Day 30 – Rest day in Besançon(1)

Monday 30th April

“Yeah but, no but, yeah but….”Vicky Pollard (in Little Britain)

[A quick word of explanation, written on 4/9/2018, for people who are confused. I set out to blog every day on my trip to Rome, (probably), but the blog came to a halt shortly before I walked across the Alps, mostly because of the extreme difficulty winding wifi regularly. I continued to post on Facebook most days, and did a few real time updates here. I arrived in Rome on 28th June on my 89th day of walking. I am now back in Ireland, and plan to continue the blog to cover the remaining days.] 

A reflection for a rest day. I will tell you something about Besançon tomorrow.

Qu’est-ce que votre but? This is a question which several people have directed at me – a man in a bar, the brother of my host one night, a woman in the street. So it seems like a  common question in France. It is a fairly simple question to understand. It means ‘what is your aim?’ or, ‘what is your goal?’  It can be phrased several different ways, so you could also have Quel est votre but?, or,  Que’est-ce que c’est votre but? These may have subtly different nuances which I cannot understand. But the question is straightforward, whatever way. I think it may have a slight connotation of ‘What on earth is your aim?!’

The word but is confusing, (like much of French). I had seen it, and was asking a French person to explain it to me, but I was pronouncing it with a silent T at the end. Wrong! And therefore he had no clue what I was talking about. Here is where I saw it, a sign I came upon in several places, war memorials and town halls for example, which gives the words of a  famous speech of Charles de Gaulle, addressing the French people in Nazi-occupied France, in June 1940, from London. It is in fact not an exact transcript but a stirring paraphrase of several longer speeches.

During his stay in England he lived in Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, which, quite coincidentally, I have visited.

M and Mme De Gaulle in Little Gaddesden during the war

There is another word bout which looks similar, to an English speaker, and instinctively you know, correctly, not to pronounce the T there. (Note that -u- and -ou- are not pronounced alike, but that is for another day.) I saw allez au bout de vos rêves over a travel agent. ‘Go to the end of your dreams’ or maybe more simply, ‘follow your dreams’.l Which is more or less what my but is!

Follow your dreams

Note the line: Tel est mon but, mon seul but!

Here it is in translation in context.

France has lost a battle!
But France has not lost the war!
Some governments have
capitulated, giving in to panic, forgetting
honour, delivering the country to servitude.
However, all is not lost!
All is not lost, because this war is
a world war. In the free world,
immense forces have not yet given in.
One day, these forces will crush the enemy. It is necessary
that France, that day, will be there for the
victory. So she will regain her freedom and her
greatness. This is my goal, my only goal!
That is why I invite all French people,

wherever they are, to join me in
action in sacrifice and in hope.
Our country is in danger of death
Let us all join the struggle to save her!
Vive La France!

So a simple answer from me to the question is ‘My goal is to reach Rome, on foot.’ But I think my inquisitors were each looking for something more than that. Quite often when staying in pilgrim accommodation on the way to Rome or Santiago you are asked to fill in a form collecting statistical information. Here is an example:

There are boxes to tick for your ‘motivation’, and here they are culture, sport, religion and other. Elsewhere religion and spirituality may be  separate boxes. Sometimes tourism is included, and sometimes wellbeing. You can tick as many as you like. It is a rough and ready survey. In the past it was probably simpler – pilgrims usually travel for religious reasons. Many people nowadays will say they are not travelling for religious reasons. And many people I think might give a different answer on different days. And a common experience is that people set out to walk for one reason and continue walking for maybe different reasons. If you look at the popular film The Way a feature film (not a documentary) set on the Camino de Santiago you will see walkers who are trying to lose weight, give up smoking, mend broken hearts and overcome writer’s block. It can be a cop-out to say you are walking as a pilgrim – because it is not clear what that means.

There is a line in Jeremiah which I find helpful Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16) But you certainly meet people walking who would not relate to this very appealing idea. I remember an old man in a plaza in Spain telling me, in slightly unusual English, that he thought most people came to ‘wash their brain’.

There is a French philosopher called Frédéric Gros whom I recently came across. He has written a book called A Philosophy of Walking which I have not read yet. I will report back when I do. But I read an interview with him in the Observer which you can read here.  It includes his observation  [When you are walking]Your future is as open as the sky in front of you. And if you walk several hours, you can escape your identity. There is a moment when you walk several hours that you are only a body walking. Only that. You are nobody. You have no history. You have no identity. You have no past. You have no future. You are only a body walking.  I can relate somewhat to that, but will have to think more about it.

So I am not sure yet what my real ‘but’ is. But when I know more I will tell you.

BUT is a chain of shops in France, slightly out of town large retail spaces which you pass in larger towns. It seems to be a sort of a cross between Currys and Ikea. I don’t know why it is called that.

A but in French is also the word for a goal in football, as well as a goal in life,  exactly as in English, and  a goalkeeper is un gardien de but.