Day 27 / Argenton-sur-Creuze - Crozant / 31.69 km

After a breakfeast “a la Française” (coffee, bread, butter and industrial pain au chocolat) I said goodbye to my host. As it was not raining and the sky blue I was eager to be on the road. Today would be nice trip following La Creuze to Crozant, a medieval village with Castle ruins on top of a hill. Around 1900 it attracted a lot painters, including Monet. 

I exit Argenton and start running on small roads. I’m quickly confronted with a climb. After some time I meet a colleague-pilgrim. A Québécois who started from Vézelay. We have a brief chat. Maybe we will see each other this evening in Crozant. I pursue my road. The sun starts to shine brighter and give enough warmth to run i a shirt only. I follow the Creuze though fields and forests. The path, with a lot height of differences is super. I  pass “la baraque d’astrologie”, nobody is present to tell me my future. 

I quickly notice it’s ok I will only do 30 k today. The route will be a mix of long, quite steep, climbs and short, even steeper descents. I’m making good progress although taking the height differences in consideration. My average speed will not go above 8 kmh today.

Some kilometres further I encounter my 2nd pilgrim of today. He is French, has eaten a lot of garlic recently and returning from Compostela. Again we have brief chat on where we from and where we going. He tells me that a Brazilian guy is walking one day ahead of me. Normally I will meet him tomorrow, latest the day after. I continue to run and arrive in Cariglesse which is a beautiful small village similar to Crozant (medieval, castle, on a hilltop). I get a stamp in La Marie. The lady at the reception either got out of bed with the wrong foot,or worse, she is a pain by standard. 

I enter a small village with a bar-tabac. Looks a great place to eat my sandwich. When I enter the stench of cat urine is overwhelming.I endure the stench and have a drink. Before the owner becomes visible a cat jumps on my backpack.Afraid the cat will “baptise” my backpack as well I take the cat and throw it a few meters “away”. At that moment the bar owner appears. She explains I did well as “Le cretin” urinates on everything. I’m about to say that maybe it would be a good, and hygienic, idea  not to allow the cat inside. At that moment she already picked up the cat and caressing it intensely. The interior (un-) cleanliness is competing with the stench. I think it is a draw. The place hasn’t been cleaned in years. Everything is covered with a dust film. A poster, from 2000, indicating that someone won 200€ with the lottery is proudly yellowing away at the wall. I leave the please in search of fresh air.

I continue to run-hike.The photo’s I take fail to reflect the beauty of the environment I run through.

After more kilometres I enter Eguzon. A bigger, touristic, village. I buy some clementines which I plan to eat with my second sandwich of today. At the Pic-Nic area I meet my 3rd pilgrim of today. A German woman and a dog called Mambo. We have a chat, I share some of the chocolate I bought. She is not the most talkative person but I learn she is on the “Camino” since 2013, going back and forth between Germany and Spain. Currently she iswalking direction of Germany. She sleeps most of the time in a tenth she’s carrying. If I would be 5 years on the road, I would be either running away from something, running to somewhere, or didn’t know where I was going. Mambo the dog didn’t understand German. He is a Spanish dog.

I say farewell to the “ever-pilgriming” lady and Mambo. I start the last 7km to Crozant. A long descent, which is great , but wet, followed by a  steep climb into Crozant. The views are stunning. Everything indicates Crozant is a busy tourist attraction in summer. Today most places are closed.

I go to “la Marie” for the key, to find the sister, or partner, of the Carigless lady. after paying 10€ I get the key of the “gite pelerin”. I go into the bar-restaurant next door and ask if they can arrange dinner for me. They can. The gite has a scouts-for-adults-kind-of-feeling. I look for a bed with a socket nearby. No luck. I connect all extension cables I can find. The matress is like a hammock. I think pinacolada. I shower and I rest. 

At the agreed time I’m at the bar-restaurant. It’s closed. I go to the grocery across the road the road and asks when the bar-restaurant will open. He inform’s me it will not. Ok. The owner of the grocery calls a restaurant which is around the corner (I have seen the restaurant when entering Crozant and it is not  directly within pilgrims budget), it’s open and they will do something special for the “pelerin”. 

I’m now finishing a cheese selection after a great starter (hare-pâté) and main (beef stew). I will need to find some place for the chocolat cremeux....

Lessons learned :

- 66% of the pilgrims I met today are going in the wrong direction.

- When the bar-tabac is closed for dinner you have proper dinner at the “restaurant”

Song of today : And it Stoned Me - Van Morrison

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