This posting, complete with music, may seem too enthusiastic. Ah, but you weren’t there. To get down from the Aubrac Plateau I just needed, and wanted, to follow the road. Looked a little wild out there: This is as high as one gets, till the Pyrenees: Yet to leave the snowline is a matter of [...]
Archive for the ‘B. ALONG THE AUBRAC’ Category
SAINT-CHELY-D’AUBRAC. DOUCE FRANCE.
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 20, 2010 | 1 Comment »
SLEET RELIEVED BY SNOW
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 20, 2010 | 4 Comments »
At the hotel in Aumont Aubrac, a serving of the famous aligot – cheesy mashed spud – filled four big holes. (The next night I was to eat a different version of aligot, using coarsely scalloped spuds.) We were going to need our aligot. Check this view from the window next morning: After breakfast, Cecil [...]
ST. ROCH DOES AXLES?
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 19, 2010 | 3 Comments »
After Le Sauvage, the pilgrim leaves the Auvergne and enters Roussillon Languedoc. The actual department is Lozère, with France’s thinnest economy and population. Some cows, some tourists, some French life-style changers, some English scoring technically-South-of-France real estate. And quite a few pilgrims. Pilgrimage has a nifty way of injecting a little money into picturesque but [...]
LE SAUVAGE…AND IT WAS PRETTY WILD
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The next stage, from Saugues, took us through forest, fringe of the still-wild Margeride region. Emerging onto clearer heath-like country, we were exposed to wind as well as rain. My rainwear proved useless. Next we had to ford several shallow streams. Being used to wet feet in the bush, I charged right through. The Canadians [...]
BLACK PRINCE, BLACK DEATH, BLACK CENTURY
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
And he is bred out of that bloody strain That haunted us in our familiar paths: Witness our too much memorable shame When Cressy battle fatally was struck, And all our princes captiv’d by the hand Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales He rests at Canterbury, the hero of Crécy and Poiters, [...]
WOLF COUNTRY
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The stage to Saugues was memorable by the addition of a fourth member to our little group: Cecil, who manages to be German, English, Sri Lankan and Hakka Chinese. Our conversations that day were wondrously accented. Such is the Camino. No wonder that control freak, Louis XIV, didn’t like the hike. The photo above was [...]
I LOVE A CLICHE…
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
…if it’s well and slowly cooked. Here’s my own version – it’s now winter in Oz – of the plat national I was served in Monistrol d’Allier, day two. (I didn’t use the famous lentils of Le Puy, but I’m not sure our Auvergnat hosts used them either.) As you walk the Camino in France, [...]
IN THE AUVERGNE…
Posted in B. ALONG THE AUBRAC, Uncategorized on June 17, 2010 | 1 Comment »
…and on a high plateau in volcanic country. After an exhilarating ascent from Le Puy, I struck my first difficulty: wind. This photo of the wonderfully characteristic church in St. Christophe may seem tranquil, but it was the only snap I could manage for most of day one. The wind had been so strong along [...]
