April 20, 2024 – Auch – L’île-de-Noe – 24kms – we stayed with Marie-Line in Castelnau d’Angèles

April 21, 2024 – L’île-de-Noe – Marciac – 32kms – Apartment sur Lac

Gord: In 2010 we covered a small portion of the Chemin d’Arles on bike.  As we approached one of the villages we stayed in 14 years ago, Ruth tried to contact our former host by phone and email.  We didn’t receive a response after 24 hours, so Ruth moved down the accommodation list.  That’s when we learned that our former host had closed due to an infestation of “les punaises,” bedbugs.

On this Chemin we have found that most of the pilgrim accommodation is taking steps to reduce the transport of bedbugs.  Our current stay is in a private home and we were asked to leave my pack and Ruth’s trailer in the garage.  We were given plastic totes to bring and store the personal items we would need in our room.

Some accommodation asks only that packs be kept off the beds, but the use of plastic totes is commonplace.  Sometimes we are asked to leave our packs in an entrance area and only bring items we need into the bedroom in a tote, and other times our bags can be brought into the bedroom, but must remain in the plastic bin.  At one creative chambre d’hote, our packs remained in a bin sitting on a rolling trolley, so there was no contact with the floor.

All of these strategies are a bit inconvenient, as we are constantly rooting through our packs, or walking out to an entrance foyer to find a necessary item.  We never complain, however, as we are only too aware of the risk and unpleasantness of bedbugs.  In our first week on the Chemin d’Arles we had an encounter with bedbugs (as well as pulling a half-buried tick from my thigh).  We reckon that we have had  a brush, or in some cases a bloodbath, with these loathsome creatures about once every 50 nights.  If that turns out to be correct on this Camino, we have one more night of playing host to look forward to, with the subsequent risk of carrying them further down the way.  We are hoping that the preventative steps our hosts are asking us to take will reduce our historical odds.