Day 17: Pau, ☁️, 22°

Stalled In Pau!

I did finally manage to get to the hotel last night and finally crawled into bed at about 2:30. My watch told me that I slept three hours and 25 minutes last night, after which I dragged myself out of bed and had a refreshing shower and went downstairs to a pretty good breakfast. I was super hungry and feeling rather depleted, but I felt much better after some tea and breakfast.

I went back up to my room and made a plan to connect with the insurance company, but there was no way I could call any of their toll-free numbers with my French SIM. So I emailed them and asked them to phone me. I then moved on to making arrangements for a small apartment in the city core which I have rented for four nights. It’s small, but it’s surprisingly well set up and supported. It’s right in the heart of the living part of the city, which I super enjoy. Close to stores, markets and everything I’ll need for as long as I stay here.

It’s an inexpensive little place which I’m sure that the travel insurance company will appreciate. i’m so used to travelling at the low end of the spectrum that I didn’t even think of booking a hotel that would have a business centre and a place where I could print documents.🤣 This need came to light when the insurance company asked me to print, complete and forward a bunch of documents to them. Oops. I guess the insurance company is used to people who travel more high-end than we typically do.

Anyway, my host was great and he met me here two hours earlier than I was supposed to be able to get in. After taking the bus down and into town, I had no wait at all I was happily able to get right into my apartment.

I then went out to check the neighbourhood and look for some food. I deliberately selected an apartment so that I could do some cooking and have a bit of space.

I found the Central market, which is located indoors, and had fun looking through there!

There was some great food in the market, though not particularly inexpensive. I don’t have an oven, but I do have a stove top and a microwave.

I purchased a meal of duck cassoulet which is an entire meal in itself with a help of glass of good red wine!

From there, I wandered down to the church to have a quick look inside because I understood that it was going to be closed tomorrow, and no one knows at this point what I’ll be doing on Monday.

Then inside was pretty nice with some stand out painting on the side walls of the transept.

There were three really beautiful rose windows as well. One of my favourite items of these churches.

After a brief look at the church, I moved on to complete my grocery shopping.

When I got back to my humble abode, I received a phone call from the insurance company in Ontario in response to my email from earlier in the day. I had a very good conversation with my case officer, and we went through all of their needs and discussed the likely scenario moving forward. She sent me an email with all sorts of requests. I answered the majority of them, but the document she wanted completed and returned, was in a PDF format instead of the electronic format that she was going to send to me. So I covered off almost everything that I could do, and a couple of hours later I decided to declare it happy hour!

At this point, I really don’t know how things are going to develop. I may have to head out to the hospital to get some documents moving in the right direction, meaning towards the insurance company. I’m waiting for them to contact the hospital and advise me as to next steps. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy a nice dinner with a little red wine and watch Netflix on my phone. Then get some sleep!😴

I’m hoping to have a nice walk around town tomorrow to have a look at a few of the sites. We were here with our kids in 2000 and I have some recollections of that time. I believe there’s a château around here somewhere and some other interesting things to see down towards the river. Annemarie and I walked through here in 2016 while on the last part of the Le Puy chemin, but our time was spent crossing the north part of the city and we never got into the car. It’s funny to be here for a third time. I had no plans, of course to be here this time.

Based on my conversation with the insurance company, I suspect that my Camino is finished and that they will want me to return home for a stress test assessment. I’ve learned to accept things on these long distance walks without too much fuss. After all, I’ve walked about 14,000 km outside Canada and I’ve been particularly privileged to do so. Missing a few hundred kilometres certainly isn’t the end of the world. I feel so fortunate to have had the experiences that I have enjoyed so much these past years. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, and I’ll have to wait and see what the final assessment is when the underwriters get a hold of my file.

For now, I’m going to enjoy a good dinner and let my body have a little recovery time.🙂 thanks for all the messages of support from family and friends! Very much appreciated.❤️

Bon Chemin!

Geoff🍷