Chapter 10: Napoleon on a White Horse

Popeye Spinach, forgotten painkillers, Barack Obama, kayaking from Tahiti with coconut leaves, Charlie Brown's parents, a friend that sighs in falsetto, and a footnote confession [1]

By car it takes four hours to reach Toulouse from our home in Rognes. It’s a distance of almost 250 miles. At the steady rate I am headed west, Toulouse is the last legitimate destination for a rendezvous with the family. After that, it’s too far for Melanie and the children to reach me for a weekend.

I’ve passed on scheduling visits earlier because I want to get some momentum in the pilgrimage before meeting up with them. I want to feel officially on the road without the push and pull and start and stop of family, no family, then family again.

So long ago, we’d pulled out a map and settled on Toulouse. We decided that Melanie would pick up the kids early from school on a Friday afternoon and drive out directly to meet me. I would take my first rest day that Saturday with all of us together and then continue the walk on Sunday morning while they headed back to Rognes.

The stretch of Camino headed into Toulouse from the east runs along the Canal du Midi. The canal winds out from Toulouse…