A rebel without a clue.

I'm craving food, but I really can't afford it. It's desperate. Yesterday I could do it all myself, for €12.50 to sleep, today not a chance. The convent in which I am staying won't provide me any food until seven thirty this evening, and I've just burnt 1500 calories before ten thirty! If I start devouring someone's leg, arm or head that's it I am done for ... I carried some items from last night, but I thought, incorrectly, the sœurs would provide me a little luncheon. However the lunch(€15 three courses, wine and coffee) I've just had was absolutely stunning: no wonder the place is very busy (fit to bust). It did the best Crème Brûlée I've ever tasted in France down the years! It maybe was my desperation which spake thus, but it was a different class. It's only necessary to make one thing brilliantly rather than so many things badly! Now I'm so lethargic, but I'm happy to watch this fast world go by as a blur.on this busy main road betw...

Down off Montréal I've the massive Pyrenees boldly lining the South so I can't go wrong from here towards Saint Jean P-d-P. The autumn equinox has passed and the nights are now longer than the days: officially summer is over, but the air is so pleasant as dew hangs heavily and the shades of green I see reflected are peaceful indeed; a dove calls from the telegraph pole and the agricultural morning also begins. 13 kilometres is a stroll Tomatoes, glorious tomatoes. No one around for miles. There are so many that they won't miss a couple? Gleaning season as I pilfer some walnuts too! Up a very steep and winding path into the Monastery town and now it's time to rest a while in a comfortable bed in a wooden cell, while my sweaty clothes dry out in the beautiful morning.

It's quiet here. I'm awake but a bit sore behind my head from the migraine. Was tempted to roll over and stay in bed a while longer. It's a shorter "étape" today - only 13 kilometres to the Monastery town Fanjeaux. I'm yawning, and most of me wants back to bed, but it's a momentary lapse Coffee brewed. I'm telling myself to slow down this morning because there is no hurry. Nothing matters; just be peaceful. On a distant road a horn is honked. Carcassonne probably did things to me mentally for which I was unqualified to deal with. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and that means hordes of zombies trudging from one ice cream parlour to another with a somnambulist's gate. It interferes with my sanity. I have to cling to the edges, find other routes or run away. It was a cliché town. It's a citadel, fortress, nice things rarely happened in them places. Kings and Queens looked down on hopeless "paysans" and cried "mine, it's ...

The Swallows are still here in Montréal. Soon they'll head in a similar direction. And then sparrows will be left behind, but they're obviously hardier and will happily have the skies back to themselves. Any warm spell and all insects will be their's too.? I've bites on my head, ankles, elbows, behind the ears too! What are these feathered friends doing as I'm sat here being nibbled? Perhaps they are short sighted? But I heard that birds sense of smell is swell? They must follow me. My forehead feels swollen, but perhaps this is a combination of the effects? Today was obvious. I've not had a migraine in ages, I thought I'd never have one again, but there you are. The Collegiate Church calls time at seven as the locals play Scrabble. Must be testing. Some kids are singing songs and the fountains flows on. It's getting dark and I can feel those Tiger Mosquitoes using this Yorkshire blood. Actually I wish them luck as it's never done me no good! Keep...

They're bringing in the grapes and I'm forced to cut a few small bunches ... Figs and mûres sauvages. Got locaux fromage and now looking for walnuts. Stopped for cheese, baguette and vin rose before noon. That was twenty Kms in four hours. Another hour and I think that's this day done. Must dry my boots today - still moist after the rains! Not exactly ideal. Everything happens for a reason, and I've no control over anything, like having a migraine and being eaten alive somewhere along the way! I think when I pluck fruit deep in the undergrowth the ants get me and whenever I lay up somewhere the mosquitoes pounced. Just as I was finishing for today - bang - migraine. It's totally unfair, but what can I do at all? Find a dark space and sleep it off, but that lets the greedy bastards in! Round my ankles and elbows they swoop. It's all part of the experience. Like being so low financially that everything becomes potential food! If it tastes good I eat it, hoping i...

Monday morning and the refuse collection truck has me awake before my alarm. The bedding the hostel provides to sleep in is utterly pointless: paper thin, but it's to prevent bed bugs. It doesn't work/match up with rubber coated mattresses to be honest. My back was attached to the bedding all night and it had to be peeled off several times when I was so coated in sweat it woke me. Last night I returned to the Hostel after finishing an excellent read about trees, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohllebe (which really brings home how incredibly arrogant is our relationships with the denizens of woods and forests), and now I've an item less to carry in the backpack: hurray. Part of me says leave the LePere guidebook, for the route I am walking, too as it is out of date (2016). I have all the information at my disposal on my phone and l would've set off without a guide if there hadn't been one in the Gîte in Béziers; I'll ponder that a while: passing the waste bi...

Two hours solid meditation after I got moved to a quiet room, on my own, in a bed without a shortness issue. Sorted out the backpack: ready for the morrow. The real Way begins from Monday with clearness and a less distracted mind: I ordered water with lunch because booze does get in the Way I want. A lot of meat passed into me: from tomorrow it's going to be lentils and beans mostly. Hastily I head back to room 19 as that lunch killed me off - again. Yesterday is really taking its toll on my body: zero energy being chalked up. Was going to walk the circumference of the walls, but really can't be bothered. Maybe later, but I really don't know if I'm going to wake up today really. The bad rain returned and it's a day to keep quiet.