La Randonnee

Sabine woke me this morning at 8:30. Soon after we were out the door, dropping off Heloise at the stables. Christophe, Sabine, and I drove to Caucourt where a group of at least thirty people awaited us. At 10:30 we all began our 22 km hike. We stopped for five minutes here and there until lunch time around one. The unfortunate aspect of going on hikes is the lack of facilities. I had needed to go to the bathroom since we left the house at nine. I was the only one who did not go to the bathroom behind a tree or in a corn field. I hate to say it, but I was difficult and imposed myself upon some poor restaurant owner and used his toilet without buying anything from him. (apparently that's not good/common in France). The great thing about hikes is that they force you to meet people. I met the neighbors across the street, a man with a long ponytail, and a twenty-four year old girl who invited me to work out and go to Paris with her sometime. I think I was the only one under twenty-four, and I think that everyone else was over forty. I still had a lot of fun. On our walk we passed the Chateau d'Olhain, which was beautiful and from the XI century, and the pierre du diable de Gauchin. The pony-tailed man explained to me that way back when, when a woman was cheating on her husband, the pierre du diable would come and sit on her doorstep at night. There is a sign near it that reads, "Sit here if you are tired of your wife." The last seven km after that were the hardest. Fortunately, there was a shortcut! Yay! A few of us cut off two of the last km. We arrived back where we started around 6:45.