Category: Arles

World Leaders & Gîtes ~ May 26, 2016

  • Thursday, May 26, 2016
  • Day 26 (Day 23 Camino)
  • Giscaro
  • Distance: 19 miles (20% tarmac) 334 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 1,768 feet and descent 1,717 feet
  • Time: 9 hours
  • Weather: 50-75 degrees, overcast

Pilgrims have commonality. We all walk to a destination with no more then we can carry on our back. In the evening we come together at gîtes sharing our walk and a bit of ourselves. Respect for privacy, possessions, dining, sleeping habits, and comfort are common qualities shared at the gîtes.

Would the world’s leaders learn more of peace and harmony by walking with no more they can carry on theirs back and sharing bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens with people from different countries?

  1. Léguevin – Accueil pèlerins Gîte communal Maison Saint-Jacques
  2. Towards Giscaro – Gîte du Grangé
  3. Towards Giscaro – Locals

A First ~ May 25, 2016

  • Wednesday, May 25, 2016
  • Day 25 (Day 22 Camino)
  • Lèguedoc
  • Distance: 14 1/2 miles (80% tarmac) 315 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 840 feet and descent 674 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-75 degrees, blue skies with clouds

Today is the first day I have walked totally alone. Exiting the metropolis of Toulouse was an added challenge to the walk. No wrong turns on an inconsistently marked Way.  Super!

Two French locals unsolicited offered to give me a ride to the next towns…how kind.

  1. Towards Lèguedoc – Windmill
  2. Towards Lèguedoc – At last off the Canal du Mini and out of urban Toulouse
  3. Towards Lèguedoc – flowering tree.

Bocce? ~ May 25, 2016 

  • Wednesday, May 25, 2016
  • Day 25 (Day 22 Camino)
  • Lèguedoc
  • Distance: 14 1/2 miles (80% tarmac) 315 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 840 feet and descent 674 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-75 degrees, blue skies with clouds

Bocce?  No.

Similar to bocce, pètanque is played with a small metal handball thrown as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (“piglet”). The steel ball can easily be picked up by a suspended magnet.

  1. Towards Lèguedoc
  2. Towards Lèguedoc
  3. Towards Lèguedoc

Jacobins’ Cloisters ~ May 24, 2016 

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Cloisters, Convent Church of the Jacobins.

  1. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jacobins
  2. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jacobins
  3. Toulouse – A  musical instrument. As a golf ball descends each step, a musical note is produced creating a tune.  Convent Church of the  Jacobins

Convent Church of the Jocobins ~ May 24, 2016

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Flooded with light, it’s my favorite! The Convent Church of the Jocobins. Gothic in design, the supporting vaulted columns create a palm forest effect.

  1. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins
  2. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins
  3. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins

Cathedral  Saint-Etienne ~ May 24, 2016

  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Cathedral Saint-Etienne, largely Gothic

  1. Toulouse – Cathedral Saint-Etienne
  2. Toulouse – Cathedral Saint-Etienne
  3. Toulouse – Statue Saint-Jacque, Cathedral Saint-Etienne

Basilique Saint-Semin ~ May 24, 2016

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-70 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Saint Semin was the first bishop of Toulouse and was martyred in 250 AD by being dragged by bulls through the city streets. His body, along with 128 saints, lie in the Basilique Saint-Semin. Completed in C14th, it’s the largest Romanesque church in France.

Devine providence? None other than two of the French-Three-Some appear!

  1. Toulouse – Basilique Saint-Semin
  2. Toulouse – Basilique Saint-Semin
  3. Toulouse – Françoise and Jean-Françoise, Basilique Saint-Semin

Loose in Toulouse ~ May 23, 2016 

  • Tuesday, May 23, 2016
  • Day 23 (Day 21 Camino)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-70 degrees, cloudy and few drizzles

Loose in Toulouse.

  1. Toulouse – Pont St-Pierre and Dôme de la Grave
  2. Toulouse – Hôtel Dieu St-Jacques, the former C12th and C13th pilgrim hostelries/hospitals…huge stone scallop shell
  3. Toulouse – Street Musician

Pilgrim Gifts ~ May 23, 2016

  • Monday, May 23, 2016
  • Day 23 (Day 20 Camino)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 15 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 295 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 670 feet and descent 728 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy, steady rain, blue sky’s with clouds

Yesterday’s rain washed clothes began the day dry, only to be laundered by today’s rains.

The Camino provides…The French-Three-Some and I separate company today. As they ends their walk, Françoise offered the standard goods: Compeeds (blister treatment) and zip-lock bags. After two rains in two days, she insisted the loan of her rain poncho. Through I have a backpack cover, Gortex rain jacket and paints, yesterday’s rain totally soaked my pack. A poncho better protects the bag and walker; albeit, hotter and more weight in my pack.

  1. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi
  2. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi
  3. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi