Day 26: Stage 21: Mussidan

26 km, sun & cloud…just imagine! 17°

Options Are Good, Right?

Annemarie had read that a market was held each Thursday, but had forgotten until we opened our door this morning. It was actually a very big market that spilled out through the old town gates and into the rest of the village. Lots of produce, but also clothing, cooked food and garden plants.

We stopped in a busy bar for our morning beverages before wandering out of town at about 8:10. Last night I again sorted out possible pathways for us to walk today. It was a bit complicated and in the end I established waypoints in my app and labeled them OPTIONS. We had no idea what the highway traffic was going to be like so I looked for possible quiet road options, but at the same time kept the door open for potential highway walking as required.

Heading out of town, we quickly left behind the outskirts and the morning rush. We found ourselves walking along some nice back roads, but eventually these ended placing us solidly on the highway, the D3.

The traffic on the D3 wasn’t too terrible, but it seemed we could do better by crossing over the train tracks and onto the L’Isle River floodplain. We found a little gate that allowed us to walk across the train tracks which were actually quite active today.

This proved to be a good decision because quite soon afterwards we came upon our first château of the day.

The château has sports fields around it, and they also advertise that weddings can be performed there. I began to wonder what the effect would be on people’s property taxes if they had a château in their neighbourhood? 😂

We continued walking across the floodplain, and while there were some big nasty clouds around, the rain never really found us.

We eventually arrived at another OPTION waypoint. As we were standing there discussing our two options a young man in a car pulled up and offered to help. He had basically no English, but when he found out that we were from Canada, he was even more eager to assist. We knew that by going right we would end up on the D3, however, a bike and walking route was signed posted to the left. The young fellow directed us to the left and told us that if we went across the bridge and around and underneath that we would find ourselves on a bicycle path, Great! Decision made and off we went.

We managed to find ourselves across the bridge, around the loop and onto the path. We quickly came upon our first obstacle.

Unfortunately, the next bridge we came to was flooded much deeper than the first bridge. It was essentially impossible to get through, so we basically turned left and crossed a muddy field which led to the road.

We agreed that there was no point in trying to continue on the bicycle path, even if we could find a way down to it again. So the decision was made to walk further along on the D3. The traffic on this part of the highway was very light and the scenery was pretty good as well.

Just before we were due to leave the D3 for a break in a small local village, we passed yet another château. It’s now some sort of an accommodation, and we decided to walk down to have a look.

Annemarie waited for me while I walked around to the front, but when I was just about there, I saw two very big untethered dogs. I decided that because they hadn’t seen me that I would beat a hasty retreat!

We crossed the highway and walked the back roads into the old town of Douzillac. As we entered town, we saw the local City Hall to our right, and we decided to see if we could find toilets and get a stamp in our credential. We were successful with both, and the administrator was really excited to give us a stamp because we’re off the official route and he doesn’t see very many pilgrims walk-through his doors.

We had a nice break and then continued. The noon time bells continued to ring for almost 10 minutes. We laughed because every time they seemed to stop, they just started up all over again.

We continued for a short way on the D3 and found our first field of poppies! Something I’ve been waiting for.

And then there was some more close-up action with the river. Its amazing velocity and the volume of water!

Around this time, we rejoined the Camino route in another small town.

The Camino route took us back down along the river yet again.

We really enjoyed our walk along the river. However, the river provided us with one more reminder that it’s in charge.

This time the water was too deep to walk-through. Annemarie already had a couple of blisters from yesterday and we felt it was unwise to expose them to this obviously polluted water. The risk of infection was just too high. So we did something that I hate to do when walking. We turned around and retraced our steps. Fortune was looking after us though. I soon located a dark tunnel that would take us under the train tracks and the highway.

We were soon walking along the D3 again and hoping to complete the stage soon.

One more little village, and we followed the Camino into town.

But not before finding some really lovely flowers that were responding nicely to the sunshine

We are now hanging out waiting for dinner in our simple accommodation. We’re very fortunate to have some space in someone’s home, in a small apartment-like place above their garage. We will have to go out for dinner tonight because there’s no place to cook. Our host has provided a basic breakfast for the morning which will get us going again.

And that’s about it for now. The rain arrived just as we were coming into town and has dropped a fair bit of moisture since we got inside. The positive news is that the weather looks to be finally turning towards the good side.☀️ It’s about time!!

Bon Chemin!

Geoff😎☀️☀️☀️☀️