That's all folks

So that's it, I set off this morning, keen to get to Figeac in time for the local train that would take me to Brive-La-Gaillarde and then on to Paris.  As usual for the past few days the weather was sunny but with occasional cold gusts of wind.  As I walked I reflected on the whole experience.  I'm not sure I have gained many insights but there are a few things that come to mind.  First, doing it alone was definitely the right thing.  It was an interesting experience spending day after day with nothing to do but walk and think.  When you walk

with someone, even if you often don't talk you always feel their presence.  I think I would find it difficult to do another 50 days alone (to get to Compostelle).  I do feel that 25 to 30 kms a day was a good distance for me, it meant I arrived between 3:30 and 5PM at each gite which gave me a bit of down time before socialising or writing!

Before I pause this blog, a final little anecdote to finish off my experience.  On arriving at the Figeac train station with

plenty of time to spare I came up to the door of the station and noticed an attached flyer saying : Grève le 21 mars. (Yes the French raiway still have the quaint custom of organising stikes).  Helpfully the SNCF had organised some buses to replace the striking trains, this would have been perfect if one of these buses could have got me to Brive in time to catch my train or at least the next one, but this was not the case.  I was now stuck in Figeac, a nice little town but not when you've decided you want to be home in your own bed.  First I tried hitchhiking, then blablacar neither of which came through.  Uber doesn't seem to have reached Figeac, so that wasn't an option.   My only option left was to rent a car, and Avis were happy to provide one.  I drove to Limoges in the futile hope of getting catching up with the train I was originally booked on.  But it was not to be, I missed it by 10 mins.   On the plus side Limoges is a real town with a real station and I was able to talk to an SNCF agent.  He was quite friendly, and obviously had been waiting for me to turn-up so that he could explain to me what was wrong with the whole French public transport system.  The gyst of it (as far as I was concerned) was that as I had a regional train and an intercity train these were 2 different systems and he couldn't refund me the regional part of my ticket.  He did give me a free ticket to Paris and suggested that if I wrote a detailed letter to customer service I might get a voucher for a free trip from Figeac to Brive!  I took my free ticket, thanked him for his advice and after a couple of hours in Limoges got on a train to Paris.

It's been a pleasure walking alone and blogging for my readers.  I'm particularly gratefull to those who commented and/or participated in my riddles. (I'm sure you all know where today's title comes from).

PS: In addition to the ones Sahsa found : Catch 22, Belle du Seigneur, Le Comte de Monte Christo, The World According to Garp and L'Education Sentimentale.  There's probably a few more but top ten lists are impossble anyway.