Wednesday January 28th 2015 St.-Père-chez-Vézelay 20 km

At Vezelay finally vineyards. It remains a lovely, quiet landscape with villages that seem to date from my grandparents’ time. Because I will be left alone a lot because of my companions, I muse again about the loss of a more than 1000 years old farming culture, a bit of my hobby. In Roman times cutting the woods to make farmland. After the great migrations around the years 400 after Cr. the cultivated land became woods again. In the Middle Ages, from about 800, the religious congregations cultivated the land again, the ‘rots’. And now some 1,000 years later, the same cultivated land starts getting overgrown again, the fields becoming bush and wood again, the hedges are no longer maintained, coppice is hardly necessary, the centuries-old plot bounderies disappear, “taluts” plowed away. Everything on a great scale. Interesting. I think it’s a pity, but you do not turn back time.
When I see how the small villages once were governed by church and cross on the one hand and by castle and fortress on the other hand, I understand better, that there was a French Revolution, where the state has inflicted the principles of liberté, égalité and fraternité, which is written on every French town hall.
We find public washrooms in every village. In addition to the indoor laundry building there are typical drinking troughs for animals. Interesting to see that the laundry here is constructed in such a way that the women only could do their job kneeling down. The troughs of the animals though were well designed at stand-height. Wether the role of women also changed by the French Revolution, I doubt it. Therefore the revolution of 1968 was needed, and, indirectly, the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Doors etc.
We saw a fox, deer again, donkeys! All equally exciting for Tosca.
We discussed what is more important: the goal or the road to it? Do you go for the goal, at all costs, or is the road to the goal more important? The road remains fascinating said Bri.
And so we arrived at Vezelay. Since the Middle Ages Vézelay has been the most famous French starting point for pilgrimages to Santiago in Spain. Already experiencing how hard it is to do so in present time, I wonder how they did a pilgrimage centuries ago. Without a map or GPS, no paved roads, no money, so begging, without plastic rainwear and obviously they made the road twice. Impossible. One may think that this Santiago happening is a fad, but for all those who walk a significant portion, let alone covering the entire route at once, I got a lot of respect.
Meanwhile, we have dinner. I read the comments on my blog. Questions about the well-being and the perception of the ladies. Firstly, whether they pamper me. No, not at all. Either they walk before me, and as a result dog Tosca pulls my arms off my shoulders. Because she, Tosca, being a woman, wants to walk with the ladies. When I ask who wants to peel an orange for me, no one responds. I have to cram in all sorts of candy and bread, that I otherwise never get. They are incessantly chatting together while I am crawling ahead with those two selfish animal creatures ( I do not mean the two ladies). Sleeping the three of us together in one room brings not what one might think. The bath is too small for two, let alone 3. But you’re not alone. And that is a great incentive and psychological boost. We sleep in a hotel in Saint-Pere, La Rénommée, where we can eat our own food in the dining room, without having to take a drink. There were no other guests. But of course we helped the owner earn a little money and ordered wine and beer! Friday is already booked by my two angels. The number of angels is increasing, Sonja, sister in law Lilian and Bri! While I in the splashing rain went to feed my horse and walk Tosca.
[Caption id = “attachment_100287” align = “align none” width = “300”] side of the church of Vezelay [/ caption] < a href = "http://www.ponyanddogtrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/image347.jpg"> inside church Vezelay [/ caption] detail church Vezelay [/ caption] Wednesday morning breakfast in Ferme D’Écosses at Neuvy [/ caption] Snails, like home in Z-Limburg [/ caption] Pilgrims Cross [/ caption
a href = “http://www.ponyanddogtrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/image322.jpg”> Castle General En. conquered in Napoleonic times [/ caption] church of Vezelay [/ caption] manageress of a bar feeding Leon roots [/ caption]