QUEST 11

ELEVENTH TEST


In one of the seven valleys there is a village on the top of a mountain where Pilar and her companion sat at the spring and chatted. Later on, Pilar will go down to the river Piedra and weep in sadness, but that is another story.

The important thing is that in this village lives a witch of the Cathar tradition whose house caught on fire and she came out unscathed.

Your image next to the first fountain and your image with the witch is the eleventh test.

Continue walking toward the mountains. In a village Chantal met the devil, and to remember this feat there is a second fountain, where a frog drinks the water of the sun.

Don’t ask too much about the origin of this fountain – the inhabitants of the city will say that the writer create a story that does not exist.

Your image in front of the second fountain is also part of the eleventh test.



We thought perhaps that the monument where Bertha was nearly crucified in “The Devil and Miss Prym” could be correct.



So we stopped at St Savin following our visit to the grotto in Lourdes. When we arrived we went to Hotel Viscos and not knowing in French what a witch is I preceded to draw a broomstick with a witch on it.



To our absolute amazement we were pointed to a shop one of only 3 in the village although being Sunday it was closed! Although there was a telephone number on the door. Like Poirot Tom called the number and said we had arrived in St Savin and were hoping to speak with her. She told us to look around the church as it was beautiful and wait for her there. It was beautiful the doors banged themselves open and closed in the wind inviting us in and inside was the madonna which is spoken about in “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept.'



We sat in their stunning hotel lounge with maps out asking all the questions we had about her miraculous escape form the fire and our thoughts on Lourdes. I had taken her some holy water from the fountain which we had collected that morning during the Italian church service.



It is funny we have ourselves spoken with several tongues during this trip and from speaking Spanish for 2 weeks to speaking French now every time I open my mouth Turkish comes out!!! As I have had a language over load so now I just draw pictures now to communicate and go into my own world smiling when people start speaking quickly in their designated language.



We spoke with Jacqueline (the witch) about the 9th test and she confirmed that the road as we thought was the roman road travelling from TAURBES to PAU and on the road was a restaurant called CUISINE DE FEMMES. AKA Where women cook! We took our photos and drove their immediately! There half way up the straight road which could only be roman! Was a small turning onto a dirt track. We travelled 4km down it and there in the middle of the cornfield was our dolem! The toughest task of them all!



We did handstand and cart wheels and just as we started to take our clothes off an old couple walked over the hill in the middle of nowehere a perfect moment to get our Kodak capture! We felt exhilarated and liberated. Until the silence realising that the only task left was the 12th which from childhood I had known the story of the General St Martin and we have a children’s book at home with him on the cover re counting his generosity as a warrior in a battle himself himself.



Before leaving the Jacqueline we were going to stay in Hotel Viscos she called her friend and he had some rooms for us to stay in so she had given us his number and the village name which is very close to St Martin so we drove there arriving in the late afternoon at the most magnificent Chateau in Montgaillard!



A roaring fire ignited the room. Our dirty clothes were made clean, our energy restored by rocks in the garden outside and our hunger and thirst quenched.

We had arrived exactly where we wanted to be to reflect on our quest.

Knowing that we had completed all of our tasks and the last was to find the guardian.

Knowing that even where we were, we at that moment had once again found our guardians. This final part of the quest we knew would be accomplished very soon……………………