Ready, Set...

After a fitful anxious night's sleep I took a taxi to Gare de Lyon for my train ride to Le Puy. Restless with jet lag, I had jitters about my big adventure. My bible study sent loving emails assuring me that I was in their prayers and in God's care. 

The train ride was pleasant and the 5 hours flew by. It was an uphill shlep from the train station to my hostel and since I was carrying my big pack and my day pack and it was about 90 degrees I was glistening by the time I arrived. Tonight I have a double room to myself, at least so far as I know. After a scalding hot shower (no cold seemed available) I tried to cool down for a bit while organizing my pack.

Le Puy is very hilly from volcanic action and there are stairs and steep cobble stone streets everywhere. The steps to get up to the cathedral require quite an effort, yet there were hundreds of people at the mass this afternoon. The staircase comes right up into the middle of the sanctuary. I've never seen anything like it. Following the mass, I went to their gift shop and purchased a French Pilgrim Passport since it was so much prettier than the one I got in the USA. 

I wandered around Le Puy for awhile then headed up to the huge statue of the Virgin Mary atop a hill. Four euros and hundreds of steps later I reached the virgin and like the Statue of Liberty I climbed a steep spiraled staircase up to her head for a spectacular view. I got stuck up there in the tiny hot space because a group of people were making their way up and the staircase was only big enough for one body at a time. 

When I popped back outside a refreshing breeze welcomed me as well as a lady from Australia that I had met on the way up. She did the Spanish Camino 4 years ago and was back for more. We chatted for an hour or so before heading back down to our hostel. We were joined by about 30 other pilgrims, mostly French, for a delicious dinner of vegetable soup, green lentils (the regional speciality) and stuffed tomatoes. There had been a party in the courtyard that afternoon so they gave us aperitifs and tiny fancy desserts like finger sized chocolate eclairs, cream puffs, tarts...In addition to the amazing cheese platters. All for 12 euros. 

I met a nice French father and son who will be camping for the next week who would switch to speaking English frequently so Ellie the Australian and I could understand. I actually spent a good part of dinner translating for Ellie which made me feel good about my own French. A couple of bats swooped in part way through dinner and zoomed over our heads creating quite an atmosphere!

I'm feeling really happy about the people that I have met so far. It will be great to start walking the Camino tomorrow after the 7 am pilgrim mass.