claim my innocence. During dinner the professor and I had an intense conversation about the education program at Brigham Young University and how a teaching degree is useful to have, but the program itself doesn’t do much for the teacher. It was interesting to hear his perspective, I was glad to hear that it isn't only the students that find the requirements a bit proposterous, but I'll get through it I'm excited to teach French. At the end of a dinner a girl in my group asked if she could use my computer to book the BluVan (two girls still haven’t paid me back for paying for ours…) and of course I said yes. I waited in my room for an hour and a half and she finally came right before 11. Just as she was leaving another girl in my group walked in and sat behind her. There was a line to use my computer! And they weren’t even asking for permission anymore! Plus its not like no one had their computer. 75% of the girls brought their computers on study abroad, 70% brought it to the south of France so out of 18 other computers I’m sure they didn’t need me, but of course I'm the only one in the group without drama so it was safe to use me I guess? Le

12 Juin 2009
Friday morning we started at Sénergues and walked 10 kilometers. Part of the journey I was toute seule, a small part was spent with lovely Alyssa, and the greater part with 3 fine French ladies. They helped me with my French, talked to me about Obama, about Mormonism, our study abroad program, French idioms or expressive phrases, plus they actually seemed to somewhat enjoy my company even thought I can’t speak all that well (in their language). Every now and then Alyssa and I would sing hymns from our hymn books (in French) while walking which they said that they really enjoyed, but they didn’t ask any questions about what we sang. One of the idioms they taught me was “Je me suis cassée la figure” which the lady in pink said after she slipped down a wet narrow rocky path that was near the end of our days' walk. She said that its very informal and should be used only with friends but is great when someone has slipped up, not only when actually falling but when making a mistake as well. On the way, Alyssa picked one of each of the flowers that we saw on the path and made me a crown (une couronne) and called me “Princess Buttercup” throughout the day. I felt really ridiculous but left it on my head because it was so sweet of her. When I saw a group of pilgrims who had done the same thing except with the flowers in their hats; I was content to be like the real pèlerins.

The flower crown!

The four of us, the three lovely french ladies and I, came across a native who was living in a small home built in the side of a hill. He was excited to see pilgrims and ran to speak with us. He seemed most excited to see me, he said that there weren't enough young people doing the pilgrimage these days. The conversation continued for probably 10 minutes, it was exciting and challenging to follow what he was saying because his accent was so different from what I had become accustomed to in Paris. I didn't realized that I was in Conques and that I had reached my destination until the gasp had already escaped my mouth. The village was beautiful! All of the town is situated on this huge hill and in the bottom middle of it all is their cathedral, which as always was a sanctuary of darkness and cool dry air. The homes, shops, and buildings were uniformly a yellowish brown/khaki with brown rooves and shutters, endless greenery could be found climbing the walls of the buildings with beautiful red flowers escaping sporatically from the vines. I found a small intimate bakery and bought a mini-quiche for lunch and I split a strawberry tart for dessert with Alyssa. The young girl behind the counter at the bakery, like the priest, was interested in each customer individually. When we answered questions about our hometowns and our reasons for visiting Conques her eyes just lit up; if I were to bet, I'd bet she gets lost in all these tourists stories and writes them into something really incredible. If I lived in Conques, that's the life I'd live- I'd be an artist or a writer.

Some views of the village Conques where we ended our second day of the pilgrimage:

I then headed down through Conques exploring the beautifully quaint town on the side of a mountain. I ran into an elderly couple from Canada who said they were searching for ancestral roots in southern France. What a life! They told me all about a roman bridge just out of Conques so I high-tailed it down the road, following signs to Gomez and found this bridge that was built before the 7th century (they didn’t have a date but since its Roman it has to be really OLD). Only a few others and I were able to find it so we felt pretty special.

A pretty bridge, but not the roman bridge.

The real roman bridge

We met up with the rest of the group at the cathedral and the professor paid for us to go into the abbaye and see the relics of a girl "Saint Foye". Some people in the program thought that Saint Foye had died in Conques, but that is not the case- Sainte Foye died elsewhere in the fourth century, but her remains and belongings were stolen (by a Monk from Conques) in the 9th century to draw travelers and wealth to his small village. His plan worked did it not?

This day is the only day that I’ve been sunburned thus far and I was only sunburned in one place- the back of my calves. Oh my did it burn.From Conques we rode the bus to Figeac where we had a hotel right on the river. We got a room for four- Hannah, Jamie, Rachel and I stayed in it and our room lead right out to the water. We had the best dinner so far that night at a hotel called La Puce a l’Oreille (the flea to the ear). We were served a four course meal that started with cold vegetable soup (kind of tasted like Pico de Gallo, a chevre and tomato pastrie (its not sweet, so do you still call it a pastry when its flaky and amazing?), vegetables with chicken, and raspberry moose! Rasberry moose is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I wish we had things like that in the United States!

Le 13 Juin 2009:
We started out our day by visiting les Grottes du Pech Merle (of which we were not allowed to take pictures), which are underground caves where a person went down and drew bison, horse, and mammoths all on the walls and ceilings. The guide didn’t speak English and had the second craziest French accent that I’d ever heard. We then visited Saint Cirque la Popie, a town on a hill that stood almost higher than the mountains. It was extremely hot and miserable. The only solace I found was in this church and sitting in the shade when Kaylie and I were singing hymns together to practice for our musical number in Montauban on Sunday.We then drove to an Etap in Montauban and put our things up for the night. It was a really long drive plus we were all somewhat worn out from the previous days where we didn’t get much sleep. This night gets my vote for the worst dinner. We went to the supermarket called Geant Casino and found the food court and ate there as a group. It was nice to be able to choose what we were going to eat for the night but the food definitely wasn’t quite the same quality as we were used to, plus we all overate. The whole night, I felt like I was in Barcelona because it was so hot and sticky, more than in Texas, and there was no relief because our hotel rooms were even hotter. The branch that we were to attend the next day had asked us to supply an opening and closing prayer, a talk, a musical number, and the pianists for all of the meetings. Basically I felt like we were back at the Brighton branch.

Le 14 Juin 2009:
Church was at nine and was about an 8 minute walk from the hotel. I left for church at 8:20 because I needed to practice with some of the girls on a real piano. The people were so sweet and kept saying that we were angels who walked into their building. I couldn't believe the genuinity of these people. The meeting went really smoothly and our song went even better. The whole group sang Lead Kindly Light in French but inbetween the 2nd and 3rd verses Kaylie Clark, Maren Gardiner, Susan Garver, and I sang the first verse of Leady Kindly Light in English with four part harmony. I sang the tenor an octave higher. I was scared to look up from my book (even though I had memorized my part) because I wasn’t sure if we were blending but I looked up and there were literally jaws dropped. The people in that branch made my day. We drove to Rocamadour where we got in our hotel and walked down into the canyon or valley where there is a magnificent castle on a hill. This one was less exciting to me than Saint Cirque en Popie because other than the castle all of the town consisted of stores and restaurants so it didn’t seem realistic… just a resource for revenue. After wandering down the canyon we walked back up and we pretended to be on the edges of rocks for a bunch of pictures. We headed to the hotel and were going to take a short nap before dinner but decided to walk a bit anyways and see what the sign “Foret des singes” means. Little did we know- it really does mean Forest of monkeys. Dinner was ridiculous- it took 3 and a half hours. Yes French dinners are slow, but not that slow. The whole class took a (previously paid for) train down the canyon around the city where it was lit up late at night. They played Josh Groban on the speakers and we sat there in peace watching the lit up castle and town go past us.

Le 15 Juin 2009:
The professor let us stay at the hotel in Sarlat a little later than normal so that we could explore the town a little more, possibly do some shopping because it was no longer Sunday. Rachel L and I vowed to go see the monkeys. We realized shortly that the monkey forest closed for an hour (lunch/sieste break?) at 12 so walking there at 11:20 would be fruitless and a waste of 7 euros. We spent the morning around the little city. I found a store where I got a big pack of vanilla wafers- not really vanilla wafers but that’s all I can think to call them in English- tons of fruit and a drink for only 2.50. That is a miracle in France, and frankly in any tourist city. I also put my feet in the pool and hung out with the other students who were swimming. We left Rocamadour at 1:30 or so and went straight to Sarlat where we would stay for 2 nights! We arrived at the hotel at around 2:45 but it was closed for check-ins till 4:30? How obnoxious. So we went to a town just minutes further and toured their castle and their troglodytes! I went up into the troglodytes and crawled through some really dark inlets, I'd even venture to calling them caves. I got to the back of one and found out that I wasn’t alone. Ryan was there too! He turned on his cell phone light and I just started laughing. I had been absolutely clueless to his presence, it was impossible to see in there! We went back to Sarlat and checked into an incredibly cute hotel that I forgot to take pictures of... and we had goose for dinner! We're in the land of Foie gras, but unfortunately we haven't eaten any of that yet.