Part 4 / Day 1: Paris -- Pau -- Morlaàs

Last year [2022] I had to postpone the final portion of my walk along the Voie d'Arles [from Pau to Somport and beyond] due to serious pain in my lumbar spine. Covid had already interrupted my walk in 2020 and I had to put of walking that year as well, and now much of France was suffering from an unprecedented heat wave...  I had planned the continuation of my hike for a normal year and had packed for such, but, upon my arrival in Paris in the near 100 degree heat, decided that a summer-weight sleeping bag and lightweight down jacket, the latter intended for the Pyrénées and my return trip to Paris, weren't going to be necessary. I decided I didn't need leggings. Also, instead of two pair of lightweight hiking pants, and two long-sleeved tops, I probably could use a pair of shorts or a skort and another short-sleeved top instead... which gave me an excuse to visit the  Decathlon in Ternes... 

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I had wanted to reduce the weight of my pack, and this helped. The heaviest things, however, were surprisingly not the clothes, but food, tiny containers and medicine/vitamins. [The down jacket got put back in just in case the Somport Pass was cold at night, ditto for my late return flight to Paris.]

I look the bus fron the Gare de Pau to Morlaàs without a hitch and spent the night at the pilgrim gite there with two other French couples heading for Lourdes the next morning. I visited then the 11th century church there which I had missed when I ended my walk there in 2021. It had been remodeled somewhat in the 19th century, so only parts of it were original.