Why I love France in seven easy lesson.

When I came back home I had an hours worth of video clips, 105 clips in all, on my flip camcorder and one of my youTube friends suggested that I turn them into youTube length movies (Under 10 minutes long) and post them on youTube. Well I just finished that little project and I've decided to put them all together here on my blog. There are seven little movies and they are basicly just the unedited clips joined together sometimes the video isn't great, sometimes the wind blocks what I trying to say and sometimes they are very funny like the scene with the three dogs or the Basque family out for a walk Mom, Dad, the Kids, the dog and of course the donkey or my two attempts at crossing a rushing stream with full backpack.

This first one is my arrival in cold snowy Paris on February first the train trip down south to Beziers and some of my travel in the south of France.



The second video is taken at the Acquarium at Montpelier and the start of the Le Puy walk.



The third video is mostly Wild flowers and walking through the national forest.



The fourth video was recorded March 30th, 2010 as I walked on a rainy day in the Basque country.



The fifth video is the last day of my walk, March 31, 2010 and the time in Saint Jean Pied de Port.



The sixth video was taken while I traveled around in France and my short trip to Brussels, before going to Paris at the end of the trip.



The seventh and last video you have seen before if you have looked at my earlier posts but I though I would put it here too so they would all be in one place, it's my river tour on the Batobus in Paris.



Well that's it I hope you got a kick out of them some of them really crack me up.

Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey

puy-en-velay 1, originally uploaded by christophe.fr.

Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey in southern France, another Camino walk. Not sure yet if I will walk all the way to Santiago in western Spain a distance of 1521 KM or only as far as Saint Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrenees 736 KM. If I continue into Spain I plan to go up north and walk the Camino del Norte along the north coast, when I walked last time I walked the Camino Frances about 774 KM across Spain.

When my friend Pru came from Paris to spend the summer at her cottage in Lubec she brought me a copy of, Miam Miam Dodo Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle La Voie du Puy. The widely considered best guide book for the Camino Le Puy-en-Valey to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port along the GR 65(Grande Randonnée 65). It is easy to see where it gets it's reputation excellent maps and detailed information on each village and town that you pass through as well as contact information and rates for all of the accommodations along the chemin.

Right now my plans are to start walking the first week in March. Le Puy and the surrounding area is in the Haute-Loire region and the first week of walking is at altitude ranging from 640 meters at Le Puy to 1400 meters at L'Aubrac so there is the possibility of Snow in these areas but I'm not worried I have lots of time I will either wait out the storm in a village or take a bus or train down out of the mountains.

Camino de Santiago

Camion de Santiago, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

Plans are under way for the fall meeting of the Maritime Friends of the Camino and Peter Coffman has agreed to attend and give a presentation of his Camino Photographs. Peter gave his presentation in Halifax last fall but most of us from New Brunswick didn't do the long drive so it will be great to see his exhibit and presentation at our fall meeting. Peter walked the Camino with the late Oliver Schroer, the Canadian musician who composed and recorded the music for his CD “Camino” as they walk in May and June of 2004. I used Oliver's music as background for my DVD slide show and shorter YouTube video of my 2008 Camino.