(dw made all of the phone reservations, and did much of the talking as she got amazing mileage out of her high school French, but still, there were large possibilities for error. -- I, on the other hand, don't speak a word of French -- which is not actually true as I can say bonjour, merci, and quiche Lorraine -- and not one word is useful in reserving a room.)But the error turned out well, as La Romieu is an attractive little village with a giant church (Collegiate Church) -- the largest on the Camino in relation to the size of the village. Built between 1312 and 1318 by Armaud d'Aux de Lescout who was tight with the Pope, Clement V. Armaud was in a hurry, so he used slave labor (technically prisoners of the Pope and others -- potato, tomato) and got the giant church along with outbuildings built in a very short time. The Revolution did a fair amount of damage, but some of the original painting (tempera, fresco) still remains. And best of all, when you visit the building you're given a sheet of paper explaining everything and left to wander around as you will --- including climbing to the top of one of the two towers (the bell tower is closed as the town got tired of tourists bonging the bells) and walking on the top of the vaulted ceiling. (the actual tiled roof is elevated above the vaults) The stairs you can climb are a very tight spiral -- so tight my shoulders nearly touched both sides -- with each step two inches wide in the center, eight inches wide on the outside, and with a ten inch rise -- the stairs definitely aren't built to code. One thin iron railing. The tower is 150 feet high -- the potential for an accident is large. If you tripped and fell, you'd roll to the bottom, and if the fall didn't kill you, you certainly would get dizzy. It was all great fun.
The town has many life sized statues of cats, in honor of "Angeline and her cats." Angeline was a little girl whose cats saved the town during the Middle Ages. Nowhere in the town did we see how the cats actually did their great feat. Later I read that Angeline was an orphan who loved her cats, but during a great famine the village started dining on fricassee ala chat until the cats were all gone except for two kittens Angeline had hidden away. After three years, the famine eased, but the town was overrun by rats who ate the crops and the famine threatened to return -- but Angeline's two cats (after three years!) were a multitude, a great clowder of cats, and when released, they ate all the rats (a chat fricassee ala rat), saving the town. One of the gates in the town wall looked like it was sporting damage from a centuries ago cannon ball, as well as smaller pits from musket shots. The cats could do little to defend the town from shot and powder, and besides they'd done enough already.
Two days later, we stayed at Larressingle where for the first time we could see the Pyrenees (still a hundred miles away) Larressingle is a remarkably intact medieval fortified village -- even the moat is intact (although not filled with water) It only has ten or so occupied houses and a couple of shops. In the 1930s someone organized a committee of Americans from Boston who raised money and restored and preserved the town. A plaque commemorates the event, and the tourist office also makes prominent notice of it.
Later, in Condom, we again met Robert. He had been ahead of us, but had lost a day looking for new shoes, as his were completely worn out. He had no luck. He didn't strike me as having boat feet, but I guess they were too much for rural France. (not entirely appropriate: youtube.com/watch?v=DYomv4c7BkU) Condom is another lovely town (lovely towns are thick on the ground in rural France) and had a great statue of the Three Musketeers +1 (D'Artagnan, the hero, was from this region: Gascony) It was tempting, but I didn't do the common pose of standing with them,
my walking stick a sword replacement. A few days later, we again met Robert (who again was faster) only this time he had missed the trail, wandered around lost, in a minor way, until he heard us yakking about something, followed the sound and again gained the trail. We were happy to do the aural service.
We were having lunch at the church Eglise de l'Hospital. Before we ate the last of the very tasty farmers market Basque cheese, I pared off the crusty looking rind (leaving as much cheese as possible). I commented: "This is probably fine to eat, but the aesthetics troubles me." dw enjoyed the comment, and later, talking about labeling things, said: "The aesthetics appeals to me."
And for the rest of the day the aesthetics of things were either appealing, or troubling. For example, the aesthetics of the easel paintings in the churches were usually troubling -- Raphael didn't do much work around the region.
FACTOID FOR TODAY: The leaf-rolling caterpillar, about an inch long, is able to shoot its poop as much as two feet. Scaling up, a six-foot human (such as myself) -- with similar powers -- could fire his stern gun and lob a log 150 feet.
BOOKS FOR TODAY: Void Moon (Michael Connelly) Not my usual thing, a crime thriller, but it was good. As I usually do with mysteries or thrillers, I lost patience and skipped part of it (in particular the details about spy cameras, radio tracking devices, etc.) but over all I thought it was worth the read. And Warped Passages (Lisa Randall) -- Modern physics. As far as I can tell Randall knows her business and writes very well and very clearly. All about multiple dimensions and quantum mechanics and so on. She largely passes on the math of it all, which makes for an easier read.
JOKES FOR TODAY: The last time I was in jail, I got badly beaten up ---- I think my family takes Monopoly way too seriously.
My friend RD told me he is color blind and was in high school before he found out --- he said it hit him like a bolt out of the green.
and so it goes DJA
No comments:
Post a Comment