Walking Across Italy

Today we traveled by train from Paris to Puy en Velay (about 340 miles). We left Paris at 9am, and arrived in Puy en Velay some 5 1/2 hours later. We had to change trains twice which gave us some downtime to grab some lunch at Pret de Manger.

THE GOOD

There were many things that were good on this day. First, the trains were on time, and there were no strikes to deal with. (a definite upgrade from Italy last year.) Second, Puy en Velay is a wonderful town, nestled among the soft, rolling hills in central France. Puy was bigger than we imagined with a giant cathedral and several religious statues on adjacent hilltops.

Third, we found the people in Puy to be very different from Parisians. (In a word, “friendly”.) Shocking, I know. But, true.

Fourth, we had a wonderful dinner at a soon-to-be Michelin star restaurant.

THE BAD

First, the day started off poorly, as I was reaching down to put on my hiking boots and I felt a sharp pain in my back. Luckily, a few Aleve tablets and a long train ride deadened the pain enough to complete the day without incident.

Second, as you may have figured out already, Puy en Velay sits on several hilltops. (The operative word being “top”.) So the train let us out near the bottom of these hills, and we had to climb several hundred feet with our luggage to get to our hotel. Then, to get to the Cathedral and Virgin statue, we had to climb several hundred more. Then, to go to dinner, we descended several hundred feet to get there, and climbed several hundred to get back. We longed for the innovative escalators that we found in other mid-evil hilltop towns like Spoletto and Orvieto, Italy.

THE HAIRY

(Ok, this next part of this episode may offend some of my readers, so I ask for forgiveness now. It is not a politically correct story.) It seems that a certain Colombian in our group likes to make chit chat with people on the train. And there was a lovely, young girl who started talking to him and his seat companion. Unfortunately, she had short pants on, which revealed some very hairy legs. This sight so repulsed our latin colleague that he refused to make conversation. A first in the four years that I have known him.

Tomorrow we set off on the first stage of our hike.