Finally at Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, after 27 km of riding, I find somewhere that serves coffee. I need a coffee to go with the croissant I bought at the local boulangerie this morning. So I order a café crème at the 'Café Bar de la Mairie', appropriately located on the main square right next to the town hall. The service is friendly and the coffee is, as I had already anticipated, awful. Why it is that as soon as milk is involved the French seem to find it so difficult to make decent coffee is beyond me. The croissant is good though.
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| Pole full of signs and symbols: all pointing to Santiago |
Earlier, I stopped at Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, at a delightfully quaint little area around the church with a statue of Jeanne d'Arc. I am taking a photo of the beautifully restored and maintained Maison de Dauphin (1415) when the window opens and an immaculately-coiffed lady pops her head out to tell that the auberge, which I am standing in front of, is closed. Then she notices my shell and a long discussion starts about the Camino; where I'm from, how she's walked most of it and she wants to do the last part from Paris "we have another house there" to her house in Sainte-Catherine (which conveniently is right on the Chemin of course). Looking at her, someone of means and immaculately presented, you wouldn't have guessed she'd be walking for hundreds of kilometres and staying in pilgrimage hostels, but you do find all types on The Way.
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| La Maison du Dauphin - 1415: Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois |
It's been hot today; it is 32 degrees when I arrive in Châtellerault and having ridden four hours in the full sun at that temperature is enough for the day. Besides, after 70 km my legs are telling me it is time to stop. Despite what my guide said, it turns out that there is a Halte Jacquaire here and luckily despite not having booked, there is still place (with only four beds it wouldn't take much to be booked out). But there is just one booking for two women I am told, so there is a place for me. It turns out to be in the Hôtel Sully, one of the plus beaux hôtels particuliers in Châtellerault according to the tourist brochure. Not bad for 8 euros, and just next to the Eglise St Jacques, which of course is particularly significant for the pilgrimage.
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| Hôtel Sully - bed for the night |
After making my bed (as the first to arrive I have my choice) using the standard supplied disposable sheets and doing my daily washing, I set off for a walk around the town, something which I soon ran out of enthusiasm for in the heat, especially after having ridden so far. So I compromise and install myself at a footpath table outside a bar serving cold beers. One has to adapt to the situation after all.
While I spend time at my footpath table with my beer, apart from observing the people (obviously) I've also been looking at the buses - really.
The buses leaving the nearby bus zone have to make a tight turn onto the road near to where I'm sitting. There are basically two ways of achieving this turn: the lazy way, allowing the rear wheels of the long bus to mount the kerb (essentially cutting the corner); or the slightly more difficult properly executed turn, making the turn wide while carefully judging the position of the front of the bus (it's a tight turn after all) so that the rear wheels stay on the roadway. Systematically, it's the female bus drivers - and there are a lot of female bus drivers in Châtellerault - who take the more correct approach while their make colleagues are all cutting the corner.
While I am on the subject of gender-based driving stereotypes, another example of male and female driving behaviour is in the way cars come behind you when you're riding and how and when they overtake. When the car behind keeps its distance and matches your speed, following patiently until the road ahead is well clear before overtaking, it's most often a female driver. The males come rushing up and overtake when they should have waited, and if they do have to wait, they are the ones following too close behind.
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| Self Portrait - Châtellerault |
While walking back to the pilgrim gîte I see two women of a certain age taking pictures of the Saint Jacques church. They are dressed almost identically, in hiking pants and a light top, and are both carrying fancy pouches. I ask them and sure enough the are my roommates for the night. Back at the pilgrim refuge I see there are two other beds prepared. On one of them, I cannot help but notice, plugged into the power point there's a machine which has a flexible hose attached to a mask. It looks like an oxygen / breathing machine. I suppose one of these women has a breathing problem of some sort. Imagine carrying that machine with you in your backpack every day. Later, when we are discussing the walk and comparing notes she tells me that her backpack weighs just over 10kg - even with the machine. It seems amazingly light, but she's obviously got things worked out.
Dinner tonight is a three-course French meal at a real restaurant, unlike last night's supermarket-bought-make-dinner-yourself effort. I sit outside because the advertised salle climatisée is, of course, not climatisée at all and it's hotter inside than out. Besides, there's more people to watch out here.
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| Saint Jacques in his church - Châtellerault |
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