First, I have to say that last night was completely off the hook!! The Gite was run by a Belgian couple Chris and Raymond and they both had the hospitality gene in a big way. After immediately welcoming me with a glass of rose, and showing me my quarters, it was into the pool for a brief swim. Pool was very cold, but felt good to sit with legs and feet in. After washing some clothes and hanging them on the line I did my blog post. Was then joined by some other Belgian guests and ensued a lively conversation. In the meantime, Raymond spent pretty much the whole afternoon cooking and Chris made the table look like a fancy restaurant. Promptly at 7:30 we were served a tonic spritzer of some sort, then and amuse Bouche and a glass of rose. Then followed individual ramekins of eggplant Parmesan, then a chicken dish with duck fat fried potatoes, then a cheese course, then a dessert. All served with copious amounts of house wine. After that out came the cognac, Armangac, calvados, limoncello, prune moonshine etc….Pretty sure Belgians know how to have a good time…. Amazingly enough, I was in fine shape at 7:00am the next morning and Raymond generously drove me ahead to meet Thomas and Manfred 8km further at their gite, this made my day only 20km instead of 28km which is more than adequate. Today, walk was tolerable and it was nice having company. Hotel is a classic pile from 1911 near the train station, but unfortunately the long hot shower was not to be as it had the no shower curtain hand held shower head which invariable results in the whole bathroom being soaked.

After the difficulty and extra walking involved in eating lunch yesterday, I’m pleased to report that dinner was good, the room comfortable and a pleasant stay over all at Gite La Hulotte. It is a long way from town so consider that if you are planning to stay there. Walked out with Manfred and Tomas, two German gentlemen who have been walking various camino routes for years. They are good company and experienced walkers. We stopped in Limogne for coffee about 45minutes in to the morning and then I picked up a stockpile of cheese and charcuterie to guard against further lack of food incidents. Walking was fairly easy and not terribly scenic today but not unpleasant. Eventually found a restaurant a mile or so short of my destination to have lunch. Another strange Frenchism….. only one menu of the day available, ok, I’ll have that, 4 courses for 15 euros yes please. Ordered, and waited, and waited and waited, eventually asked the waitress where my food was, since the restaurant had filled and everyone else was eating: “oh we don’t serve food on the terrace.” HUH??? And you didn’t think to tell me? What about the other person eating on the terrace? Oh well they are just having a salad so that doesn’t count…..HUH??? Eventually it was agreed that I could in fact eat on the terrace and food was then provided promptly, but honestly, no mention of this was made and I still don’t understand how anyone French or foreign would be expected to know this…. Arghh. It was a really good lunch, though. Another hour and half of walking brought me to a lovely Gite, Les Colombiers, in Bach, run by Belgians who are super hospitable. There is even a pool, and it was warm enough to have a quick dip, although they were replacing the light, so refilling pool and the water was cold! Looking forward to dinner since they are clearly into cooking, there’s a Paella fire ring and gas bottle sitting out!

Hotel Peyrade finally let us in at almost 3:00pm yesterday. Particularly annoying since they are a family hotel and on the premises anyway. Many people waiting. Nice big room, sterile, but functional. Managed to find a local massage therapist and get a nice massage. She was pretty sharp and picked up on a few things, 18 years experience. Not much going on in the town, hotel came up with a decent dinner of Tuna Steak. Shared table with Manfred and Thomas, two Germans who have been hiking various camino sections for years. They are scheduled to be at the same Gite that I am tonight. Nice walk today, Gite, unfortunately is way far from the town. Arrived around 1:00pm, madame informed me that there was nothing to eat and nothing near, and by the way if you walk to town the restaurants will be closed because it is after 2:00pm. Grocery store of course doesn’t open till 3:00pm. I was then treated to a lecture about how unreasonable it would be to expect a restaurant to serve food after 2:00pm, this is not Paris! She does apparently plan to serve dinner. Decided to walk to town, since there was nothing doing at the gite. After much searching found a lovely outdoor cafe where the owner told me to go get some charcuterie and she would provide the wine. So far that is working, but now I have to get the 2.5km back to the gite, will try for a taxi or a ride from someone.

The gite de La Fontaine ended up being a great place, I was in a gypsy wagon called a “Roulette” and it was cozy and comfortable. Nice communal dinner with hosts who had been pilgrims and decided to run a gite. They raise almost all the food themselves. Very nice what they have created. Today was a much shorter walk, which was nice and the weather was beautiful. Started out going up to a ridge type thing where you could see clouds and terrain below on both sides. A series of backroads and pathways eventually led to a downhill into Cajarac. This is listed as a city of only 1,000 people but seems quite a bit bigger. Lots of building a clear town center and a few restaurants etc. Of course the assigned hotel was closed on arrival, not open till 3:00pm so took my pack and headed into town to find some lunch. Lovely pork ribs and a salad worked out well.

Figeac was a very nice town, and I was booked at quite a nice restaurant for dinner. Seafood mix and everything was fresh and perfectly cooked. Hotel was comfortable and got a good nights sleep. The hotel owner, Slyvie, went to the trouble of getting some GF rolls for me for breakfast so that was nice. Got started around 8:45am and what was supposed to be a fairly level day was anything but. After 20 minutes or so outside of Figeac there was a climb of about 1,000 ft, that definitely got me warmed up. Otherwise this rolling countryside is pleasant, but deceptively high energy to walk, you are always going up or going down, even if not huge climbs or descents. Ended up that the pre booked, Gite, Gite de La Fontaine and was assigned a lovely gypsy type caravan as my quarters. This place is really rural with nothing nearby. Owners seem to be former pilgrims themselves.

I had quite the evening experience in Livinhac last night, since the Gite doesn’t do food they had me booked into the only restaurant/Bar in town. Turned out to have lots of friendly locals and resident dog and most of the owner’s family waiting tables etc. Good time was had by all. After a restless night, decided to shorten the day today, scheduled for 30km, which is a long day, but not a good call since it was forecast to rain all day. Got a taxi to run me 10km down the road, which turned it into a mere 20km/12.5kmile day. It did in fact rain almost the whole time, and about 6 hours later, I arrived in Figeac. My hip was not particularly bothering me, so lets hope that was an unusual occurrence. Off to find something, to eat, but not possible as it is 4:00pm and apparently no restaurant and no person is allowed to eat anything other than pastries at that hour. Eventually a few slices of ham from a charcuterie take the edge off until dinner at 7:00pm. Figeac has a population of about 10,000 people so it’s about five times bigger than where I was last night.

A pleasant evening in Conques, simple dinner provided, sausage and Aligot. Imagine mash potatoes and then mix in enough cheese that they are sticky, like 50/50 and that’s Aligot. After dinner over to the church for a pilgrim blessing, didn’t have the energy to stay for the lecture on the front piece again and the organ concert, but did get my first decent night of sleep since arriving. Up at 7:00am, sort of breakfast, since I can’t eat the pastries, it was a banana and some applesauce and then off on the way. Very steep downhill out of Conques, which is in kind of in a valley, then up the other side, also very steep slippery wet rocks. Weather was quite chilly but warmed up nicely and no rain, cleared up to outright sunny so that was a relief. A few hours in there was a place for coffee that also sold sausage and cheese so I was able to get some snack food. Conques had nothing available…Kept on pluggging but for some reason my right hip really started aching half way through the afternoon, not sure where that came from, but continued slowly and eventually made it my gite. Nice place, nice owner, but way at the bottom of town and my included dinner is way at the top of town. Ughh, just what you don’t want to do after walking 14+miles is walk another mile uphill to dinner. Oh well, at least there is dinner!

Today started very early, with a 5:20am wake up, then a taxi to Orly, flat rate 32 euros plus 7 euro dispatch fee. Just as well it was prearranged as all cabs were booked this morning due to the big strike. Got checked in in short order and through security at Orly fairly rapidly, although the French have still not grasped that an X-ray machine allows you to see through things and they don’t need to be in a clear bag…. Plane was a small regional jet, and it was late to arrive and late to leave, but flight time was only one hour, so we ended up right on time. My arranged taxi from Conques was waiting for me and we zipped through the rain back to the hotel I stayed in last time I was here. Room of course not ready and off and on raining and chilly outside. Eventually got my room, but not without the luggage transport people stopping by and mistakenly attempting to transport my suitcase to the next stop a day early. Caught them before they left town and got it back. Weather seems to be clearing so hopefully tomorrow won’t be too wet.

Today was not raining! Big improvement. After the usual fitful jetlag night, headed to NoGlu for breakfast and the bussed over to Isle St. Louis to pick up my hiking poles from Atsu and John. Parked those back at the hotel and then hopped up bus up to the upper Marais and tracked down Adrian Leeds for a brief chat at her favorite cafe. She was super busy, but at least we made contact. Sometime during lunch, it turned out that the scheduled strike for Thursday was going to cancel all trains in the direction I needed to go. Normally, I would just delay for a day, but “Walk The Camino” has 11 nights of hotels and meals and bag transport booked for me, and trying to shift all of this is kind of a non starter. The upshot after much back and forth on What’s app with them in Scotland was the suggestion to fly to Rodez and taxi to Conques from there. So, did find a flight, expensive compared to the trains 28 euros versus 230euros for the flight, but looks promising. I was up Thursday morning at 5:30am and at Orly by 6:30am. Much nicer and smaller than CDG. Anyway, checked in, through security and waiting for boarding to start. Did have to, god forbid, check a bag, but it’s a small airplane and had my poles and Swiss Army knife. Luckily now have an AirTag in there and it is a non stop flight. Weather in Conques not at all promising with high percentage of rain forecast for the rest of the day and tomorrow. If any of you are ever thinking of traveling without a working cell phone, give up that thought right away. I was able to book my flight and pay on my phone, cancel the train and get a refund, and, haven’t quite finished filing a travel interruption claim with Worldnomads, with luck they will absorb the cost of the airfare.

Made it back to Paris with only minor hassles. Delta non-stop was good, and they didn’t try to take away my oversized “personal” item. Unfortunately, no gate, so bussed in to the terminal and then a very long line and wait to get passport stamped. 2 hours from touchdown I was walking over to the RER station, for the train into Paris. I’d already charged up my Navigo Decouverte pass so didn’t have to deal with ticket line. Weather was surprisingly chilly and also rainy with off an on heavy rainfall. Hotel room not ready as usual, but left bags and off to NoGlu for breakfast. Then coffee with Tom and Maj Earle. Tom was my 8th grade English teacher and we built his house together the summer after my freshmen year of college. Room still not ready, so 6 oysters later and it was…. Shower and shave has a remarkable effect after a long trip! Meet up with some Facebook French group friends and then dinner with Tom and Maj at Fish La Boisonnerie right across from my hotel. Excellent Crozes-Hermitage and lamb and pork. Usual restless jet lagged night but doing well overall.