will there be any pomp in pomps?
At last I see the Pyrénées. They appear on the horizon, and I know that I will be in Saint-Jean in a couple of days.
For several days the Pyrénées are blue. As I walk closer to them they assume their greens and browns and grays and other earth tones, but for now I see them as the Blue Mountains.
I notice that I am lighter on my feet. A month has passed, but I feel strong and able to walk more. The first tinges of regret, a little blueness in spirit, if I may, creeps into my thoughts. I don’t want the journey to end.
(The map of France with Pomps in the SW corner comes from Wikipedia.)
DAY 31 de Arzacq-Arraziguet à Pomps (peut-être 20km) sur Le Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle.
Pomps, France is ahead, however, and I must concentrate on getting there.
I wander; I am a flâneur. I look around as I walk, I observe, and I register what I see as I step. But I have learned what every dreaming child knows: no horizon (those mountains ahead) is so far that I cannot get beyond it. I daydream often, passing the time without knowing where I have passed. Thinking, wondering, imagining. (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)
Once I became Don Quixote. I battled 100’s of wild crazy dangerous chickens who thought to attack but hesitated (mistake) and soon ran away as I approached. I was formidable.
Don Quixote was on a journey. So was Ulysses. Each was on a quest, going away to be tested, and coming back.
The signs showing that I was welcomed as a pèlerin on the Chemin de Saint-Jcques-de Compostelle appeared often. Here we have the arbre du pèlerin, seen after leaving Arzacq-Arraziguet.
Comme d’habitude churches are along the Way. Near Louvigny is a modern church of St Martin. In Larreule one sees the partly Romanesque church of Saint-Pierre, on the site of a Benedictine monastery founded around AD 1000. (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)
And . . . comme d’habitude one passes corn fields leaving Arzacq-Arraziguet and more corn fields. Locked into the straight and narrow, one dreams and soars. (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)
un Voyageur 