Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour...
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes.
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour...
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes.
(When in April the sweet showers fall
That pierce March's drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower...
That pierce March's drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower...
Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in distant lands.)
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in distant lands.)
- Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
As Chaucer noted back in 1387, April is the perfect time to begin a pilgrimage. The sun is warm but still soft, the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming. The open road beckons! And so, as soon as the "shoures soote" stopped bathing every veyne quite so often, off we went in search of "straunge strondes" and "ferne halwes"!
Auch feels truly straunge and ferne. Even the name - how do you pronounce it? It doesn't look like French, or even Spanish; more like German, maybe? (It actually comes from the Roman name, Augusta Ausciorum). The churches have a Spanish look about them, while the houses look exactly like the ones in Asterix's village!
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| "Excuse me, is this where Getafix the druid lives?" |
The first half of today's walk was enchanting. We strolled under the trees along the edges of green wheatfields. We saw deer, falcons, hares, and an unidentified cat-sized rodent. We heard the song of the cuckoo and a chorus of frogs worthy of King's College Cambridge.
We passed through the Bois des Fées (the Fairies' Wood) to the castle of Chateau Montegut. And we had a clear view of the Pyrenees, a daunting wall of rock and snow on the horizon - do we really have to walk across those??
We passed through the Bois des Fées (the Fairies' Wood) to the castle of Chateau Montegut. And we had a clear view of the Pyrenees, a daunting wall of rock and snow on the horizon - do we really have to walk across those??
Then we took a shortcut along a road to shave a couple of kilometres off today's total, which was somewhat less enchanting, and hotter, and harder on the feet. But it was all worth it when we stepped into Auch cathedral just as the famous organ began playing!
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| Leaving our bit of heavan at Pied-à-terre en Gascogne in the morning |
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| With Marius and Peter in Lusson |
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| Lusson |
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| Montegut |
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| Arriving in Auch |
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| L'escalier monumental |
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| D'Artagnan |
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| Improvised laundry line in our room at La Noctile youth hostel |
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| La Noctile youth hostel: a bit different from pilgrim accommodations in Chaucer's day |
L'Isle-Arné - Auch 21.5 km
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