The Final Day...

Seven o'clock and all is very well. Another day on the Way, but the final one - for now. As I close the chapter on Germany, for now, as a means to walk the Jakobsweg there is still many ways in France which I am yet to set foot. In the north west, Brittany and Normandy, are areas I've not set foot for a long time! In Normandy it was 2013 and Brittany the summer of 2000 with French Life a very shady tent and caravan enterprise: didn't I work ridiculous hours to montage those bloody tents all over Brittany?

Regularly drivers in rural France stop to offer me a lift forward. It is characteristic of French hospitality, but, even when it's raining, it's hard to say yes! Yesterday was one of the few times I said yes and was deposited in Kédange Sur Canner a little less drenched! Just now, on the way between St Hubert and Vigy (when I'd decided against the dog leg presented on the Chemin and followed the B road direct from Hombourg and Vigy) another offered me a lift forward, but as the weather holds I stick to my feet!

...

Oh the mud! Oh the humanity. It's been with me since lunch. I followed the way doggedly so I also followed a trail of puddles, decomposition and brought so much with me! And I cleaned and treated my boots this morning: the purpose of which I don't know. Usually the Camino follows local byways, and this was no different, which means it is also heavily (very heavily) indented by those on trail bikes, walking dogs, riding horses and carrying a quarter of their body weight (me)!

Lunch in France is a menu of only one option, but why would you need more? It's always perfect if you cling to where the locals go; and it wasn't a kebab! And it helped me take a great deal of the dreadful sludge with me!

...

It's the final day, but there is no place to stay in Metz! The options were running out, as I sought any simple means, with the outstandingly blue eyed French guy in the Office de Tourisme helping as he could. Now I've a place to stay - a Formula 1 hotel on the edge of the main intersection of roads! I've been at one once prior and it was comfortable, if not very interesting or near anything. The Auberge du Jeunesse was closed in panic(precaution) against Corona Virus! Isn't this venom out of the snake? Well and truly... Time for a beer? Yes. But I'm exhausted.