Ou est la sortie?

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Loosely translated, the title of today's blog is "How in the heck do I get out of here?"

About noon today we stopped in the small town of Arzacq. Note, I said small town. Make that a village with one main street and only one church. Ate our usual lunch of bread and cheese and an apple. Then headed out of town for the day's destination, Aire-s-l'Adour, a larger town. Though there were about four or five roads leading out of town, we could not find the right one. After wandering around for fifteen minutes (and unnecessarily climbing a steep hill) then studying a map for another fifteen minutes, we finally figured it out. As the French would say, "C'est la vie!"

Though the map indicated a fairly flat ride, such was not the case as we ascended and descended numerous hills and valleys for about 90 kilometers through the backroads of French farmland. Though initially cloudy, the weather was later ideal -- sunny and warm.

We did observe something today we had not previously seen -- new homes being built. Up until now, everything was old, as in even older than us! But today we saw a rather large area where new houses had been built. Obviously, farming pays off here.

What we are observing fewer and fewer of are the peligrins (pilgrims). Most must start their pilgrimage in St. Jean because we saw fewer than a dozen or so today. Two sat at the table next to us at dinner; they were from Quebec and had done most of the walk in 2009, were now finishing it.

We are camping in Aire-s-l'Adour tonight. Another typical municipal French campground right in the city. As in Spain, restaurants are closed from about 2 until 7 p.m. So we had to wait until 7 for dinner as our tummies rumbled loudly. But it was worth the wait. The pilgrim menu included a plate of cruidities (lettuce, tomato, and ham), bread and butter (the first time we've even seen butter in a month), steak (perfectly done; again, the first beef in a month), french fries (getting a bit tired of them), dessert, and wine. The dessert was a large fudgy brownie thingy covered with vanilla pudding. Delicious.

So here we sit at 9 p.m. It won't get dark until at least 10 p.m. Our clothes are washed and have dried in the light breeze. I'll send out this e-mail -- we have Wi-Fi but no electricity!! Tomorrow, it's on to Condom (yes, that is really the name of the city. I wonder what kind of souvenirs tourists buy there??)

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