Our route took us to Aulnay. I waited at Paille and had a beer but first I went into the small church. Going up to the altar and touching it, I felt a profound sense of communion and the questions of the priests who had stood there through the centuries. Not that I could ever become a priest. How could I when I am still not convinced of the existence of God let alone the truth of religion, but the pilgrimage continues.

Here at Aulnay is the Eglise Saint Pierre d’Aulnay. For the medieval pilgrims, this was an important stop three days southwest of Poitiers, an hour or two in a car and three days for us on our slow cycle (shared). The central portal was brilliantly lit by modern lights and inside a men’s voice choir was rehearsing Basque and local dialect songs for the evening concert.

We now took a road northeast to Ensigne. Lost in the woods, the church locked but a neighbour pointed us to the key hidden above a lintel of the church. Cool after outside but hopelessly corroded by damp and then into the Romanesque wonder of Melle. Three huge churches: St Hilaire, St Pierre, and St Savinien.