Saturday 7th November
Villenouvelle to Villepinte
On arrival last night Madame had made a passing comment ‘so far so good’ when referring to our route, but we didn’t think much of it and had a mere 35 miles to do today. Her husband then said at breakfast that from their home the proper path ceases and we would have trouble with the roots, leaves and mud. Well, he certainly knew what he was talking about! We took hours to make any progress at all as the path is pretty non-existant, very rutty and you couldn’t stop to admire a view of any kind as it was pouring and very cold! The snow was looking uncomfortably close and we had a much needed hot chocolate in a canal side bar. We had a text from Rosie who gave us an update on her day at Luccombe. We stopped in Castelnaudary for a brief lunch and yet again I was the only female in the bar. The Port there was very pretty (not the drinking kind!) and I am sure in the summer it has a great atmosphere. We had booked in to the’ Deux Acacias’ in Villepinte which was great. It is a small Auberge and we were the only 2 there. The doors were firmly locked until 6pm which is something we are getting used to, so we had hang around in the garage which was fortunately quite warm and look at the church, which was not as interesting as it could have been as it was pitch dark with no windows.
After many seasons hunting, shooting, fishing etc we are fairly used to standing out in all weathers and as long as you know there is a hot bath and meal at the end of the day, it is all worthwhile. That has stood us in good stead in the last week as winter has arrived with a bit of a vengeance. Autumn only seemed to arrive 10 days ago!
We would have liked to go back to the church on Sunday morning to see how they cope with a service but needless to say forgot. Perhaps the organist has a light and the congregation just sing la la la. We’ll never know.