A rebel without a clue.

This chambre d'hôtes is probably the most comfortable on this time out, but the room was full. Some walkers and some hunters and plenty of snoring. The beds were comfortable, but a little too close together: at €20 for all the host has done (including washing my dirty stuff) I'm content. And I definitely slept long enough for the day ahead. I'm early for breakfast. The hunters are in one room and the "pilgrim" are in the other. Coffee and croissants. Our host is drying my clothes off I think he's an ex-pro who played for Marseilles, but before Chris Waddle's era. Oh I got that wrong he played for another team in Marseilles no wonder he looked at me like I'd lost the plot? There are a couple of hills ahead, but they're facile(apparently) compared to yesterday when we crossed in Haut Garonne and out of the regional park. Two of the guys in the room are walking from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean on the GR10 which sounds tough, solitary and dange...

The heavens have opened and we've a thunderstorm. Not since the second étape (stage) from Capestang did I see rain, but then it was overwhelmingly heavy, it continued until Carcassonne to a lesser degree. So nine days until this! I'm so glad I'm comfortable, dry, showered, clean and not dripping. Dinner isn't until seven tonight so there must be a break in this? Some things are just impossible to overcome, and must be accepted, out comes the rainware. Two Chasseurs went out just prior to the storm to head up into the mountains to shoot their guns, perhaps they'll return soaked and gored by the stag they're after? The owner of the Chambre d'hôtes seems a bit suspicious of them, but I know hunting is a way of life in France: as long as they don't shoot the animal without any consideration to what will be done with the carcass? This village, Juzet-d'Izaut, has a charcuterie (du Cagire) along the road from here - the area is below the mountain Pic du Ca...

October is here. The year is nearing its end and it'll soon be the winter solstice. The weather is about to change here too. Later today there will be thunderstorms and heavy rain, but I expect to be done for today by then? This morning I've eaten two eggs and home made baked beans, made last night, as I'm bored of bread and jam. Done and dusted so I depart for yonder mountains: it's not yet sunrise and outside there is a breeze. The silence of the mountains. The only sound the rustling of leaves, the buzzing of flies, the faraway call of a bird and the swish of a falling leaf! The old couple were ahead of me and I don't understand that at all. Coming down of the mountain trail Deer Keds are everywhere; I am beginning to look forward to the lowlands! All this forest, with the majestic beech trees growing tall, has many threats to one's sanity! The first "Hameu" for sometime and it has a mineral spring flowing: refreshing and cool, enough to push me...

Depression is bizarre. Just like that I feel overwhelmed. The world I am walking through is so supreme. It's a rare sight to see early on a Monday morning, but something paralyzes me. The thing I feel haunting my steps and putting me back once more. Today I must focus away from the repetition of the hoodwinking mood! Let it drift away. There are dark clouds to the north and they are enhancing my feelings! Now the destination is reached it seems much too short a journey: I arrived just around noon. There are towns further up the pass, however there are no Halte Saint-Jacques. But maybe that's for the best? I see there is a Chambre d'hôtes up that long road at €40. Some days it's Donativo and other days you get something better? My budget is around right for today, but I don't think stopping here at noon is quite enough. Perhaps I'm addicted, or it's a habit, to carry on until the later parts of the afternoon? It'll be up, but this is piémont du Pyrénées ...

No my brain doesn't work today! It's impossible to switch into French mode! That's beer, but it's not the end of the world as the couple understand one too many beers. It's a hazard of towns on a Saturday during harvest season in France: they like to celebrate all weekend: and this is fair. It's going to be a hot one! I must depart shortly. Once my bowels have had their say! Walked all day, except for two brief "snack" breaks. Now having a sablé biscuit and hair of the dog! I'm tired beyond words. Why is it 31°C at the end of September. Break weather... Cool off please. Not a cloud in the sky. Luckily from noon it was not relentlessly up; calm down and not sadistically up. The Halte Saint-Jacques is next to the Cathedral, but I think I'm very early to get in. It says 6pm on the Office de Tourisme door. That's fine! I'm in the shade of the Linden tree here. The rest may wait! The custodian tells me I've an hour to wait before the pe...

Some Huguenots came from this part of France and they were persecuted for their beliefs. Why did those Catholic kings, queens and clergy feel so threatened by another voice? They felt they were unstoppable and supreme and were clearly willing to kill Christians in the name of Christ: such hypocrisy seems rife in France, Spain and Catholicism. No one really knows the true message Jesus was trying to preach. From the point of an Atheist, Agonistic, Deist, etc, it's all convoluted? Except perhaps the sermon on the mount. He was inspired to denegeate those who claim superiority through power, etc. Yet this "church" thing is obviously a fake in the sense of rituals, laws, constructs as a church exists within and not outside. A body holds it all because it's the mind which is the root. The stone buildings and the reliquaries are faux on every level. They won't let you in if you don't bend low and in a sinister way you are not worthy. Except I bet mosquitoes still bi...

A good night's sleep in this accueil pèlerin, on my own, with silence after eight: I was out in seconds, woke up around 2 with that nattering noise, but it wasn't a mosquito for a change, and headed back to lala land until 6. Fine breakfast, but only a small portion of coffee alloted. I've nowhere to stop at all before Mas d-Azil so I had to locate the well hidden grounds! This morning I left a Donativo, which means that's all the money I've got on me. The destination has all services so I'll start on the daily allowance again there - €35. Sunrise at 7:47 and the nights are drawing in: maybe the weather will cool a little in the middle of the day so I don't feel so bound to collapse? Cloudy as I leave the acceuil pèlerin up either side of the valley stags are groaning and braying. In the valley the sheep bleet, and one clearly coughs like she's on sixty a day. This morning I'm following the way exactly. Another 20 kilometres until I reach Mas d'...