Wendy has been waiting to get to this famous area of France for Malbec wine. We hiked into Cahors on Tuesday, 18 km. It was hot (good for the grapes) but no where en route for coffee or a bathroom (not so good for us). The path was in the woods for most of the day and then out along a ridge with a view of trees for the rest of the walk. One of us took exception to the endless no views and no coffee and stamped her sore foot and said she was finished hiking. That's it! No more! Only a promise of going to a hotel for a few days to do nothing but hang out managed to get said person the last hour into town. Even the very steep paved road that would never pass the "angle of steepness" test for roads in North America did not slow her down. She was like a horse for the barn even though she did not really know where the barn was located. They finally arrived at their reserved gite, checked in, had showers, organized stuff then off to a coffee shop for the long awaited morning coffee and lunch, which tasted heavenly (it was now 4pm). By then tempers and feet were soothed. Amazing what a little caffeine and pizza will do. Our friends Sue and Polly from Tasmania arrived the next morning before we checked out of the gite. We had a great reunion and then spent much of the day together and supper that night with them and a couple from Australia whom they had met along the way. All of them walked on the next morning, while we stayed 2 more nights for some much needed R&R. We realized we both were very tired and really needed a bit of down time.
We went to the Tourist Information Centre and they were so helpful and sent us off to a funky little hotel in the old town. (Funky in that the rooms are tiny and named after a color. We are in the green room so all is green and white). We went to the laundromat and got the rest of our clothes washed. What a good feeling, something we take for granted at home. We spent some time checking out the farmers market, the old bridge, Pont Valentre, built in the 1300's to keep the English out of town, the cathedral with its beautiful cloister, the resistance museum, and a wine tasting, of course. We ended our visit with an evening put on by the Vin de Cahors Assoc. at the start of their local film festival. We had 3 different wines and Thai food. The food we would not boast about but the wine was top notch. In the morning we head off for Lauzerte. For those of you watching a map you will see that this is a little longer than our usual day's hike. We have been invited to a birthday party for our Australian friend Sue tomorrow night so we will take a transport part way and walk in from Montcuq, 14 km. We have decided if we are going to get home before the end of the year we will have to do this as we are not up to 30km days. No siree! We have now walked 335km and that seems incredible.
Pont Valentre - 12th century bridge in Cahors
Cloister of the St. Etienne Cathedral in Cahors
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