Breakfast at 7, on the road by 8 with pilgrims on our heels.
The cathedral tower was a dark silhouette at sunrise. Soon after breakfast, we were leaning into the hill on the Rue des Capucins (the Camino route) that passed next to our hotel. Our fellow pilgrims were a serious lot. For some, a new experience of walking a quarter mile up a steep incline. For veterans, just the first of many hills to come.
After the climb, we settled in for a long walk across the plateau. The temperature was mid-50s, moderate winds, and puffy clouds moving quickly across the sky. The terrain was mostly open with occasional moments in the trees that lined the trail. We also saw a most unusual combination of a tv antenna affixed to a cross. Was it a new way of the communicating with the Almighty or a pragmatic way getting a better signal to watch futbol?
Eventually, we descended to our destination St Privat d’Allier, a small village perched on the side of a mountain. We were early so I enjoyed a biere pression, La Vertueuse, the virtuous woman. An instance of French tongue in cheek?
Before dinner, we took a stroll to the other side of the gorge where a church was constructed in the 12th Century stood. At the threshold, I spied an interesting stained glass cross behind the altar that beckoned me in. Who knew that some of the church’s stained glass windows were Mondrian like. The Camino continues to surprise me with its hidden beauty.
No report of dinner tonight. It was quite ordinary.
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