Step 6: Philoxenia

Walking in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande

Philoxenia is derived from the Greek, combining the words "philos" (meaning "friend" or "loving") and "xenos" (meaning "stranger" or "foreigner"). It is used twice in the New Testament, in Romans 12:13, and Hebrews 13:2, and is seen as a neighbourly love.

 

Day 27, Sunday the 21st of May, 18km walked

I got up late around 8:30am, as we had decided to sleep in. I wished for a break from my siblings and so after packing up my tent, I told them that I would meet them in the Hamlet of Le Poncet, 5km south of the center of the city of Bergerac, and about three to four days journey from where we had camped that morning. We hoped to spend a day in the village of Monbazillac and explore the Vineyard which makes such splendid dessert wine. So I left, not knowing where I would stay that evening, how far I would go, and who I would walk with. After walking for an hour, I stopped to have breakfast before continuing on. No more than half an hour after my breakfast stop, I heard voices behind me, and I turned expecting to see that the others had cought up with me. But it was not the others, but Irene and the older Dutch couple, and Philippe from Belgium but lives in France! So I asked if I could walk with them for a bit. We walked and talked till the center of Périgueux, and hour or so later. 

 

The five of us walking along the road into Périgueux

For Connie and Henk (the older durch couple), Périgueux was where their road ended. They had started in Vézelay and would finish in Périgueux before heading back to the Netherlands to work. So we went to a bar and had a round of drinks to bid them farwell which they ended up paying for as a parting gift! Irene, Connie and Henk had coffee, I had a lemonade, and Philippe had a beer. Up to that point, Irene had been staying in Campgrounds and peoples lawns, and she really wanted to do wild camping in France, and so she asked if she could accompany me along the road and show her how to wild camp. I was very happy to have company and so we set off. Philippe had a sore hip and so was going to stay in the city of Périgueux for a few nights to rest up before continuing. 

So after bidding everyone goodbye, Irene and myself set off. I wanted to pop into a supermarket before leaving the city. She stopped off at the ATM to withdraw cash, as she had run out of cash and it was wise to carry cash as you will see. After going to the grocery store and buying a small bottle of Monbazillac Dessert wine for Irene to try, we headed for the outskirts of the city, and as we walked, I felt that I should see the church's in the city, and so asked Irene if she was happy if we could detour and look at the church's. The Town of Périgueux had two church's. The first we went to was the Église Saint-Étienne de la Cité in Périgueux. Built in the 12th century, it is a Romanesque church honoring Saint Stephen. It suffered damage during the French Revolution but was later restored. Today, it stands as a symbol of Périgueux's religious heritage, attracting visitors with its historical significance and Romanesque architecture. 

 

Église Saint-Étienne de la Cité in Périgueux

With its high domed ceiling, it felt spacious and awe inspiring. It also had excellent acoustics for singing in.

The next church was the Cathédrale Saint-Front in Périgueux, built in the 12th century, is another stunning example of Romanesque architecture dedicated to Saint Front. Its notable domed roof and grand facade make it a prominent landmark. Through restoration efforts, it has preserved its historical significance and remains a place of worship, representing the cultural and architectural heritage of Périgueux. We hoped to receive a stamp in our passes there, but found no stamp. So we continued on down to the river and across the bridge to follow the southerly route out of the town. 

 

Cathédrale Saint-Front in Périgueux

Further along the path which ran for close to a kilometer along the edge of the L'Isle River, there was a foot ferry across back to the town of Périgueux. What powered it was a metal rope which you pulled the boat across the river with. I had only seen that sort of boat once, and that was in the movie called The Knights Tale. I wanted to try it out, and so Irene sat and ate a little snack while I pulled myself across the river. 

On the foot ferry while crossing the river in Périgueux

We proceeded onwards for another 5km before pitching our tents in some woods. We were 750 meters from a Boulange and a Tobacco (cafe and bar). That evening, we opened the Monbazillac Dessert wine and had it with salami and cheese before Irene used her stove to cook the freeze dried meal which Connie and Henk had given us. We ate the Chilli Con Carne for dinner, the first hot meal I have properly had since leaving Paris. It was heavenly.

 

Our tents in the woods

The route inwhich we walked that day, 20km

Day 28, Monday the 22nd of May, 22km walked

We got up around 7:30 and packed down. There was little to no condensation on our tents due to sleeping under trees. The night of Wild camping was a success and had opened doors for Irene in not having to pay to sleep somewhere. We walked into Coulounieix-Chamiers, a suburb of Périgueux, and only 750 meters from where we had camped. There was a boulangerie and a Tobacco (bar/cafe). Needing to charge, we plugged our phones in at the Tobacco (bar/cafe) and we sat and drank coffee while writing in our Journals. Around 9:30am we got ready to go and and began walking. We walked 20km that day. As we walked, Irene wanted to listen to the book The Princess and the Goblin by George McDonald and read by Andy Minter. If you wish for an excellent read or listen, I would thoroughly recommend this book. It is a children's book and thus is light to read and rather wholesome for the soul.

We listened to it off and on throughout the day as Irene struggled to focus on the english while walking. Sometimes Irene would shoot on ahead as her walking pace was faster then my own, and I lagged behind, causing her to wait from time to time for me to catch up with her. For lunch, we shared our food between us. 

 

Our lunch on the 22nd of May

After lunch we continued to walk. The path took us up and down hills and through woods and farm land. Around 2:30pm we passed a strawberry farm! 

 

Rows of ripe strawberries, 22nd of May

For that evening, she planned to camp in a campground, and had looked up the prices online and found them to being 10€ a night. I was undecided if I would stay at the campground, but in the end did stay as I really wanted to shower and charge my battery pack and phone. As I have mentioned just before that the website said that the camp fee was 10€, however when we arrived, they asked for our pilgrim passes which they then Stamped and the fee was 6€ becouse we were pilgrims. I did not have any cash, and so Irene paid for me, and I promised to pay her back.

 For dinner that night we had pasta, fish, and cheese, accompanied with tomato sauce. It was again absolutely heavenly. Pasta, mmm, I have missed this food, accompanied by brie cheese and canned fish, it was so very good, and hot! We had still a little dessert wine from the evening before which we proceeded to finish that evening while watching the movie called The Way, I highly recommend the movie. It came out in 2010 and is about a father who walks the Camino for his son.

 

Coffee and breakfast, 23rd of May

The route inwhich we walked that day, 23km

Day 29, Tuesday the 23rd of May

We got up somewhat late, around 8am. Irene made me a coffee on her Percolator and then cooked some oats with water. It was very bland, and once we began to eat it I asked if she would be happy if I added salt and fruit. After that it was much improved and she found it a joy to eat, as she was struggling before. We then set off. For most part we stuck together, listening to more of Princess and the Goblin and music. We hopped to get close to the town of Bergerac, and camp by the village of Lembras. However we only got as far as the village of Queyssac, around 10km north-east from the center of Bergerac, and 4km north-east from Lembras. During that day, we stopped in the Village of Pont-Saint-Mamet for some lunch. There was a boulangerie where I brought some croissants and a slice of Flan and a almond pan chocola while Irene went to the post office to post a shirt back to her bf. We had a fine lunch before continuing onwards. At the same boulangerie, I brought the needed ingredients to make dinner for that evening.

 

Our lunch, croissant stuffed with Brie and Apple

It rained multiple times during the day accompanied by thunder. For the first spot of rain, we stopped in the Hamlet of Le Sorbier around 2:40pm.

Irene blowing Bubbles as we wait for the rain to recede

For the second we stopped by a little man-made lake and under some trees before continuing on till we got to Le Sorbier where we stopped as it was getting late. 

 

Our Camp for the evening of the 23rd

It was an idealistic spot, and we pitched right next to a pond, which in hindsight was not a good idea as the frogs caused some to have unsettled sleep during the night. I cooked dinner of Pasta, tomato puree and cheese. In all, we walked 19km that day. 

Irene drinking tea after dinner

The route inwhich we walked that day, 19km

Day 30, Wednesday the 24th of May

We got up and Irene made coffee. I had wanted to leave ASAP before eating breakfast or coffee, as I really wanted to get to the grocery store in Lembras, 3.7km away. So I left her to her coffee, for she walked fast then I and she said she would catch up. As I left Queyssac, I passed a cemetery and went in to refresh my water at the cemetery tap. However, I did a foolish thing. A car had pulled up by the cemetery just before I entered the gate, and so when I was pouring my water out, for a moment I was concerned that it would sound as if I was relieving myself, and so reached for the tap to only find that it was dry. So now I had no water! I continued on till Lembras only to find that the map had lied to me, and that there was no grocery store in the village. I went to the boulangerie and brought a pan chocola before sitting to wait for Irene, she didn't take long to arrive. We ate the pan chocola together before continuing on to Bergerac. On our way, we passed through a park with a river running by one side of it, and we stopped at one point to dip our feet in the cool waters. 

 

Irene crossing the small Ford in the river of Le Caudeau

We then continued on to a Intermarché and brought ingredients to make dinner for that evening. It was still early, perhaps around 11:30am when we arrived at the supermarket. I brought sausages and mushrooms with two tomatoes, while Irene brought ingredients to make salad. We then continued on till the center of Bergerac where we stopped in a square to write. She had to write a post card for her brother, and I had to write a letter. We had popped in to see if the Office de Tourisme had a stamp, but they were closed for a siesta, as most places do in France. That was OK, becouse we sat and wrote in the shade of some trees, and Irene made herself coffee on her stove. We both took turns to walk around, while one of us looked after our bags. When the office de tourisme did open, I went and seeked out the stamp, only to find that they did not do the stamps, and that one had to go to the Paroisse Saint Jacques en Bergeracois where the fathers of the church would be. When I arrived at the supplied address, I was greeted by an old lady who spoke little english but knew what I had come for. She Stamped my book before stating that she would be praying for me. She apologized that father was not in at that moment and so couldn't bless me. I told her that that was OK and I went upon my way back to where Irene was sitting a few streets over. At this time, Osgar, Enoch, and Rose were all but an hour away, though at the time I did not know that and they passed Irene and I and only messaged me once they got to WiFi which was 4km away at a Burger King in the south-west of Bergerac. So once I did receive word around 5:30pm, Irene and myself set forth. While we were still yet nearly 2km off, we passed a bar, and Irene said that if she hadn't brought the dessert wine(as she had brought a bottle of Monbazillac Dessert wine before we left the town of Bergerac to drink with the others over a late dinner) she would have liked to have brought me a beer there. As we walked passed however, two men called us over and asked if they could buy us a drink. We said yes and sat down and they brought us a beer. 

 

Philoxenia

We soon continued on though till reaching the Burger King. The others were sitting charging their devices. They had eaten there, and Osgar told me that if you filled out a survey, one would get a free ice cream. So I did so and brought an ice cream to get a free ice cream. One I gave to Irene, and the other I ate before we continued on to look for a camping spot out by the Hamlet of Le Poncet, just 1.5km away from the Burger King.

Our dinner that evening

We camped for the night by the side of the road in a Vineyard. We were now in Vineyard County, and grapevines were everywhere.

The route inwhich we walked that day, 16km walked

Day 31, Thursday the 25th of May

We had a slow start to the day. There had been a mixed decision on if we were sleeping in in the morning, and so when morning came round, we were slow in getting up. Though once up, Irene lit her stove and made coffee for Osgar, Enoch, herself and I, before giving the stove over to me to scramble the eggs in the fat of the sausages. It was then decided that Rose and Irene would walk on while we three, Osgar, Enoch, and myself would walk to Monbazillac and tour the museum there before catching up with them near Sainte-Foy-la-Grande. So around 10am we bidded them farwell and headed our separate ways. It was 6.6km to Monbazillac, nearly an hour and a half walk. Once getting there around 11am, we brought tickets which included a wine tasting at the end of the tour. In all, the cost of the tickets were 11€ each. The receptionist allowed us to leave our backpacks behind her desk while we explored the museum Château De Monbazillac. Afterwards we walked around the wine shop and tried our taster which came with the tickets. 

 

Tasting the wines at Monbazillac

After that we got our pilgrim passes Stamped before beginning the long journey back to the path of The Way. The weather was hot and the sky clear, early summer was here. 

Enoch and Osgar had stopped in the Village of Monbazillac to eat their lunch. I did not have any food apart from a heel of bread which Rose had given me the evening before, and so continued on with out them. It had taken me over an hour and a half to get back to the track, and once on it I continued for another 2 and a half hours, thinking that Enoch and Osgar were behind me and that the boots which marked the wet soil were that of Rose and Irene. However, on arriving in the village of Saussignac around 6pm, I found to my surprise that Enoch and Osgar were sitting down at a picnic table drinking beers! How did they get there? I had not stopped once since departing from Monbazillac, not even to eat. We sat, and I ate the heel of bread which Rose gave me the evening before, and Osgar gave me some blue cheese which he had. I still had one apple left from the village of Thiviers, so ate blue cheese and apple sandwich over a beer. As we sat, a Dutch couple in their 60s came and sat at our table and we talked. They had a local batch in the region and had spent the evening bicycling around. I had seen them a couple of hours before as they passed me on their bicycles. They brought us a round of beers as we talked. It wasn't long till the talk turned to politics in Europe and also in NZ. They had a reservation at a local restaurant for 7:30 and so continued on their way and we on ours. Irene had sent me a message on where they had chosen to pitch their tents that evening, and from the village of Razac-de-Saussignac we still had 5.4km to walk till the chosen rest spot. Osgar and Enoch shot on ahead and I was back walking alone. On arriving at the chosen location, I found that there was a ruin nearby which was one of the reasons why Rose had picked that spot. For in the past I had mentioned to her my desire to sleep in a ruin, I did not do so that night.

 

The ruin nearby our camp

 

Our Camp for the evening, by grapevines

The route inwhich we walked that day, 33km walked

Day 32, Friday the 26th of May

We were up and gone by 8am. The supermarket of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande was only 2.3km away. It didn't take long before we got to the supermarket. We needed to decide if we would stay at a campground the day and evening in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, or continued on. Irene wanted to spend the day at the campground in the town of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, and so we all decided that we would. It would mean we could shower, wash our cloths, and rest. We also laid things out to dry, and re-ordered our packs, posting things to a friend in the UK that we thought were needless and over burdensome to our packs. After we had arrived at the camp no later than 10:30am, I made porridge with Apple and oranges cut up into it. Irene made coffee which we mixed with milk that I had brought from the supermarket earlier that morning. We spent most of that day washing cloths and rearranging our packs, before going out around 3pm into the village to look at the church and the office de tourisme where we received another stamp in our passes. 

 

Stamps from various villages along The Way up to Sainte-Foy-la-Grande

My glasses were in a poor state of affairs. I had lost three screws, two of which held the arms of the glasses on and one held a lense in. So while in the village I took my glasses into an Optician where they screwed new screws into my glasses and gave them a clean for free! I can see clearer now! The five us then stopped for a drink, and Rose was kind enough to shout me a drink. They played cards as I wrote, and before long we returned back to the campsite to make dinner. Coronation Chicken was our chosen meal, for it only required the rice to be cooked. Rose had brought the chicken, Enoch had brought the other ingredients, while Osgar and brought the wine and rice. As we were preparing our meal, an English couple who were camping opposite from us, came over and gave us a bag of peanut flavored crisps that they didn't like. Earlier in the day when we first arrived at the campsite, a French brother and sister who were walking The Way with their dog, also gave us some unopened freeze dried meals to use at a later date. After dinner, we packed our bags before watching A Knights Tale around my phone. We didnt get to bed till 11:30pm, which didnt help us as we planned to leave by 6am the following morning.

 

Tent City ~ Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, 26th of May

The route inwhich we walked that day, 6km walked

Day 33, Saturday the 27th of May

We awoke at 5am, and packed up before setting forth. 

 

Taken at 5:30am, packing up, 27th of May

We left the campsite at ten to six, and as we passed through the center of the township, a market was being set up. We walked on for 1 hour and forty minutes before stopping by the side of the road. The sun at this time had risen and the day was already too warm and we were sweating. There was a small hole in the side of the hill and was the reason for our stop. 

 

The sandy hole in the hill, not a Hobbit Hole

Enoch went in first, followed by Osgar, Irene and myself. We had taken our packs off before entering. Rose remained by the road side. It went into the side of the hill for perhaps 20 meters, curving and stepping down till it led to a small room that could hold 6 or so people, and a smaller chamber at one end which led nowhere apart from straight up to the outside. Someone had covered that hole with a piece of corrugated iron. We found a little lizard which was striped black and yellow sitting in the main chamber of the hole.

 The lizard king of the sandy hole

We then continued on upon the road soon after that, and walked for another hour before stopping at 9am for breakfast and coffee. We sheltered from the sweltering heat of the day in a forecourt of a small store in the village of Saint-Quentin-de-Caplong. By that point, we had walked 14km since leaving the campsite that morning. 

 

Eating breakfast at Saint-Quentin-de-Caplong, 27th of May

We rested for an hour, and in that hour Irene made coffee and I made porridge. It was a lovely breakfast and aided us for the next few hours upon the road. We left at 11am, and was only on The Way when three pilgrims cought up with us. They had heard about the four kiwis and were glad to finally catch up to us upon the road. We walked together to the next village of Caplong where we stopped at the church while some of us refilled our water bottles. 

 

Standing in the shadow of the church at Caplong

We continued on and soon they over took us and left us to our own pace. We again passed them later as they stopped for lunch. We continued on till we got to the village of Pellegrue, and then we too stopped for lunch. 

 

Our lunch in Pellegrue, 27th of May

We stopped there for two hours, before leaving around 3pm. We walked another 5km before pitching for the evening around 5pm. Our total km walked that day was 29km. 

Leaving the Next Morning

The route inwhich we walked that day, 29km walked

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