Where in the world is David today? Dax

Let's be honest, I am finding it hard to get up the energy to write today! Part of that is sheer tiredness from two very long rides on successive days, and part is perhaps to do with the ride ahead tomorrow, which is my last full stage in France. Gulp. In fact, there are only two more weeks to go after tomorrow, assuming I stay the course. On the one hand it gets harder from here (at least some of the time), but on the other hand I am a lot fitter and stronger than I was when I started out, and I have been away for over a month, as of today.

First, today's journey. Well, it was long, and hot, and flat, and woody, and more of the same. Really quite monotonous, as I expected. There IS variation in the Landes region, and it ISN'T totally flat, but that's not saying a lot. However, it is beautiful, and obviously the people who live there love it. There were some very posh houses from time to time, and a lot of stables - riding seems to be very popular. My journey didn't start off that way - I made my way out through the Graves AOC region and finally took a picture of a vineyard sign  - in fact, one of the last I saw. But soon I was on long, straight, level, hypnotic roads and constantly reminding myself of my last tumble. Fortunately I wasn't lulled into sleep by the nature of the ride.

Really there was nothing of especial interest (other than a town glorying in the name le Barp) for more than 20 miles when, after a really rough stretch of old road alongside the motorway, I came to le Muret, and its pilgrim chapel(Église Saint-Roch du Muret). As predicted by the guide, it was locked, but the exterior was very unusual, and it was obviously very ancient. The local youth (or perhaps visiting campers?) have taken to carving their names into the centuries-old plaster, and I found that sad. At any rate, it was a delight to stumble upon, so soon after seeing my first signage for the pilgrim route. It suddenly felt as though I was more in pilgrim mode, as I was by now following the route of foot pilgrims quite closely.

Another four miles on, and I came to the little town of Moustey, with its pair of churches right next to each other. On the map they are referred to as the 'Eglise et Anc. Eglise' - the church and the old church - but there didn't seem much to choose between them to me. Unusually though, the old church hadn't been pulled down to provide building material for the new. I wasn't planning a stop in Moustey - I planned to eat lunch in Sarbres, about 20 miles on. However, being mindful of closing hours for shops, I stopped at the little shop in Moustey to buy provisions. I am glad I did. The owner was very chatty (but hard to understand) and announced that she had a special pilgrim stamp because it is exactly 1000km from her shop along the usual route. I took her word for it at the time, but looking at it since I've had the chance, she's probably about right. Anyway, she sent me back outside for my credencial, and I got my first stamp of the day! That was a nice surprise.

Anyway, by now I was well into the forest, and it is clearly not just a forest for show, but a working forest. The evidence of forestry is everywhere. There are areas that have been cleared, and newly planted areas. There are huge piles of wood along the roadside, cut and ready to be loaded, and still with that newly-cut smell, and there are endless trucks carrying wood hurtling all over the place, and I mean hurtling. They were going so fast that their bow-wave would almost bring me to a standstill. I couldn't believe the amount of newly cut wood, and the amount being trucked around. But on the other hand, the evidence was that new trees were springing up as fast as they were being cut down. That left me just reeling at the thought of the creative energy in nature. I've been marvelling at the power of rivers, today I marvelled at the power of plants. Of course, with such a large area of woodland there is always the potential of fire, so every town I went through had a major fire-station with all-terrain fire vehicles, not just the kinds we see around town. When I came upon a major wood storage area, the wood was constantly being doused with water to reduce the possibility of fire.

Lunch was in Sarbres, as planned, and my provisions went down a treat. I ate in the shade outside the church, then had a mooch around inside. It was a curious building, and obviously in need of a lot of repair. I was amused that the three confessionals all had things leaning up against them, or even chairs stored inside them, but pleased to see both an original approach to candles for prayer and a service sheet for Pentecost that showed at the very least a priest trying to breathe life into a community, but more likely (based on other things round the church) a living community. What a challenge these ancient church monuments are! Clearly Sarbres hasn't had the money poured into it that some of its neighbours have received. I had a drink of lemonade in a bar at Sarbres as well, partly as an excuse to get my Camelbak refilled with cold water. I was glad I did, because the next part of the journey made me extremely thirsty, and allowing myself a good cold drink every five km or so gave a rhythm to the rest of the journey. Otherwise, the next part of the journey would have been a real slog.

My next real stop apart from short breaks was actually just outside Dax at Berceau de St-Vincent-de-Paul - in other words, the birthplace of St-Vincent-de-Paul. It is now marked with a Basilica and various exhibits in lovely grounds. It was a good place to stop, though I didn't get to see the Basilica at its best due to internal scaffolding for work on the cupola. However, the farmhouse where Vincent was born is preserved with various artifacts reflecting life at the time of his birth, and that was interesting, as was the leaflet I picked up about Vincent and his commitment to the poor and to what you might call 'imaginative' Christianity. I hadn't really known much about him in the past, but remember well the retreat house in Mill Hill belonging to his order which we sometimes used for course weekends during the first year of my ordination training. Not a good experience, whereas this visit was. In particular, I got my second stamp of the day there, and the lady in the shop was so impressed at my journeys that she gave me two free cans of drink - one for straight away, and one for the road.

From there it was a straightforward and easy run into the spa town of Dax, and rather conveniently it took me past a Decathlon sports superstore. I was able to stop in and stock up on tablets to make up isotonic drinks to keep my salts in balance, and also some rather delicious fruit bars. Fifteen minutes later I was installed at the hotel, in room number 1 on the ground floor. So, there was no need to carry the bike upstairs, and in fact that room has a bath, so I was able to lay back and have a really good soak before supper. For that, I took a walk out and ended up in a Buffalo Grill - they seem to be everywhere in France. What a strange place! The food was OK, but an American style diner trying to be all wild-west in France just doesn't seem right. There was country music playing, which I have to confess to enjoying, but for some reason in the middle of it up came a rendition of the lovely worship song 'Light of the world you stepped down into darkness' by Michael Smith. I couldn't really believe it at first - I thought it was just something with an almost identical tune, but no, it was the real thing - then back to regular country music. How strange, and yet how nice!

Meanwhile, I have NOT replaced the bike computer at this point (though I know where there might be a dealer in Dax on the way into town tomorrow, so the jury is still out), but I slaved over Google Maps to put the correct route in for yesterday and today (see below). I didn't work out how to customise the zoom level when I did yesterday's, so you will have to zoom it out yourself, but I did get it right for today's. All the twists and turns are as I did the ride, not as Google Maps would have suggested I do it! So now it is off to bed, for a relatively early night (and it seems like it might be a quiet one for the second night running). However, I am not planning a desperately early start. There are fewer miles to do tomorrow, but more climbing, and I would like to start fresh. On the other hand, this is the point where I no longer know where I will be staying, and where I will be able to blog, so be prepared, there may be a hiatus...


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