“the place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you” - Hafiz
I am writing from one bedroom of the three story hunting lodge rented in its entirety to me for the night by the town of Brienne Le Chateau for 10€.
With the birds chirping I feel I’ve overcome my fear of the dark another night.
Yeaterday saw about 23 km from Outines to Brienne-Le-Chateau.
I started the day so happy in Outines, a pack full of clean laundry, strong coffee and a patch of WiFi sufficient to upload pictures.
In this spirit I moved into the day, hot and bright. Fields of brown and gold wheat rolled on each side of an empty highway. In the distances, green corn stalks reflected the sun almost too brightly to look at.
I wondered what was growing in these fields, when it would be harvested.
“When you look at this landscape, what do you see? I’m trying to develop more of an appreciation for wheat and corn, we’re spending so much time together. But all I see is stuff Gwyneth Paltrow would not eat!”
I talked to myself, I tried making a vlog, but that was the only joke I could up with. The front-facing camera brought back an element of self-consciousness after 3 weeks of walking I had started to leave behind.
So I listened to music instead.
“I’ve planned each chartered course, each carefully step, along the byway”
I put a soundtrack of Frank Sinatra to the endless sky and rolling fields.
In a few kilometers, a saw bobbing heads moving through the fields of wheat. I started flailing my arms to wave, I knew right away they were other pilgrims. They didn’t see me. I wasn’t discouraged through, I watched them move like parade of ants through the field and counted one, two, three, four.
And when I walked on, they exited the field alongside me!
“Hi!!!!!!! Bonjour!”
A big hug for Veronique, and the rest of the crew from yesterday, now in their sun protective gear.
We sat together on the picnic benches checking mosquito bites and reapplying sunscreen. This time, I hadn’t come hungry, having just eaten lunch in the pretty pretty town of Chavanges.
So today, instead of feeling sheepish, I had something to share! I switched on my data to showed the group the blog I posted about the day we spent together.
They read aloud the french words, quarreled over what was happening in the fence hopping picture, and oh la la’d the photo of the butterflies in the garden we had done the same over in real life yesterday.
When it was time to move on, we agreed because my goal for the day was Brienne-le-Chateau, I would stay on the other road where they entered the forest.
“We will see you again, We will see you again.”
“And when we meet you third time, a beer!”
Alain added with an index finger and smile.
I wondered if this was like a rule in the traditional “levels of friendship” culture I first became aware of over breakfast in Reims. In any case, I was very happy at the idea on this hot, hot day.
I moved through a flat field endlessly. I had drank an entire “carafe du l’eau” at lunch and refilled my water bottle, but it was empty again.
I was grateful to make it to the open tourist office and glug another liter while they scanned my passport, put out a lease document out for me to sign, took my 10.60€ and handed over a set of keys.
They circled the pilgrim accommodation on the map. “You will know it because the house has the mark of the two, how do you say-“ he stuck his fingers out like antlers in front of his face.
“Bambi!”
“Oui!”
But there was no WiFi; so I hung outside the Napoleon museum for a signal before searching for a SIM card.
I even made a friend in the process, Lucy, a local preschool teacher who seemed to understand my french, and helped me find the store, the hunting lodge “hotel” and the supermarché.
“Is it okay?”
“I don’t know, do you want to look with me?”
So we laughed at the gauche facade, ran up the spiral stairs, cautiously opened doors and shook our heads at the rows of hospital beds.
When she left, she said to call if there were problems, but I didn’t know what either of us would be able to do in the event of ghosts.
So I settled in with my granola bars, about to feel scared and alone when, my friend from Reims, the French pilgrim of the Camino de Compostelle, messaged me.
“Sara! Ça va?”
I explained the haunted house Brienne-le-chateau.
“Don’t be scared, God protects you”
But as I think about everyday when I walk
“Even belief in God is only a poor substitute for the reality of God manifesting every moment of your life”
And it that moment it was the perfect coincidence we were both near Lac Du Der and could catch up over a slice of pizza at the one picnic bench open in town!
Prayer card from the Camino de Santiago