The Ice Walker

 

This morning I used a tip that I had read in a pilgrim's blog recently and took a photo of my gite as I was leaving.

My main challenge of the day was making sure I did not slip and twist my ankle on one of the many icy patches which had appeared over night after a night of snow.

Today was another day of solitude and yet it was completely different from yesterday.

Yesterday the grey clouds, the empty hamlets and the cold winds and sleet  made for an ominous, nearly post-apocalyptic world, whereas today walking through a countryside layered with a thick coat of fresh snow I felt closer to Narnia.  First a deer's track appeared on the path ahead of me then a little further on the deer was joined by a rabbit.  The two of them walked side by side (on the way to compostelle?) for a long time.  Finally the deer and rabbit tracks disappeared to be replaced by a young wolf's tracks.  I'm not sure what that story was...

Finally half way through the day the wolf tracks gave way to a pilgrim's track he (or she) walked with a single stick which was occasionally switched from one side to the other. At one point the pilgrim drew an intricate pattern in the snow and wrote next to it "Tu m'aime?"  Who was this addressed to considering there were no other tracks ? I continued to a chapel (see photo) where I stopped to rest. 

The pilgrim's tracks stopped at the chapel (divine intervention?) and I continued on to finish my 25km stage.

I arrived at my next gite around 3PM and was welcomed by the clearly gay owner who told me I was the only pilgrim that night.   Again I was entertained with a crazy story, his father is pieds noirs and his mother is Belgian, he lived in different places and ended up in Aubrac 15 years ago because he didn't have enough room for his animals (old or sick dogs, cats, horses, etc which he adopts and looks after).  His Belgian grand-parents were communists who were deported to Dachau where his mother was born in 1945.  The crazy story goes on but not on this blog, as I have a long stage tomorrow.

8 Points for guessing the reference of the day's title (should be easy for the younger generation) and the usual 5 for guessing where I am.

PS: Dad, the absent s in "tu m'aime?" was the pilgrim's mistake not mine! I'm not that bad.