The pain in my ankle intensified, super irritating but mostly manageable when I walked slower than I normally would. It is good that it is my last day, as I wouldn’t want to continue walking. At least the weather was pleasant, sunny and 20 degrees.
Today I continued along the Canal Sète à Rhône, leaving Aigues-Mortes passing many boats docked and a couple of Italian barges, the front decks full of (electric) bicycles. They offered cycling holidays, where I imagine that you sleep on the barges.
Yet again, there were many cyclists, many making a round trip to Aigues-Mortes, as I often saw them cycling towards me and them past me some time later. I made it to Gallician around lunch time, and planned to stop, only to find that the restaurants were packed with cyclists. It is Saturday! The village is surrounded by grapevines, and wine seems to be the areas primary income.
Today was a 30km trip following the canal to St.-Gilles. There was a 26km alternative following farm tracks for the last 12kms. I was undecided about which to take due to my ankle. Eventually the decision was made for me. At Gallician, the left bank of the canal was closed, with a fence blocking access. They were extending the cycle path. There was a bridge over the canal and a path on the right bank. Checking on my phone, it seemed that if I followed that track, I would have been stuck on the wrong side of the canal when it merged with a river, taking me miles away from St.-Gilles. Actually, I would have been able to cross a bridge before the split, but didn’t notice it on the app on my phone.
So, ironically, after following canals for 330km+, all the way from Toulouse, the last 12kms were along small roads, small paths next to a disused railway line with trees growing in the tracks, and farmland trails, passing a multitude of different fruit orchards. At one point a tractor passed me with a trailer full of boxes of red cherries. Unfortunately he didn’t stop to offer me any!
I made it to St. Gilles, my ankle holding up, but tired. I bought a cake as I passed a baker before checking into the hotel. After a shower, I took a walk around the town. St-Gilles owes its name to the abbot Gilles l’Ermite, whose tomb was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christendom in the 12th century. Originally on the route between Bordeaux and Jerusalem, and later on the route to Santiago de Compostela, Saint-Gilles was once a port used by merchants, pilgrims and crusaders and by the 11th century its wealth was reflected in the creation of its own currency.
In the centre of the town is the UNESCO 12th century Abbey of Saint-Gilles. The former abbey retains parts of its cloister buildings, the former cellar and on its eastern facade’s three ornamental gates. The abbey church houses the tomb of Saint Gilles. The church was closed, a couple of walkers walking from Arles to Toulouse along the Voie d’Arles, were sitting on the steps, enjoying the sun.
I visited the canal at the spot it enters St.-Gilles.
I walked through the old town, passing a house built in Roman times and walked through the town gate, before returning to the hotel.
Arriving in St. Gilles I have now walked each and every kilometer between Sagres on the Algarve in Portugal, via Santiago de Compostela and Toulouse, to La Spezia in Italy, a total of 3.800kms, plus all the wrong turns and detours! Tomorrow is supposed to be wet, I will take a taxi to Nîmes, as the buses don’t run on Sunday’s, train to Montpellier, where I will stay overnight, before flying home from Montpellier on Monday morning.
