Yvonne was so much fun. I told her about Elena, (owner of our room last night) and the care she took with my big toe. She looked at me suspiciously and said: “Atencion William, atencion”. She went on to say that many people with Parkinson’s have a tendency to chase other women among other socially unacceptable habits (I know this to be true), and was concerned for Corrie. Both Yvonne and a French woman staying [...]
Elena was superb. As she was seeing to the large cut on my big toe, a group of 8 walkers turned up for drinks. I told her they were waiting and she said: “your toe is my most important task at the moment, they can rest a while”. When I am waiting for service in the future, I will remember Elena and my big toe and hope that I never complain again about waiting. She [...]
We ate Italian pasta in a French village with a Swiss man. This was the ‘might be friends with man’ but after ‘deep dinner discourses’, we are now friends. A delightfully gentle, astute and warm linguistic pastor he lives in a town deep in the valley below the mighty Alps. These are the mountains that Corrie fell in love with when living in Europe 35 years ago and started a love affair she has never [...]
Dinner time has now doubled to 16 - our Canadian friends from the canal walk - a Swiss man ‘becoming a friend’ , who is interested in my Parkinson’s walk and ‘wants to be keen’ on writing poems of the walk - a French father and daughter - a French woman taking time out from family for 2 weeks with a woman friend - a blind man with his wife and daughter - 2 men [...]
We ate dinner in the gorgeous triangular park. The cafe owners brought it over to the eight of us - 3 French men, 1 with a daughter, 1 French woman, 1 Polish Frenchman and us. They talked in French over dinner and we are accustomed and comfortable with that - we also enjoy the sounds of their beautiful language. The Polish amateur tenor however spoke very good English and he would often talk with us. [...]
No signs again of modernity as we left this old town with its circular market place, a gorgeous array of plantains, their branches reaching out to their brothers and sisters as if to say - “come on lets show them what we can do as one”, as they decorate the pretty stone facade behind. The night before, Corrie found our breakfast place for today - we can’t wait for the regular 7.00am slots because we’ll [...]
A delightful dinner with our Capetown companions. We talked of the special people we have met; walks from the Himalayas to the Turkish coast; relationships; how tears can make you strong; situations and your response to them that can change your life; using your abilities wisely in business, Mandela and Parkinson's. In the dimly lit plaza of Moissac, an ancient village on the French chemin we ate, we drank, we talked and we laughed. The [...]
We climbed the hill to the stunning medieval village of Lauzerte. Some street lights still on, the first person was setting up for market day, but no-one or nothing else could show that it was the 21st century, so my imagination had a great time. Corrie and I were the only people on the street in what I imagine would be a place usually filled with tourists, so we took our time. Not only was [...]
La Grange de Grizou had only one guest tonight - us. Alain asked us to leave our case where pilgrims have to leave their dirty shoes to help keep these Gites clean. The owner here was very particular about packs and cases because bugs were rife in the area. We walked into a beautifully renovated stone house, oak beams and stairways, a very big room leading to our bedroom on the left, the large dining [...]
Bit scary leaving (Pierre had left breakfast out for us) as we witnessed an attempted assault on a local kid by 2 others, young men gathered in loud groups and the police arriving to sort out some trouble a street away - so I checked the narrow dark lanes out as we were leaving in the cool of the dark. I think we hit a bad patch that could happen anywhere as it has done [...]
