Day 24- MarsolanToday was walking through fields of crops. The French walkers last night complained about this saying they wanted to walk in the mountains as this was boring agricultural land. Personally I enjoy walking through this type of country and wondered for a while why I had a different perspective to the French walkers. It soon became obvious. For most French city dwellers whenever they can get away for a Sunday walk or drive they are usually surrounded by agricultural land. For us Sydney siders, particularly those with a mountain getaway, we are always walking through national parks or mountains. Rarely do we walk in agricultural land as the distances are large and water difficult to find (not to mention accommodation). So for me walking amongst crops is a novelty. Incidentally we came across a field of particularly big artichokes that looked most inviting.
We also encountered a field of wheat, which brought home what an essential component it is of our food supply. I even tried estimating the output of the field by sizing up the crop along the fence line we walked, then counting, one baguette, two baguettes… Probably a pointless exercise but it did bring home to me the point that this field, large as it was, would only supply a limited number of hungry eaters. So precious are our agricultural lands and we do not always treat them as such. We value high tech goods and pay workers in those areas fairly well. There is the old saying “Bread is the staff of life” but today for workers in some areas of the hospitality industry, certain employers seem to have the attitude of what used to be a joke: “But the life of our staff is one big loaf”. From the hill tops we traverse we can now make out the Pyrenees mountains that form the border between France and Spain. There are many days walking before we arrive at our destination at the foot of those mountains, however, just having them in our sight will surely be a motivation on tiring days. We are spending a night in a small Gite with only one other person, a German lady who comes from the Munich area and walks part of the Camino each year. So far she has reached Marsolan. She is a social worker with homeless people and Enda was explaining our fund raising effort on behalf of Vinnies to her. It seems from talking to several people they are unfamiliar with St Vincent de Paul, which comes as a surprise seeing he is a French Saint. The only person who knew instantly was our German friend Norbet, an English teacher we met some days ago.
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