Today was 11 miles, bringing our total miles walked to 160. The stay in Montredon was pleasant, as we stayed in a very small B&B with only 3 guests (1 more besides us). After the excellently prepared meal, we went for a short walk to enjoy the evening sky, as the rain clouds were now moving on. The full moon was dramatic: 

The start of today’s hike was cool, with a small dose of fog. 

Eventually, we reached Figeac which is bordered by the Cele river. 

After two weeks of walking the Chemin de St. Jacques, tomorrow we take a detour. In Figeac, there are three possible ways to continue the walk. There is the main hiking route, GR65 which we followed for the last two weeks. There is a detour which follows the Cele river for 100 or so miles, before rejoining the GR65. And finally,  there is the Rocamadour detour, which takes the hiker about 40 miles north to see the village of Rocamadour, then follows a circuitous route back, a bit further to the west. We will take that route and rejoin the GR65 in about another week.

There are very few pilgrims who take this route, so we expect that it will be rather quiet (at least with respect to hikers). We’ll see.

More to come, tomorrow.  A demain!

15 miles today for a total of 175 miles, so far.

We left Figeac this morning around 9am. A little later than we would hope given a longer hike, but good enough.  The first thing you see in leaving a town in France is a sign telling you that you are leaving! What is nice about this sign is that it tells us: 1) that we left,  and 2) that we’re on the right trail (notice the white over red stripes on the sign, below the word “Figeac”). Yep, this sign covers all the bases! 

At our B&B, we met a Swiss couple and a French couple who were also doing this detour to Rocamadour. They were kind enough to only speak French, so we had a terrific opportunity to practice/ improve our French. The result was, an hour or so of talking and we were putting together whole thoughts on a range of topics, in French. Either that or our kind companions just decided to let us prattle on and they would nod their heads on occasion. We hope the former is true, not the latter. 

As lunch hour approached, we were looking for an appropriate spot when this lake decided to appear. We had no choice but do stop and enjoy our meal there!

Shortly after restarting, we had this sense that we were being watched.  We looked up the embankment from our trail and spotted this young lady peering down on us! Unfortunately, as I pulled out my camera, she got a bit shy and almost pulled back out of view. 

Tomorrow will be a a longer stage (15-16 miles), which is okay, but tomorrow will also be in the mid-90’s F. Net, we will try to get an early start and avoid as much of the heat as possible.

Au revoir!

Okay, so we’re in a very nice French town, Lacapelle Marival. And it’s August, the month of vacations for France. And it’s Monday, the day that many small villages take as a day off. And we’re off the main pilgrim path, so there’s no particular reason for shops to be open.

As a result  … there is NO restaurant (apart from our hotel) open. There is no store open. No shop open. Even the church is closed (we guess that even priests take vacations). Literally, it is a ghost town.

Such is the life of a Pelerin (pilgrim). You learn to go with the flow (and eat at the pretty overpriced hotel).

C’est la vie!

Okay, both literally and figuratively I (Bill) need to eat my words. After finding nothing open in this town on this day, we ate at “the overpriced hotel”. Boy, was I wrong!

This was at or near the top of any meal we’ve had in all of France, and that includes Nice,  Antibes, and the whole of the Chemin.

The meal started with an “amuse bouche”, much like a gazpacho. Then an appetizer (for Bill, an array of shrimp remarkably presented). Then the pork plat principal (again, ornately presented), the cheese sampler, and finally the mousse dessert presented so beautifully, it would have put to shame a Michelin star restaurant. It was good!

We’re both stuffed, but very, very content. We are also thankful that we were forced to eat at this hotel restaurant!

Such is the life of a Pelerin!

Another 16 miles today, bringing our total to 191 miles walked.

Today’s walk was rather long and on the warm side. To avoid some of the effects of the afternoon heat, we started early, getting in a mile before 8:00am.

This area of France has a number of fortified castles. Today, we saw this one,

looking somewhat like a love child between a castle and a space shuttle. Hmm.

The walk progressed mostly through rolling hills and farm land, providing less shade than normal. Nonetheless, the creators of this route chose to utilize the boundary zones between farmlands, which always seem to have canopies of trees to give the weary pelerin a break. 

As you walk through village after village of France, you note the amazing range of town names. There’s Nice, and Antibes, there’s Le Puy and Figeac, and a million tongue twisters in between. The names don’t mean things in French; where do they come from?

The answer lies in French history, something we in the States don’t have a significant amount of …

France has been influenced, through several millennia, by Galls, Celts, Romans, Germans and others, including local French tribes, with various local languages. And those influences still affect the naming of towns today.

So,  Antibes comes from a Greek outpost indicating that it was opposite (anti …) another outpost that sounded similar to “bes”, thus the name.

Le Puy comes from a Roman term indicating a colosseum. Etcetra.

There are no Smallvilles, nor Warm Springs, etc..

Tomorrow, we reach Rocamadour, the northern-most part of this trip.  The dwellings built into rock, along with the history associated with the ‘black madonna’ should make this fascinating.

From there, we will head south and east, rejoining the GR65 3 days later, in the town of Cahors.

Today was 8 miles, bringing us to 199 miles, overall. You might ask, why didn’t we just continue for another mile to hit the round number, 200? Well we did! We actually walked another 3 miles up and down Rocamadour… but those don’t count towards the hiking total. Not sure why, but them’s the rules!

Today, again, was a hike through farmlands, before we dropped into the steep canyon which serves as home for Rocamadour.

Shortly after starting, we met again our Swiss/French friends that we’d met in Figeac three days ago. It was a great reconnect and another opportunity to practice our French! Thank you again, to our gracious friends, who let us massacre their language!

Just a few short conversations later, we arrived in the village of Rocamadour. 

It was there were met our Australian friends from much earlier on our journey. They had completed their hike in Figeac and were motor touring through France. They just happened to be visiting Rocamadour at the same time we were!

We have many great photos of this town, but unfortunately the internet is painfully slow. The photos will have to wait.

We miss you all.

Today was a relatively long one, with 17 miles hiked and 2,600′ of climbing. Our cumulative total is 216 miles walked.

Today was also a very quiet day. We saw NO other Pelerin in 6 hours of hiking. The challenge is that most Pelerins are doing the hike from LePuy, westward, toward St. Jean Pied de Port. Some of those will choose to do the pilgrimage to Rocamadour, along with a few ‘vacation hikers’. Almost nobody goes from Rocamadour back to the GR65 to rejoin the Chemin … except us. Now, there is a very well developed trail for this route, it’s just that no one takes it … except us.

Before talking about today’s hike, I have a question for the readers: How does a person eat a croissant without leaving a pile of flaky crumbs on the table, the napkin, your chair, and the floor? Okay, so maybe you don’t have that challenge, but I (Bill) do. My first efforts are to not drop crumbs. When it is clear that I am failing that, I “inconspicuously” sweep them from my plate area towards the flowers or something. For the floor, I try shuffling my feet until those flakes can’t be recognized as croissant flakes, or that it looks like that it was the guy at the next table  who was the slob who dropped croissant crumbs

I fear that I will be kicked out of France for abusive croissant eating! Any counsel you can provide is appreciated. Sincerely,   “A Challenged American in France”.

Today was rolling hills and farmland the whole way. 

Most of the time, the trail was very well developed and wide.

Our gift was cooler temperatures as a result of yesterday’s rain and a remnant cloud cover. As a result, we arrived in Labastide remarkably fresh … for 17 miles hiked.

Hope all is well with each of you.

15 miles today, bringing the total to 231 miles hiked, overall.

Once again, we saw not a single other hiker today. That would make these last two days the quietest we’ve had in all of our walking.

The walk itself was beautiful, going through forests and fields. 

For the last 6 miles of this walk,  the trail followed the small Vers River into Vers.

It was great to arrive into Vers, a town on the Lot river that we had visited 2 years ago when we chartered a river boat for a week with old cruising friends, Doug and Kathy Brownell. Good memories!

Regarding fellow hikers, our Swiss/French friends are still on the same journey, but because of injuries, they are mixing hiking time with taxi time to ease the strain. Net, we don’t see them in the trail because they’re usually done while we’re still slogging!

A final note from yesterday’s blog post: I really tried! I leaned way over and took small bites! I thought I had it mastered! Nonetheless, when I stood up from breakfast and my croissant eating efforts, this was what was in my chair: 
I just know they’re gonna kick me out of this country!

Today was 12 miles,  bringing our total to 243 miles. We have now arrived at our second rest day location,  Cahors.

Yesterday afternoon we made our arrival in Vers, a town we had visited two years ago while navigating the River Lot on a rented boat. The village view is beautiful, with the Vers river feeding into the Lot river at this point.

In short order, we were down at the river, checking out the boat lock that one must negotiate in order to continue sailing up river. We very much remember doing so with Kathy and Doug Brownell. 

We knew that our French/ Swiss friends would be in town, so we arraigned to have dinner as a group that evening. It was a hoot! Mangled French was the order of the day! Great credit to our friends who put up with our efforts and even (when they were done laughing) politely informed us that “that’s really not something you should say in public”. Oops! I guess Google doesn’t have all the answers!

The six of us dined and told stories until way past Pilgrim bedtime. It was truly fun and we hope that our paths cross again some time. Here is a photo of the six of us.

Today’s walk had two features we haven’t yet encountered; an extended walk right along the river Lot, and getting lost! Yep, it had to happen!

Because our primary plan was to walk the GR65 from Le Puy to St. Jean Pied de Port, we didn’t have a lot of detailed information about the Rocamadour detour. That hasn’t been a problem because the signage has been excellent … until today.

With the first 6 or so miles away from the river (not sure why), following the trail is important as there is no other easy way to assure yourself you’re on track. For the first time in our journey, the sign frequency was, at times, between 0.5 and 1.0 miles between signs. After more than a mile without a sign, the alarms went off.

Using Google maps, Bill pieced together a route that should allow us to intercept the correct path. We did, and all’s well that ends well.

Back on the course, we encountered the river and followed it for another 6 miles to Cahors, passing place after place we had seen just two years ago.

Here, two years ago, we loaned a water hose to a fellow boat cruiser who, in exchange, gave us a bottle of wine (we don’t drink 🙄).

Here,  we tied off and had some local kids want to use our boat as a diving board … no.

At other times, we just enjoyed the solitude of walking along the quiet river. 

Tomorrow will be our second rest day. Our bodies can use the break.

Farewell, for now.

Today was 0 official miles walked, keeping our total at 243 miles,  overall.

Ah, the life! We slept in until 7:30, didn’t pack a backpack, then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast! A person could get used to this!

We took a walk and found ourselves a second breakfast (why not?), then grocery shopped for a few odds and ends needed for our hike tomorrow. (It is very common in France that stores are either closed on Sunday, or opened for a limited time. Such was the case here, where the store closed at 12:45).

We then decided lunch was in order (didn’t we just get done with two breakfasts? Yes, but…) We stopped at a local deli, bought some sandwiches and visited Pont Valantre, which we’d visited two years ago. 

We ate our lunch by the river lock, hoping to watch the boats transit. Interestingly, we quickly found ourselves assisting boaters who hadn’t yet figured the ins and outs of lock keeping. It was fun to remember those skills.

Tomorrow we cross that bridge, but keep going for another 260 miles or so. Here are photos of us getting ready for that adventure. 

Now, for a nap in preparation for tomorrow! Au revoir!