This post is being written in Forcalquier - a provincial centre, with an internet shop. We are now walking through the rolling hills of Provence - the fir trees have been replaced by rockroses, rosemary and thyme. While the countryside is much softer, the designer of our path is determined to keep sloth at bay, and has stayed faithful to the master plan of going to the top of any hill in sight and through the centre of any villages in view.
We were walking for some days with an English-speaking French couple, fifteen years older than us but veterans of the walks of St Jacques. They say that the path we have chosen is much more difficult than any other path to Santiago de Compostella. It doesn't seem to affect them very much - they always leave later than us in the morning but reach the target an hour before us. They have now gone on ahead, and we have said goodbye, and are not likely to see them again.
My navigator and I are still working out some of the rules of the road. Is the man obliged to wait while the woman looks for good figs, or picks blackberries - or can they just keep walking without looking back? This is a very difficult question. I am still perplexed. You could SMS 'yes' or 'no' and we could will the votes.
Handing over now to the navigator, whom I am realising is always right.
Boronia
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