At dinner on the 25th at Mme. Souviron there was a bicycling couple
from northern France. She, Anne Pons is an Environmental Manager for
the largest steel company in France. He, Benoit Renouf, is a
pharmacist. Interestingly, the law allows 1 pharmacy for every 2500
people in the area. Count the pharmacies and one knows approximately
what the population is. They were both very nice to me and helped me
do bookings as well as offered to help in the future with their cell
number at my disposal. I surely do appreciate all the help the French
people here have been willing to give me. With my French, I need it
of course.
I started in a fairly heavy rain for La Remieu with my backpack
raincoat on as well as the slicker. It poured and then the wind began
to howel making the rain come at about 45 degrees. Then the dirt got
very sticky and slick. Oh, this was not fun. I stopped a couple time
in farmers shed but it was only a postponement. The mud got so slick
that I had to push myself up the slopes with my trecking poles because
there was absolutely no traction. Finally after about two hours of
this the wind slowed down and the rain began to slacken. By this time
my boots were soaked through and through as well as lots of me. I had
a couple of things which were not in plastic bags but that will not
happen again. Anyway, finally through the decreasing rain appeared the
quite wonderful cathedral in La Romieu. I went into the town to the
tourist office, had my p. passport stamped, and then found my room.
The landlord allowed me to put my boots next to his stove and gave me a
beer. His wife put my socks in the drier and life began to look
somewhat better. Then the guy who gave me the hat showed up in a
similar shape and he had the room downstairs in the little dorm. He,
Alain Simon, and I had dinner together and then sleep time. I am
spending a lot of time worrying about where I am going to sleep a week
from now as they allow people to make reservations here in La Romieu
all the good places tend to fill up early. The week ends are the worst
of course.
