GR653 Day 23: Saint Gilles - Vauvert

Set off with Anne and Marie-Helène through orchards and vineyards, parched after six months without a drop of rain, to the tune of the traditional French pilgrims' song Anne taught me at the hostel last night:

Tous les matins nous prenons le chemin
Tous les matins nous allons plus loin
Jour après jour la route nous appelle
C’est la voix de Compostelle

Chemin de terre et chemin de foi
Voie millénaire de l’Europe
La voie lactée de Charlemagne
C’est le chemin de tous les jacquets

Et tout là-bas au bout du continent
Messire Jacques nous attend
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finistère

Ultreïa, Ultreïa !
E sus eia
Deu, adjuva nos !

No wind at all today, but plenty of hot sunshine. We took it easy and even had a nap by an apricot orchard after lunch. When we arrived in the town of Vauvert we stopped by the church, then the local bar for a panâche (shandy) and the tourist office to get our stamp and some information for the days to come. Then we went to an address where there was supposed to be hospitality for pilgrims, but it turned out to be stables converted into tiny rooms... where you had to go outside to get to the bathrooms and to eat. Sort of an urban version of camping... we decided it might be all right in mid-summer, but not at the end of October, and so we checked out the local hotel and found we could get a triple room there for only five euros more a head! No contest!!

Saint Gilles - Vauvert 24.5 km 

(inc. 2 km looking around the village for a place to stay!)

Why sleep in a stable when you can stay in the French capital of kitsch?