Exploring the Lot Valley

Sunday, September 29th,  Limogne-en-Quercy

We have written a couple of blog entries that we decided not to send as they were just too whiney!  It has been 6 nights since a communal dinner but tonight we will have one.  It's quite a bit cheaper than going out but usually a bit more than cooking yourself.  We like cooking in but seem to be in little towns or villages that do not have much in the way of a food store.  Last night in Cajarc we were lucky with a Casino food store, a boulangerie, a charcuterie and a wine store.  So it was pâté, cantal cheese (one of our favourites in France) pears and a baguette along with a half-bottle of Cahors red wine.  

After we left Conques we climbed out of its valley and crossed over into the Lot valley. The houses seemed to change immediately, and instead of stone houses with slate roofs, we were into brick or stone/stucco homes, all with tiled roofs. 

We took a day yesterday to be tourists.  Spent 2 nights in Cajarc so we could take the local bus up to St. Cirq Lapopie, a famous French village that was a strong hold for the ruling family of the day to control the traffic on the River Lot.  It is also one of the villages on the "most beautiful in France" list.  There were a lots of tourists there but we arrived a bit before they did.  We found that the store opening hours are geared to when the tour buses arrive so being early doesn't really help.  As we went in through the old stone gate we met a woman from Seattle, quite by accident.  As we chatted she told us she owned a house in the village that she rented out when she wasn't in France.  Hmmmmmmm. "Really" we said in unison.  She asked if we would like to see it and of course we said yes.  She had 4 friends staying with her too.  Very interesting house, nicely done up and appointed.  She suggested a place for lunch and its house specialty.  After checking out all the streets up and down the slope the town is built on we went to the hotel for lunch and followed her suggestion: a puff pastry filled with rocamadour cheese and a very nice salad with local walnuts.   It was soooooo good we both just sat there drooling through the meal.  The server thought we should know it was only an entree (appetizer) and too small for a main course. We each had a glass of local wine to accompany.  We could not have eaten anything else - well - except for the warm pear tart with vanilla ice cream with a honey sauce which we shared.    Mm- mmmmm!  Meals in France are such a wonderful experience!

An old house in St. Cirq Lapopie

Our fabulous lunch!

We spent the night again at the Gite Le Pelerin in Cajarc.  Finally another nice place like we have been coming to expect after our first 2 weeks.  Nice people, nice place and a nice breakfast together with the other walkers.  Today's hike was much better than the last few days.  After a big thunder and lightening storm during the night it has cooled off a bit.  We hiked to Limogne, 18 km mostly along stony paths through the woods. It was misty during the morning so we couldn't see very far but the moss covered rock fence along both sides of the path were so neat.  They have probably been there for hundreds of years.  Just after we arrived in town and had installed ourselves in a bar for our coffee it started to bucket down with rain.  And so we were able to stay there and be dry until it was time to check in to our gite.

Moss-covered stone fence alongside today's forest path. 

And so, on we hike, having now covered 300 km.

Changes!

Friday, Sept 27th and it is HOT in France

Conques was a great experience, with good accommodation, meals and encounters with fellow walkers we'd met along the way during our first two weeks. But things change as we move along this trail as through life.  Many of our companions have now left the trail, as they were only here to walk for a limited time (1-2 weeks), or they have scooted ahead to meet their scheduled needs.  So we move on, waiting to meet new friends. 

There seem to be fewer walkers on the trail now, perhaps because we have come to a "variant" in the trail, and so some have taken a different route through the Cele valley.  It's very close to where we spent a week in 2010 when we explored the Dordogne and Sarlat area.  

Other changes are in the weather which has become quite hot, to the point of forcing us to cut our walking days shorter.   So we've taken a couple of taxis. Yesterday we shared with a young couple from Seattle who were happy to share since the gal had some major blisters.   We both feel quite comfortable with this arrangement, avoiding some slogging along the side of a road in the heat. 

Another change is the type of accommodation.  We had such wonderful accommodation earlier on with hosts who really cared that you had come to their Gite.  And the communal dinner was such fun.  We miss that, not having had a communal dinner meal for 5 nights now.  We have gone out for dinner to a local restaurant instead.  More expensive for sure,  but food continues to be very good (wine too!)

We carry on hiking with the hope for cooler weather and demi-pension accommodation.  But the photo here shows one thing that has not changed!

Conques

We have been out of email contact for about 3 days so have not been able to do our blog.  The weather has improved dramatically to the point that we wish it was not quite so warm when we are hiking.  The sky is blue and the hills are beautifully green.  Not quite as high as they were a few days ago but we still seem to do some major ups and downs every day.  Where the road has a switch back we follow a path that does a short cut.  Some hills have loose rock and shale and so we are very thankful to have our poles.  We use them nearly constantly.  We last blogged from Saint-Come-d'Olt after some wet days.  We arrived in Estaing on the 20th and were so impressed with this gorgeous little village we decided to take the next morning off to explore it and check out its little winding streets and bridges.  We left about 11:30 to walk to a Gite in Massip.  Only 11.5 km and quite a nice hike.  Massip turned out to be a large farm with a separate Gite that the family ran.  It was a lovely building, very quiet.  The dinner meal was prepared by the son who is a chef.  It was very good, using veggies from their garden for the salad, veal from the farm mixed with chestnuts in a sauce over pasta for the main course and an apple tart that was delicious. He came out and chatted to everyone all the way through the meal.  Wendy could not understand him very well because of his different accent found in the south of France. In the morning we were served homemade jams including a jam made from green tomatoes cooked with vanilla bean.  Who would have thought?  At another Gite we were served jam made from zucchini which just shows you can make anything into jam, if you use enough sugar.  The next morning we left to hike through Golinhac and into the woods to Espeyrac where we stopped for a good coffee.  It was Sunday and most places were closed but we found our Dutch Canadian friends from Owen Sound sitting outside a hotel that served coffee until noon.  Lucky for us we arrived with 20 minutes to spare.  Joseph and Gerda have been playing hopscotch with us along the trail for the last 4 or 5 days and we have great chats with them when we meet up.  They are seasoned hikers and come to Europe often.  We hiked another 3 km to Senergues for our night in Gite d'etape Domaine de Senos.  We had a room to ourselvs in this beautifully converted building that had been a private school for girls up until 13 years ago.  Now it has the best view for guests at any gite.  The lower terrace and dining room look out over the valley and the hills.  Wow!  And also the best spot for drying our washed hiking clothes.  (We use the term washed loosely, they are really just freshened in the bathroom sink with water and a bit of soap, most things get a little grey looking as the days pass).  

Today we arrived at Conques, having walked approx. 200km in 14 days. This is a slower pace than many on the route, but it feels right for us. Many other walkers, maybe even the majority, have luggage transfer every day, and they are only walking for one or two weeks.  We have discovered that many of the hikers who started in Le Puy are finishing here.  So now we are wondering if the gites will be less busy.  We are booking 2 or 3 days ahead and sometimes have to phone a couple of places to get a bed.  We are using the French accommodation guide book Miam Miam Dodo and the Michelin Chemins de Compostelle Map book.  

Conques is a very historic village, and its abbey has been important as a pilgrimage destination in its own right since approx 900. Little twisting slate and stone streets - slate roofs - dry stone fences, very picturesque.  Last night we went to the church for the pilgrim blessing at 8:30 which was followed by a 30 minute descriptive chat by one of the friars of the famous 12th century tympanum over the church door. He then went to the organ upstairs to play a 30 minute recital.  Wendy and I paid 6€ each to go up to the gallery to listen.  Although the church seemed very austere and plain, it really was quite magical from above with the lights illuminating the tops of the columns at different intervals.  We could walk all the way around up there in the rafters (so to speak).  The music filled the space.  The organist ended with the "House of the Rising Sun".  Some thought that was not an appropriate piece to play but we thought it was cool. Today we have our first full rest day so we can explore Conques. Tomorrow we will hike on. The hill up out of here looks challenging, as in YIKES!!

What a difference a day makes! - or The sun will come out tomorrow.....

After spending all afternoon and evening yesterday moving wet clothes and boots around our room so they would dry and wondering what today would bring we got ourselves back onto the trail by 9:10 am.  We really enjoyed our hike today with a bit of cloud and wind but mostly sunshine and warmer temperatures than the last few days.  We enjoyed coffee served by a local farmer who was doing a great business in an old stone barn along the way. I'll bet he serves 100 cups on some days!

The hike was hard physically with lots of rocky washed out paths and many switchbacks as we travelled from Saint Chely-d'Aubrac to Saint-Come-d'Olt, a distance of 16km.  Our map book says it should take 5 hr 30 min and it took us 5 hrs so we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves.  The countryside is absolutely gorgeous - so pastoral, so green, so quiet, and serene.  Lots of little creeks running strong today after yesterday's storm.  Our faith in our hiking plans have been restored as we look at 15.5 km to Estaing tomorrow.  We have now walked 148.5 km in 10 days.  

Leaving St Chely this morning. 

Arriving in St Come d'Olt this afternoon - twisted spire of old church. 

"There's a trail that I'll be hiking,

Just to see where it might go,

Many places yet to visit,

Many people yet to know,

For in following my dreams,

I will live and I will go.

In a world that's waiting out there,

On the loose."

(From one of our favourite Girl Guide songs)

Rain drops keep falling on our heads!

I think we both agree that today was probably the worst weather we have ever hiked in.  The last few days it has been either heavy mist, low clouds ( as in around our heads ) windy or actually raining.  But today takes the cake with all of the above.  Our plan was to hike from Nasbinals to St-Chely, a distance of 16km.  We left our Gite at 8:10 quite pleased with ourselves for getting packed up and out the door by then.  No breakfast served at this Gite so we had bought some things yesterday for our breakfast: 2 bananas, a small box of orange juice each, a yogurt each and a box of granola bars, 2 for breakfast and 2 each for emergency supplies.   Immediately out the door we had to put our rain ponchos on overtop of our rain jackets and hats.  We found our route out of town and through the trees. Heavy mist but under the trees it was quite pleasant.  That lasted 5 minutes; then we hiked up and onto the aubrac plateau.  It's like out onto the moor in England or Scotland. The wind caught us and the rain pelted us as we hunkered down under our bright yellow rain ponchos (Courtesy of Mary and Les) and we were sort of dry for the first hour. But there was no protection from the wind and the rain.  Even the cows were faced away from us with wind at their backs.    We were hiking on a dirt track that soon became mud as riverlets ran down the hillocks.  We had to go through a number of cattle gates - fence posts and barbed wire which were hard to close again.  It took us 2 3/4 hours to hike 9 km to the village of Aubrac.  By then we were as wet as wet can be.  We found a hotel with bar and restaurant.  We weren't sure they would let us in in our condition but they were ready for us and the others who came along.  We had not seen anyone else up there because of the low cloud but a few had already arrived and more came in after that.  We were all soaked to the skin by then with mud on the lower half.  The hotel had a large drying room for us to take off our wet gear.  We sat and had large coffees with some pieces of tart. Wendy had cherry/strawberry while I had pear with chocolate.  We felt we really deserved it.  Walkers were being advised to walk on the road the rest of the way but we thought we were miserable enough so shared a taxi with 2 others for the last 7 km to St- Chely.  We were lucky to be able to check right into our room at this Chambre d'hôte.  There is a Gite in town but we decided it was time for real sheets and towels for 1 night.  Toilet still down the hallway but we have our own shower and sink.  We have our stuff hanging all over the room hoping to get it dry by tomorrow am.  It is the first time we have ever taken a taxi to avoid walking a section of any trail.  I'm afraid Charles, we cannot agree with you that the Aubrac is the best.  

This picture taken by Australian friend Sue, day before yesterday, not on the plateau today.  Just wanted you to see how lovely we look in our yellow ponchos that blow around like shower curtains in the wind.  I think the cows thought it all pretty funny!!

Aubrac cow laughing at us

Aligot d'Aubrac

We were treated last night to a local specialty at dinner. Our Gite was Les Sentiers Fleuris (Flowered Paths), and it was a wonderful stay. When we arrived we were shown to our own room (no dorm tonight) with our own bathroom too!  After the usual pilgrim routine - shower - laundry - we headed out to briefly explore the town. Then to a bar where we encountered our 2 Australian gals and Jean-Pierre from Brittany. 

We all returned to the Gite in time for dinner at 7:15pm. We were 30 at 2 big wooden tables, which were beautifully set with red and green plates and serviettes. Monsieur and Madame were both there to prepare our meal. The starter was a small bit of salami-like meat along with a cold cauliflower dish. Then came the highlight as Monsieur prepared the aligot This is a mixture of mashed potatoes, and Tomme cheese, seasoned with garlic and crème freche.  Thé Tomme must be young, between 3-6 days of age. The mixture is stirred with a big spoon, really more like a small paddle, and then raised high in the air so you can see the stringy pâté that it makes. It's then served along with some meat (pork).  There were lots of cameras snapping throughout this process. This course was followed by a huge green salad from the veggie garden, and a custard flan for dessert. There were pottery jugs of red wine (frequently refilled) on the table as well.  

During the dessert Madame led the singing of the French pilgrim's song, Ultryea, and everyone joined in the chorus. All in all, it was a fun and noisy evening - difficult to converse in English let alone in French. It was a suitable farewell evening for some who have become our friends over the past week, but who will be finishing their walk tomorrow.

Wendy with 2 Australian gals at dinner

Aumont-Aubrac: 90 km done

We've now done six days of walking and have covered 90 km. We've finally developed a little "family" that is travelling along together - a part of the wonderful sense of community that comes with this kind of walking or pilgrimage.  There's Sue and Polly from Tasmania, Jean-Pierre from Brittany, the four cousins (3 from Grenoble and 1 from near Valencia), two American gals (from California and Utah), Boston Bill, and others who come in and out of our path, sometimes only once or sometimes repeatedly.  Sometimes we stay in the same accommodation or Gite d'etape, or we run into each other at coffee or at a bar (the usual place to go for coffee, food or drinks). And we participate together in the communal meals provided at the gite. These are always noisy convivial occasions - mostly a mix of English and French - with accents varying (Australian, Québécois, the French trying their English as well as the other way around). In this photo the host family ate with us. There's always lots of local produce too.

Wendy has had great fun chatting with some of the locals along the way. We stopped and talked to a shepherd who was moving his sheep to a different field. He had 300 there, and another 300 somewhere else. He only raises them for the meat and said that it costs more to shear each one than the wool would be worth. An old man with no bottom teeth asked me if I were German. When I said "no, I'm Canadian", he said - too bad because he could speak some German, but not Canadian!  Also chatted with a very old woman who was out walking along the road with 5 dogs, but she explained to me that they weren't all hers but are needed to deal with the cows. It's obvious why there is so much good cheese here - as we see many cows along our route every day, and smell the "fresh country air" that results from the cow pies we are often walking through! 

The meals at the Gite have always been in the same format starting with a soup.  We have had a very tasty lentil soup, and veggie soup a couple of times and both quite watery.  Wendy had a barley soup that was like porridge but with some garlic in it.  The next course is a salad and most have been greens picked that day from their garden.  We've also had a cold lentil salad with chopped hard boiled eggs, onion and garlic.  It was nummy even though lentils have never been a favourite of mine.  Next course is the meat course.  I think we have had veal or pork every night with rice or mushrooms, often wild ones picked that day in the woods.  The following course is a cheese platter and each cheese is "introduced".  They all are either from the region or the owner of the gite's own cheese.  My favourite is the old Cantal and Wendy is starting to enjoy the blue cheeses which she has always stayed away from.  After the cheese a big bowl of fruit is put on the table or maybe a bit of a sweet.  Last night it was a lemon loaf.  We are amazed at how the French seem to be able to buy fruit meant to be served that day including peaches, nectarines, pears, kiwi fruit and apples, of course.  A bottle of red wine is usually in the middle of the table and is replaced as needed.  We have noticed that this local wine is served chilled.  It's still very good so the old adage against chilling red wine doesn't seem to apply.  

On to Finieyrols tomorrow, a 16km day. Hope we won't have to break out the rain gear as we did briefly today. 

"Sometimes you will never know the value of something, until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Seuss

4 legs a necessity!

"Four Legs Needed"

If you aren't a donkey or a horse then you definitely need to bring hiking poles to do this walk.  We went up 600 metres then down 600 then up 500 m between the villages with some very rocky paths that have to be negotiated.  We were both pleased we had brought two poles each.  The scenery has been incredible, that is - once you get to the top or bottom of a hill and can pick your eyes up off the rocky path to see where you are.  It's so green and lush with lots of pine trees at the top of the hills and lots of ferns, long grasses and wild flowers at the lower elevation.  We are now in Sauges after 14km hike today.  Doesn't sound like much but it was plenty for our knees and ankles.  With our full packs Wendy is carrying 18lbs not including her water and I am carrying 19.  The water adds 2 or 3 lbs depending on how much I have decided to carry - usually 1.5L.  We have not figured out why Wendy's pack is lighter, we basically have the same stuff.  I would like to say I am carrying a supply of Mars bars like some of our friends, but I can't afford the weight - have to buy chocolate when we get to town.  It is a very important part of the diet when hiking in France!!  

We are now meeting others who are interested in chatting (in English too). The first day no one seemed inclined to talk. This morning in our Monistrol Gite we were seven at breakfast and as soon as they heard Wendy and I speak English they all joined in even though they were all French.  Tonight in this Gite there are 4 Australians, a fellow from Courtenay and his German girlfriend (who met in Spain on the Camino, in Granon) and some English among the 17 here.  We are quite tickled as we have our own room again tonight but this time with our own toilet and shower. I'm in heaven!  Dinner will be a group affair tonight at one long table that is set for 20 (the family eats with us). This Gite has been running for 35 years - started by the mother of the woman in charge, and mum is down there helping prepare the meal.  They still have 60 milking cows, and up to 40 calves and yearlings. This family is passionate about looking after pelerins (pilgrims).  

Dinner was barley or vegetable soup, followed by veal & veggies over rice, cheese course (including one cheese made by the family), and fresh fruit for dessert. There were also carafes of wine and water on the table to serve yourself. Already there is a huge difference in the food here compared to how we ate as pilgrims in Spain.  Tomorrow we hike on but first we will enjoy the Friday market here in the main square.  And we will probably stand outside the tourist information office to send this blog.  The Australian gals say they will be standing with us so they can send their blog back home as well.

View of Monistrol from heights above. 

Starting at the Beginning

Leaving the Cathedral to start our walk at 7:30am

Starting a pilgrimage route used to be from one's front door but that is kinda hard for North Americans.  We are beginning this walk in Le Puy-en-Velay which seems like the start for many French in the same way St Jean Pied da Port (SJPP) is the start for many English speaking pilgrims.  We really like hiking in France as well as really liking French food, wine, croissants, desserts, coffee.  Our plan is to walk to St. Jean and see every little French village in between and hopefully try as much different food as we can.  We have just finished Day 2 after hiking from Le Puy to Montbonnet yesterday, and then today on to Monistrol d'Allier - just 15km each day as was our plan.  Both days very pleasant scenery (& wonderful brown & white Auvergne cows). Today had a lot of ups and downs although more downs - serious downs unfortunately as this means there will be serious ups tomorrow.  We go on to Sauges tomorrow, another fairly short day.  The differences we are finding with this hike compared to the Camino in Spain we are just discovering.  The most noticeable would be the lack of community and International folks hiking.  Most walkers are French, and many are only walking for one or two weeks.  We have met an American guy and a couple of women from Tasmania who are also planning to go to SJPP.  Just lucked into an amazing dinner in this tiny village - a British chef/owner who also ingratiated himself to us by sharing his WiFi password with us!  

To be continued -

Bats in the Belfry!

Or more precisely a bat in our room.  We were both sound asleep at the Gite in Le Puy, on our last night there when Wendy woke me up with "are you doing something?  No why?  I was asleep.  She said I think there is a mouse in the room.  Then we decided it was rain  outside running down the pipes and the tile roof.  But then just when we were going back to sleep we both heard a funny clicking sound and something whooshing around the rooms. Thinking it was a moth Wendy turned on the light and we see a bat swooping around the room.  I am sorry we do not have a picture to put with this but we were both occupied with trying to "whoosh" this thing OUT of our room.    Wendy was successful getting it out into the hallways and we closed the door, the window and the shutters.  End of our bat story.  

Le Puy en Velay

You have probably being imagining us composing this blog while sitting in a cute little cafe or bar with WiFi, drinking espresso and eating pain au chocolate.  In fact here in Le Puy the only WiFi we could find is at the Tourist Office.  So here is Wendy sending an email after the office closed.  Too bad there is no bench to sit on!!

We have been here since Saturday and are staying at the Gite d'Etape Maison St Francois run by the nuns.  It's a great location right behind the cathedral and great for walking all over the old town.  Dinner and breakfast are included, breakfast being bread and jam.  We bought some orange juice and yogurt to flesh out the breakfast a bit, but some of the pilgrims leaving early this morning consumed it from the  fridge in breakfast room before we got there!  Guess they didn't read the signs posted on the fridge in different languages about JUST bread and jam!!!  The picture below is the Gite, our room with the open shutters - you can't see our laundry drying just inside. Tomorrow we hike.

Bonjour Lyon!

We took the train directly to Lyon from Charles de Gaulle Airport.  It is hot in France right now - 32C but expected to cool down in the next few days, and hopefully before we start hiking on Tuesday.  Our hotel is nice and cool and very comfortable and in an area called Presqu'ile, (meaning nearly an island) and is between the Rhone and the Saone Rivers.  Once we got out to explore we both felt that we would like more time here than we have.  It's beautiful along the rivers with walkways, trees and gorgeous old buildings. We crossed the river Saone to Old Lyon where there are many renaissance buildings but even more cute little streets full of cafes, bars and restaurants.  We went up the funicular to see Notre Dame Basilica and the incredible view overlooking Lyon.  The sun was so bright and hot that it was impossible to take good pictures.  As in Florence we found the sunlit areas very white and the shaded areas very dark, and we searched for shade all day.  The highlight of the day we found downstairs in the basilica in an area that was to be another church but they ran out of money so the space is now used as a concert hall.  We stumbled on to this beautiful mosaic of St Jacques de Compostelle and the pilgrimage routes to Santiago, a beautiful modern mosaic installed in 2004.  We had coffee in another big square packed full of university students visiting Lyon on an educational tour.  Dinner was another highlight when we went to a restaurant recommended by our hotel manager.  We ordered the special of the day, cepes (mushrooms) picked today and cooked with chicken in a delicious sauce.  Perfect with the Beaujolais we ordered - Cote de Brouilly!

Tomorrow at noon we head off on the train for Le Puy en Velay.  We will have time to explore a bit more before its time to walk over to the train station.  On-y-va!

World without Strangers

World without Strangers

As we set out on this journey to explore new places and meet new people we hadn't expected such a quick start. The tone was set by the bracelet Marion had chosen to wear with the words "World without Strangers" inscribed on it.  We met old friends Christine and Kevin for lunch at the Toronto airport, and before we parted, asked Chris to take our photo as a starting pic for our trip. Just as she snapped a man (wearing pink pants!) swooped between us and camera. Realizing he'd got in the way he stopped to apologize, then laughingly agreed to join us for the repeat shot, and as he dashed off, called back "Send it to me!"  Of course we have no idea who he was - just a "stranger" passing through our day, but the incident brought a smile and a chuckle to us all.  May we meet many more strangers as we travel along, hopefully some will stay with us a little longer!

Maybe the theme for this years trip will be

"Make new friends but keep the old, some are silver the others gold"

We're off to Great Places!

Today is our day!

Our mountain is waiting,

So let's get on our way!”

And as Doc. Seuss says.....

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”

 “And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)"