DAY THIRTYFIVE
ROQUEFORT – MONT-DE-MARSAN
First you paint a cage
With it’s door open
Then paint
Something nice
Something simple
Something lovely
Something useful
For the bird……..
Jaques Prévert
Les Landes with 2.5 million acres of forest was a long stretch for me too to walk
through. I started to memorize the last poem I had taken with me, the poem of
Jaques Prévert’s To Paint a Picture of a Bird (Pour faire le portrait d’un oiseau).
The white sand I was walking on was ideal for making patterns.
After hours of walking on former railroad tracks, I reached the village of Bostens,
where I entered the church. A recording of Verdi’s Ave Maria was starting to play.
The music went right into my heart. The many hours of solitude had made me very
receptive.
Apsis of the Romanesque church in Bostens
In the village of Gaillères, I had lunch in the Restaurant “Au Coeur des Landes.”
I enjoyed the French cuisine and had for the first time a dessert called “Gateau
Basque”, a cake typical for the Basque country. It showed me that I was coming
closer to the Spanish border.
Gothic church in Gaillères
Poppy and I
View from the attic of the church
In the town of Bougues, I met the German biker Michael. He planned to stay
overnight in the same refuge in the town Mont-de-Marsan, six miles away from
Bougues. He promised to tell the hospitaliér that I was for sure coming.
Marker of the Way in Bourgues
Michael on his bike ridingon former railroad tracks
During the last hours to the town of Mont-de-Marsan, I started to recite the Heart
Sutra and forgot the burning feet and all the other aches from walking miles and
miles on the hard asphalt.
View to the city of Mont-de-Marsan with Gothic house
Thanks to Michael, the hospitaliér did wait for me and showed me the room where I
could stay. It was a very nice place. I bought the dinner in a boulangerie close by.
When I entered the bakery, the space was filled with the soft sound of hundreds of
humming bees. They discovered the sweetness of the cakes and where crawling all
over cookies and cakes. Nobody seemed to care.
Bees and cakes
– Text and photos contributed by Garyo –