Provisioning for Today's walk
Many of the villages we pass through have stores of some sort at which to buy provisions (e.g. lunch). Since weight matters, its wise to buy food as needed to avoid carrying excess weight.
Stores in France are open 5 days a week. They are always closed on Sundays (in larger tourest towns a few might be open til noon). Everything is closed from noon to 2: it's lunch time and lunch is important.
In every village stores are closed on one other day of the week, which is usually the day you happen to be there. Last week we hit up a village for provisions, but it was the village day off - nothing was open. The next day we got to the next village only to discover it was a "bank holiday", so everything was closed. Like a monopoly "chance" card, everything gets to close on a bank holidays, even on normally open days.
By the third day our supplies were pretty thin, some leftover bread and a few bits of cheese rinds. When the sign on the path helpfully reminded us the next village was an hour walk away, and it was 11:15 am, Mary clicked it into high gear and we took off down the trail.
As we rounded the last bend to the village at 11:58 with the store, still open, in sight, it was like the finish line of a cross country ski race. Walkers converging from all directions, hiking poles clacking furiously, all frantically trying to cross the store's threshold before the church bells struck 12.
That was three days ago: I'm still lugging around the remains of that huge chunk of cheese.
Stores in France are open 5 days a week. They are always closed on Sundays (in larger tourest towns a few might be open til noon). Everything is closed from noon to 2: it's lunch time and lunch is important.
In every village stores are closed on one other day of the week, which is usually the day you happen to be there. Last week we hit up a village for provisions, but it was the village day off - nothing was open. The next day we got to the next village only to discover it was a "bank holiday", so everything was closed. Like a monopoly "chance" card, everything gets to close on a bank holidays, even on normally open days.
By the third day our supplies were pretty thin, some leftover bread and a few bits of cheese rinds. When the sign on the path helpfully reminded us the next village was an hour walk away, and it was 11:15 am, Mary clicked it into high gear and we took off down the trail.
As we rounded the last bend to the village at 11:58 with the store, still open, in sight, it was like the finish line of a cross country ski race. Walkers converging from all directions, hiking poles clacking furiously, all frantically trying to cross the store's threshold before the church bells struck 12.
That was three days ago: I'm still lugging around the remains of that huge chunk of cheese.
This might have been a nice lunch
Comments
I hope you have been enjoying that hunk of cheese!