We hiked from Cajarc to Cahors and I am not sure we enjoyed it very much. Neither of us can remember but it was either 3 or 4 days along a path in the woods. Lovely for an hour or so but day after day got very tiresome. The best part of the first two days were the gites we stayed in. We hit a real winner in Limogne-en-Quercy. The gite we tried to book was full but she gave us the phone number for a new gite. It was not listed in our book because they had just started taking guests in June. As the French say - superb!!! We do not think she will be able to keep up this luxurious level very long. Sheets, towels, soap, beautiful bathrooms, fabulous showers, little manicure sets in the bathrooms. And wi-fi in the rooms. You can't imagine what luxury this is for those hiking as we are. After having our showers and getting organized the hostess asked if we wanted to throw in a load of laundry. Did we??? We couldn't stand the smell of our own clothes any longer so we jumped at the chance. We put it in and before we could go back downstairs to get it and hang it to dry, she had put it all into the dryer, folded it all and put it in a bin in front of our bedroom door. We were so excited to smell clean again. And for all this she charged us 2€, what a deal!l
Dinner was another delicious communal meal. There were just 4 others staying at the gite besides us, a group of French folks from southern France. The host cooked while his wife chatted with all of us. She is Spanish, had walked the Camino and felt when she retired from her job that she wanted to run a gite as she had wished for when she was a pilgrim. The house was purpose-built. We were served an aperatif first of Fenelon. It is a mixture of vin de Cahors, cassis, and walnut syrup. It was so good we will be looking for a bottle to bring home after we finish walking. We were then served a large salad of tomato slices with garlic and grated carrots. Next course, pork chops prepared in a sauce with diced potatoes fried with onions. Nummy! Dessert was an apple tart. (Seems very popular at this time of year - never a 2 crust pie, always just the bottom pastry shell and sometimes a lattice top with some sort of cream with the apples or just plain apples stacked vertically in the crust and then a sprinkling of spices.) Lots of chat afterwards - everyone talking about the next day's walk.
We hiked out next morning towards Mas-de-Vers! Our longest hike so far, 21km. And it really felt like it. The only saving grace for the day is that we managed to find 2 places for coffee along the way. The first was a complete surprise - a gite just off the road. We wandered down to it hoping it was still open so we could use the facilities. Usually they are not open but it was either this or the bush. A fellow was there and after a quick exchange with Wendy in French, we all switched to English. He and his wife moved from Holland to build and open a gite 17 months ago because they were both bored with their jobs, and he is "facing" 50 as he put it. He showed us the facilities and then made us coffee. His wife came out and we had a great chat. That stop revitalized us for another 5 km or so. It's unfortunate there are not more of the gites or just plain coffee stops that are open for the walkers. Often there is no place open or even a bar or food store in the place where we staying. Such was the case that day when we had reserved beds at Poudally, 1/2 km outside of Mas de Vers (no stores). Turned out Poudally was the name of the farm where the gite was. We arrived at 2:45 and waited until the hostess opened the door at 3. We had a very nice room with an outside entrance looking out over the donkeys' pasture. And we were surprised to meet up again with the group of 6 French women hiking together. We've been at same gite with them twice before, as well as several interactions in Conques.
Dinner was communal, with 14 guests plus the host and hostess and their 6-month old son in the highchair. Imagine making dinner for 16 every night with a demanding baby in the background! Another convivial meal, and the French gals finally broke out some words of English, much to our surprise. We had the best appetizer too. A 3 x 4" piece of puff pastry with pieces of caramelized onions and topped with a small round disk of Cabecou Fromage de Chèvre. (Goat cheese). And then broiled to melt cheese. Oh it was good!
The next morning we were all outside watching the most magnificent sunrise over the fields. We discussed the poem -
Red sky at night, sailor's delight,
Red sky in morning, sailor's take warning
The French gals told us their poem:
Rouge le matin, la pluie en chemin
Rouge le soirée, L'espoir (means hope)
And so we hike on once again wishing it was not quite so warm. Maybe we are never satisfied, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment