Day 10: Stage 8: Chateauroux

15 km, grey cloud & damp, 11-14°

The Aliens Made Me Do it!

I’m sitting in Chateauroux in a small restaurant called Le Café Moustache having lunch. I believe my first meal in a restaurant type place since arriving in Paris 10 days ago. What took so long? I arrived in Paris a bit under the weather and it took a few days to regain my usual appetite. Also there are not very many culinary opportunities on this route, but things are picking up now!😋

I’ve no idea what I’m eating, the plate de jour one would presume. It’s amazing! Maybe I’m just a little hungry? I’ve no idea the price, but this isn’t Zurich so I’m sure the whole thing will be under €25. I believe it’s vegetarian. It has potatoes, apples and other flavours inside the round things I can’t place. I could eat two of them! I was told by the people here that this plate is good, but this is France where food preparation is almost a religion. It’s quite brilliant. 🙂

The wine you ask? C’est Les Dames Huguettes, Cave des Hautes côtes, Pinot Noir, AOP Hautes-Côtes de nuits. It’s a little fruity with some nice depth.

Todays walk? It was remote in an agricultural sort of way, along narrow little roads and passed through a couple of non-descript villages.

I was as usual up very early and I took the time to enjoy a cup of hot Twinnings English Breakfast tea. I always carry tea with me because often the local tea in France is a bit sad, though happily this has improved in recent years. I also ate (cover your eyes) the left over unheated ravioli!😬 Actually a great boost providing both carbs and protein. Fortunately for everyone I took no photos!

It was pretty grey and drizzly when I stepped out. I reach for my rain gear each morning as I just know I’ll need it. I hope to be surprised with a beautiful sunny morning when I step out, but I’m still waiting for that experience on this walk.🤣

That’s when it happened. The aliens showed up! The fields were covered with them.

They were huge! Right up into the clouds.

The biggest one, the leader I presume from the way he stood out, instructed me to only walk to Issoudun. He said I was required to get to Chateauroux as quickly as possible.

Of course there was nothing I could do except to follow its instructions. So I walked on. Aliens to the left, aliens to the right!

And this is my explanation as to how I only walked 15 km today. I’m now sitting in my interesting top floor apartment in an old but nice house, laundry done, Geoff scrubbed/shaved and happy hour underway! A nice bottle of Landerac Bordeaux 2021 keeping me company. I know my cousin Gord would approve!

Back to my wanderings. I continued on along a route I’d way-marked last night, again to avoid the mud.

The walk was kind of routine this morning except the roads became narrower as I went so that I had to step off whenever a vehicle came along.

Eventually I came to what appeared to be a dead end.

Of course you know that this wasn’t going to discourage me. I’ve seen much more threatening DON’T ENTER signs on my travels. So I walked on past said sign wondering what was going on up ahead, all the while making sure not to miss any of the attractions.

Just where the marked walking route came back on to my road there were road crews. They had paved a long section of the road. The crews completely ignored me as I passed and entered Issoudun. Kind of anticlimactic I thought. It was a bit of a walk in and then I was in the old centre.

So a bit of an explanation is in order. This is a continuation of the difficult accommodation area. I was lucky to find a place to sleep last night, and as I found out today, others were not as successful. So my thought was to walk to Issoudun, have a look around and then walk on to Nuevo-Pailloux and take the 8’ train ride to here because it’s too far to comfortably walk the whole distance in a single stage. However, while I was walking this morning I thought to myself that it would be nice to stop in Issoudun for a bit of breakfast, have a look around and then catch the 1:30 cheap train from there. When I arrive in Issoudun I found the town almost shut down and there wasn’t anywhere to sit and have breakfast. I looked at my train app and decided to catch an earlier train at 10: 52 to Chateauroux. It’s a short trip.

I got off the train and was walking through the station. I heard my name called and the next thing I knew was, I was getting a hug from Anne who you might recall from some three days ago. Long story short, she had stayed in Bourges for three days because of the bed problem between there and Chateauroux. She bought me an nice cup of tea and we caught up with all the happenings from the last few days. I then headed off to find myself some lunch. It’s always interesting the comings and goings on a Camino. You don’t think you’ll see someone again and a week later, or even two weeks later there they are.

After lunch, I went to a grocery store and wandered around there for a couple of hours because it was raining outside. I couldn’t get into this place until 5 PM so I had some time to kill and some groceries to buy because I’m taking tomorrow as a zero day. Essentially tomorrow is France’s Remembrance Day and the next day is also a national holiday, so the country basically shuts down for two days. The break was caused by the fact that I couldn’t get accommodation a stage away from this city. However, it will give me the time to sort out a few accommodations for the coming days and make a few plans. Otherwise, I don’t feel the need for a break and I would’ve kept on walking.

So by now, you’ve probably figured out that the aliens really didn’t make me catch an earlier train and come here.😎 In all honesty, I decided that I’d rather have a nice lunch and then spend a couple of hours wandering around in a grocery store in Chateauroux than walking in the rain only to catch a similar train a couple of hours later.

Anne and I have no idea where Hil has ended up, but I expect that I’ll hear in a few days. Or not.

Time now for me to make my dinner. My story today is probably clear as mud, but when I write my memoirs one day, it should help to bring it all back. That’s the hope.

The good weather apparently arrives tomorrow. I’ve heard that before….

Bon Chemin,

Geoff🍷☀️