Stage 24. Cluny to Tramayes - 18kms, mostly cloudy and cool

Our host for last evening at Cluny Sejour was a really friendly young woman called Stella. Not only did she welcome us warmly to Cluny, she also did much to orient us to our pilgrimage in this region. She translated phrases in the French accommodation guide that were obscure to us, and explained norms for when it is necessary to reserve a place to stay and when it isn't. She also went out of her way to try to locate some pilgrim credentials for us, since it turned out they were not available in Cluny itself. She managed to track down the President of the Association des Chemins de St-Jacques de Compostelle, who happened to live in a village nearby. She arranged for us to meet him on our walk today. And therein lies a delightful tale ...

But to begin, our walk out of Cluny took us through the small commercial centre, where the townsfolk were plying their trades - the baker shovelling bread into his huge oven, the butcher brewing up something amazing on the street, the cafe chairs being set, and so on.

Before long we were leaving Cluny through the old town gate.

We picked up the trail immediately and discovered it to be well marked all day.

Very soon, we were walking through the gentle and peaceful lanes and paths of rural Burgundy.

This phase of our pilgrimage, from Cluny to Le Puy, will be just over 300kms in length. Generally, the stages will be shorter than we were walking in Portugal (though more undulating) and this will give us time to take it all in, and perhaps, have a more retreat like experience.

After traversing a valley for a few kilometres we came to the little village of St Cecile, where it had been arranged for us to receive our credentials. We met the president in the Main Street of the village and he gestured for us to follow him to the Michelin reviewed restaurant 'L'Embellie', where he ordered three coffees.

We sat around a little table, welcomed by the young couple who run the restaurant, and struck up a conversation - him in broken English and us in broken French. As well as sharing our pilgrimage details and history, we also heard that he'd just been at a conference discussing the relationship between Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter (Pierre) Venables, the abbot of Cluny. Skerricks of Sarah's mediaeval history studies stirred dimly - enough to recognise the names! It was another lovely connection along the way, and yet another instance of the kindness of strangers.

We resumed our walk and began climbing to a ridge that we basically followed the rest of the way to Tramayes. It gave us expansive views of the valleys on both sides, and a wonderful sense of the richness of the countryside.

It was incredibly quiet and peaceful, and as you can imagine such beauty gave rise to a couple of haikus.

Charolais recline on

soft beds of verdant

green. Burgundian scene.

Rusting Renault earth

reclaims, dust to dust; a

Pastoral Service.

We enjoyed a peaceful sit as we wrote these down, and drank in the scene.

We then wound our way past this roadside cross, set powerfully against the living tree.

Fairly shortly afterwards, we began our descent into the very quiet village of Tramayes.

The local church is enormous and has some modern stained glass, and yet there is a service only once or twice a month. It's one centre among several in this parish.

It's got quite cold this afternoon, but we are holed up comfortably in a tiny hotel where we hope to get dinner a bit later! This is not it - it's the chateau across the road!! C'est la vie!

Bon chemin,

Neil and Sarah