April 24 - Condom to Montreal-du-Gers
A hot day today with little variety in the scenery as we walked a shortish day of about 16 km. and apparently I wasn't inspired to take pictures as I have only four.
We are definitely in grape country. There are miles and miles of grape orchards, all planted neatly rows and kept cleanly plowed in between the rows. It is interesting in France to see how neatly things are planted. Rows are precise whether they are rows of grape vines, collard greens or trees. I saw nothing planted randomly, either by accident or on purpose. The forests are planted in neat rows, the decorative or shade trees alongside houses are planted in neat rows, hedges and gardens are planted in neat rows and so are flowers. The English country garden with its casual, wild look must drive them crazy. Maybe that's the foundation of their inability to get along in the past :)
The fields are plowed early in preparation for the spring planting and the wheat is well on its way to being ready for the first harvest.
The blooming trees provide a wonderful burst of colour in a very green landscape
These wooden houses are a very uncommon sight in this part of France. Most houses are made of stone or cement. Montreal-du-Gers is a small town of about 1200 people though big enough to have all of the necessities.
About 10 km into the walk at Eglise de Routges we passed the oldest church in the area. It was a couple of hundred kilometers off the road on a very hot day but I wanted to walk up to it because I was out of drinking water and churches always have water for some reason. There was a gardener working in the yard so I asked her (probably a local volunteer parishioner) if the water was potable and she said 'oui' so I filled my water bottle. Sweet relief. It's such a drag running out of water. One interesting thing about this church is that there was an outcast population of uncertain ethnic origin in the area. They lived very segregated lives form the rest of the population until the end of the 19th century because they were believed to be leprous, syphilitic or just generally unclean or, at the very least, bearers of all types of evil. As a result they were apparently only allowed to enter the churches by a side door after everyone else was in the church. It seems like every country in the world has shameful, discriminatory parts to it's history - including ours.
We stayed at a wonderful
gîte - Le Relais de Saint-Jacques - in Montreal-du-Gers with hostess, Anita, who was originally from Germany although she had lived in Spain for several years. She had walked parts of the camino herself so was well aware what was needed and did her best to provide it. She spent a lot of time making us a filling and tasty meal and put herself out to be helpful to everyone who asked. The gîte was originally a large family home which had subsequently been turned into a space for pilgrim walkers. The atmosphere was cosy and welcoming.
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