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.