Snow predicted for today. Indeed, a few flakes, but all day the sky was gray. No sun. A few times I was tempted to deviate from my self-sought road lanes, and to follow the official Santiago route, but when I see the muddy St. Jacques route, I’d rather follow my own plan. I took the slightly larger tertiary paved roads. That walks much faster. Anyway faster than the winding St. Jaques paths, though my own roads might be less beautiful. But with this weather you can not speak of nice. One drawback was that on the paved road, I almost always had to hold Tosca on the line and that requires enormous patience. Tosca doesn’t obey well to the command “Follow” . Young dog, distracted by the slightest incident. I once estimated: every half minute a sharp tug on the leash and command “follow”, 5 hours in a row. That’s 5 x 60 minutes x 2 times = 600 times “ho” and “follow”. So what? During my preparation for the ascent of Mont Blanc in the Alps a few years ago, I trained with D and D every week swimming one hour. Then I pulled the arms about 1,800 times vigorously through the water in one hour. So that swimming won, in terms of effort. It is, therefore, not the effort, but the annoyance. And then the pulling aside of horse leon, while dog Tosca still running at my feet, and if a car barely makes room for us. I always walk on the left side of the road. As already said before, I’m walking wide, so the oncoming traffic has to swerve sharply. At bends or hills, especially with guard rails and bridges, one often has to be very careful, especially when two cars meet together and pass me. So the idea of me pleasantly strolling one year without heavy backpack, together with my two animal friends, forget it! See pictures. Furthermore I made a photo of a plaque commemorating fallen soldiers in the 2nd W.W. Because an American friend of mine, Ken, has written a book about the JewishounResistance in France during the years 40-45, “les maquisards”.
And then the constant worry about sleeping arrangements. For Saturday I haven’t found anything yet and that must be settled first, because only then I know how many km. I may further plan for Sunday.
Along the way I had a coffee in Le Veurdre. Again a nice place. In the bar I found only the burly curly haired landlady and a man who introduced himself as a celebrity: he was a friend of the prince (or is it princess) of Monaco, to name just one. He seemed to be presentater (where?) of some circus, which among others acted in Liege (Belgium). He wanted to donate money for Mama Alice, wanted to help me find addresses to stay, gave me a card on which he was present in the circus, or the TV, hugged me, wanted to invite me home, filled his glass a few times, kissed me and bon courage, as usual, we said goodbye. Yet I had a great half hour. Meanwhile I had to move Leon and Tosca 2x because they blocked the passage to a butcher shop. I warned the butcher not to kill my dear nuisances!
Along the way the nerves of Tosca were challenged again by a dead fox. Yesterday we saw a dead batcher. All very interesting for my tough luck, Tosca.
Around 4 pm. I got to my address. The landlady was not at home, but the cottage was open. After having installed, I started calling immediately for shelter for the next days: hopelessly poor coverage of my phone again. Even the text messages didn’t get in. No wifi, so no ability to search for addresses on the internet. This is quite shit. I am not Joseph and Mary, who found no shelter, but it was not very cold here! So I still am awfully dependent on other persons. Well, those other persons will be well rewarded. So tomorrow my wife Sonja, her friend Brigitte and Brigitte’s husband Jos will come and visit me and I have no shelter yet. In my cottage I left a message for my still secret, but no doubt very beautifull, landlady. I went on a litlle walk into the hamlet Marcigny and on into the town of St. Pierre-le-Moûtier. Finally I found a cafe with wifi, after hearing a no at 3 former places . Soon it will be dark again when I return to my cottage. And tonight, I’ll call again with my great help, sister in law Lil, in Rognes – La Provence and ask her if she can find a place to sleep for us tomorrow: Bingo! Tomorrow I will sleep at Henry’s place in Sermoise sur Loire, just south of Nevers. Saturday I’m looking for something North of Nevers, between Guérigny and Prémerie.
[Caption id = “attachment_100104” align = “align none” width = “300”] 
this region’s typical blue color [/ caption] 
pub with landlady’s curly head and “celebrity” Christophe [/ caption] 
Hazardous road conditions between the guardrails [/ caption] 
Christophe, a friend of Prince of Monaco and circus presenter [/ caption] 
data celebrity [/ caption] < a href = “http://www.ponyanddogtrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/image303.jpg”> 
Café keeper and Chistophe [/ caption] ads / 2015/01 / Har-ponyanddogtrip-2014-2015-541-copy kopie.jpg “> 
No fallback, poor visibility in a curve [/ caption] <a 
Dead fox, very interesting for Toscahref=”http://www.ponyanddogtrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Har-ponyanddogtrip-2014-2015-543.jpg”>
too narrow footpath on bridge [/ caption] 
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