Well, here I am homeless again but actually feeling quite okay about it. There is something liberating about not being tied down.
Pauline and I left Eymet on April 15th. I really enjoyed my time there but was looking forward to finding my place in the world. I haven't ruled Eymet out but so far other places are calling me. It took us the morning to get organized, give the house a once over and of course have one more coffee before going. Marc had bought me a beautiful necklace at a place in Monpazier. It was not his favourite but I liked it. The more I thought about the one that he liked, the more I wished I had listened to his opinion. So we decided to head to Monpazier first to see if we could exchange the necklace. Two things were working against us, first we arrived at lunch time when all the shops are closed and second it was Monday when a lot of them are closed. So we decided to have lunch and see if she opened in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous warm afternoon, we had a fabulous lunch at Gallerie M. The waiter's wife's parents lived in Comox if you can believe it. We went for a walk after lunch. Monpazier is a wonderfully photogenic village and I was in my element. We came across a Chambre d'Hotes for sale with a wonderful view of the valley and talked about maybe calling the realtor to have a look. The more we hung out the more we wanted to stay so we checked out Chez Edell and booked in for the night. This Chambre d'Hotes is run by a South African couple who bought it three years ago. Really nice couple, in fact everyone we had met so far was super nice. The next morning we walked by the place for sale and the woman who owned it just happened to come out. She offered to show us around the place. It was quite interesting, she was asking a bit too much but she was a super interesting woman. We talked with her about maybe renting her 2 bedroom gite in the fall for a long term rental and exchanging some work around the place. Just putting some feelers out to see what might come up. I really got a good feeling about Monpazier and I got to exchange the necklace. There isn't a pilgrimage route that passes though but the GR36, which is a long distance route from the north coast of France to the south coast. If anyone looks on the map, you will realize that we only made it 46 km on our first day. At this rate it is going to take us a long time to get to Arles. At least we are driving twice as fast as we would walk!!
So we left Monpazier just before lunch and made our way to Rocamadour (with stops) and then on to Cahors to see Jacqui, who I stayed with when I walked the Chemin in 2011. It was wonderful to see her and we picked her brain about running a gite for pilgrims. The next morning there was a wonderful farmers market in Cahors and a super brocante market. It was hard not to buy anything at the brocante market but as we have no home... From Cahors we drove to Montcuq for a coffee which turned into lunch as it was such warm sunny afternoon. Next stop was Lauzerte. This is a beautiful village on top of the hill and guess what, we decided to stay the night. We booked into the gite where both of us had stayed when we walked the chemin. The owners are wonderful. On our way into town we met a NZ woman who was busking with her flute at the grocery store. She was quite interesting so when we decided to stay the night we thought it would be nice to see if we could find her and invite her for a beer. We had a wonderful conversation with her. I think I was starting to lose sight of why I wanted to open a hostel and meeting her reminded me of what I had experienced on the walk and why I wanted to open a gite.
We were enjoying Lauzerte so much we decided to stay a second night. The weather wasn't as good today but we went for good walk and had a nice lunch in the square and now here I am - updating a blog. We will have dinner tonight at the gite with all the pilgrims. At first I felt guilty about being here by car but I got over that!!!! C'est tout pour maintenant!! A bientot!!
Pauline and I left Eymet on April 15th. I really enjoyed my time there but was looking forward to finding my place in the world. I haven't ruled Eymet out but so far other places are calling me. It took us the morning to get organized, give the house a once over and of course have one more coffee before going. Marc had bought me a beautiful necklace at a place in Monpazier. It was not his favourite but I liked it. The more I thought about the one that he liked, the more I wished I had listened to his opinion. So we decided to head to Monpazier first to see if we could exchange the necklace. Two things were working against us, first we arrived at lunch time when all the shops are closed and second it was Monday when a lot of them are closed. So we decided to have lunch and see if she opened in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous warm afternoon, we had a fabulous lunch at Gallerie M. The waiter's wife's parents lived in Comox if you can believe it. We went for a walk after lunch. Monpazier is a wonderfully photogenic village and I was in my element. We came across a Chambre d'Hotes for sale with a wonderful view of the valley and talked about maybe calling the realtor to have a look. The more we hung out the more we wanted to stay so we checked out Chez Edell and booked in for the night. This Chambre d'Hotes is run by a South African couple who bought it three years ago. Really nice couple, in fact everyone we had met so far was super nice. The next morning we walked by the place for sale and the woman who owned it just happened to come out. She offered to show us around the place. It was quite interesting, she was asking a bit too much but she was a super interesting woman. We talked with her about maybe renting her 2 bedroom gite in the fall for a long term rental and exchanging some work around the place. Just putting some feelers out to see what might come up. I really got a good feeling about Monpazier and I got to exchange the necklace. There isn't a pilgrimage route that passes though but the GR36, which is a long distance route from the north coast of France to the south coast. If anyone looks on the map, you will realize that we only made it 46 km on our first day. At this rate it is going to take us a long time to get to Arles. At least we are driving twice as fast as we would walk!!
So we left Monpazier just before lunch and made our way to Rocamadour (with stops) and then on to Cahors to see Jacqui, who I stayed with when I walked the Chemin in 2011. It was wonderful to see her and we picked her brain about running a gite for pilgrims. The next morning there was a wonderful farmers market in Cahors and a super brocante market. It was hard not to buy anything at the brocante market but as we have no home... From Cahors we drove to Montcuq for a coffee which turned into lunch as it was such warm sunny afternoon. Next stop was Lauzerte. This is a beautiful village on top of the hill and guess what, we decided to stay the night. We booked into the gite where both of us had stayed when we walked the chemin. The owners are wonderful. On our way into town we met a NZ woman who was busking with her flute at the grocery store. She was quite interesting so when we decided to stay the night we thought it would be nice to see if we could find her and invite her for a beer. We had a wonderful conversation with her. I think I was starting to lose sight of why I wanted to open a hostel and meeting her reminded me of what I had experienced on the walk and why I wanted to open a gite.
We were enjoying Lauzerte so much we decided to stay a second night. The weather wasn't as good today but we went for good walk and had a nice lunch in the square and now here I am - updating a blog. We will have dinner tonight at the gite with all the pilgrims. At first I felt guilty about being here by car but I got over that!!!! C'est tout pour maintenant!! A bientot!!