Started off with a coffee at my nearest good coffee shop, Le Peloton, run by New Zealanders. Then off to NoGlu for some GF croissants. Then it was off to the 17th arrondisment to explore the Market of Batignolles and Rue de Levis. This is a favorite street of one of the French facebook group leaders, Vero, who is also a Rick Steves guide. Weather here is off and on rain, not particularly hard, but enough to need an umbrella. Fortunately, mid 60s temperatures are relatively comfortable. Unfortunately, they are remodeling the commercial space below my apartment and so they are drilling concrete most of the time during the day, not very relaxing. For lunch, I headed to Rue de Montorgueil one of the great pedestrian restaurant streets in the center of Paris. One of my favorite terraces is a place called Le Compas and they had a wonderful shell fish and rice meal, perfect with a glass of Sancerre. After that, tried to track down a Melita filter cone for making coffee, eventually found a ceramic Japanese made one at BHV and am giving it a test drive, also found real heavy cream, which makes all the difference. For the evening, hopped the bus over to Deux Magots and then some risotto at Les Editeurs.

Had a pleasant evening wandering around Bordeaux, with an appetizer at Vins Urbains wine bar and then some risotto on the terrace of the Intercontinental. Stayed at a somewhat fancy hotel, but apparently got the one room in the hotel with no real shower, not exactly what I was after. Nevertheless, quiet, comfortable temperature and slept well. Got up fairly early and packed and then went out to find a breakfast crepe. After that, Tram to the train station and then the super high speed train to Paris, about 2:20 to go almost 600km! 15 minutes from Paris it started raining and the forecast is for rain all week, a definite contrast from the sunny cheariness of Bordeaux. Apartment seems to be in excellent shape and is truly a pleasant and well located space. Did a load of laundry, picked up some groceries etc.

Today was a travel day where it looked like things were going to get messed up at every turn, but it all went well. First a taxi to the station in Sarlat. A bus was substituted for the train, At the next connection the bus was late enough to leave the following connection in doubt, but the driver made up the time. Funny as we were waiting for the bus, there were two older couples, one set from outside of Bellingham on set from Bellevue. Anyway, made the train to Bordeaux, it was slightly late, and then got stopped due to someone on the tracks, luckily that cleared and all in all about 15 minutes late. In an interesting small hotel in Bordeaux, large bath tub in center of the room with one of the hated hand held shower heads. Only got some of the room wet! Bordeaux is hopping as usual and nice weather and comfortable temperature. Went out on a ramble to try and find some lunch and ended up with the default place of Charcuterie. Stopped at a couple fo wine bars and the a plate of risotto for dinner. Bordeaux has a nice pedestrian relaxed feel to it.

I spent the day wandering around Sarlat, checking out the nooks and crannies. This is very much a tourist town, with the good and bad that implies. On the good side, there are lots of shops and restaurants, and after about 10:00am most of them are open for the day. After checking out various streets and alleys, found a nice looking restaurant a little off the beaten path for lunch. Decided to do the big meal at lunch as the food in this area is very rich. A piece of Foie Gras with some Monbazilliac to start and then some roast pork with a fantastic mushroom sauce and potatoes for the main course. That pretty much filled me up, and it was back to the hotel for some downtime. I realized tonight will be the first night that I’ve been in the same place for 2 nights in a row in about 14 days. Although it is fun to move around that does end up being a bit tiring! Anyway, tomorrow, much time on buses and then a train to get to Bordeaux for the night. That puts me one direct fast train ride from Paris on Thursday.

Had the morning to putter around Moissac, but not much going on. Then a train followed by a bus followed by another train to get to Sarlat. Luckily, the 50 minute break between train and bus allowed for a nice lunch in Agen, then, who knew you could drive a big bus that fast through the back roads. About 2;20 on the bus, then an hour wait at t tiny train station in the middle of nowhere. The switches were still manually operated! Eventually got to Sarlat, fairly long walk to the hotel Montaigne, recommended by Annie of Join Us In France. Nice hotel, well located. Off to dinner, foie gras and duck of course!

Dinner at the Hotel du Quercy in Lauzerte ended up being quite excellent. The hotel is old an creaky and rooms are pretty bare, but dinner was great. Vegetable potage, followed by a salad with pieces of duck, followed by a steak, followed by a cheese course. The owners turned out to be an English/French couple and had run the hotel for 31 years. In another typical Frenshism I called the local taxi company and asked for a taxi to take me a ways down the road the next morning, and they told me they weren’t do any taxis the whole weekend….no explanation as to why. Anyway, the owner had pity on me and took me a ways this morning, beautiful drive and a pleasant conversation, thank you Sophie! The upshot of this was that instead of a very very long day, I had a relatively short day, only 3 hours of walking, which meant that I arrived in Moissac just before lunch time. My original hotel had closed, so “Walk The Camino” rebooked me in the hotel Chapon Fin, which is a fairly fancy 3 star in a perfect location, thank you! Had a decent burger and frites for lunch and some down time before going to explore the very large Abby for which Moissac is known. The cloister is quite exceptional. Well, overall, I have to say that I’m relieved that the daily walking part of this trip is over, think of it as more than 10 half marathons in a row while carrying more than 20 lbs. and you have some idea of what it was. Maybe I’m just getting older, but I’ll have to see about reducing stage length a bit on future trips. Tomorrow, I have the morning in Moissac and then I have an all afternoon, three different trains ride up to Sarlat la Caneda in the Dordogne.

Last nights accommodation was perfectly fine and the people were nice, but dinner was kind of the default pilgrim meal, this is the fourth time in 10 days that I’ve been served sausage and potatoes. Nothing wrong with it, but doesn’t show a lot of work or effort. The Gite was substantially out of town and up a hill, so was glad to finally arrive and have a quick swim. Today started off strong, and the first and only major town of the day was Montcuq. Found a cafe, that miracle of miracles would serve me a plate of Charcuterie at 10:45am!! Wow, what a concept. All of the pilgrims following me had variations of this much to the general amazement of the staff. Considering breakfast was Jam and Bread, it was nice to get some protein on board and I was amazed at what a difference it made through the day. The terrain here is sort of rolling hills and farm land, so lots of little ups and downs. Of course the most serious one was right at the end of the day, as Lauzerte is a hilltop town, think the ones in Tuscany and you’ve got the idea. The hotel is old and very basic, but I have heard they run a good dining room, so it will do. Typical of a small Frenchtown in spite of the fact that there are many people walking around there’s only one bar/café open in the whole town at 4 PM in the afternoon. Tomorrow is the last day of walking and looks like a 28km day, just found out from Walk the Camino that my reserved hotel closed so they have repositioned me. I’ll have to see how I feel in the morning, my blister doesn’t seem to have gotten worse but it is noticeable. I would certainly consider getting a ride to take it from 6 hours of walking to 3-4 hrs.

Cahors has it going on, lots of young people, a nice old town, lots of plazas and cafes and none of this “It’s after 2:00pm” nonsense. Town of about 20,000 people with a river wrapped around it so lots of bridges. One of which is the best preserved medieval bridge in France, even has 3 towers! My Hotel was a wonderful place run by a family and obviously well cared for dating from 1911, Hotel Terminus, clearly situated near the train station. Because I had Demi-pension, dinner was at the hotel, so Manfred and Thomas joined me. Ended up being an excellent meal with a great bottle of cote du Rhône. If I were advising future Pilgrims, this would be the place to take a day off. I ended up taking a half day off, walking around the sites of the old town, and then having a taxi drop me 10km down the road to make my day more reasonable. It did get very hot and I was hurting towards the end of the 4 hrs. Of walking that I did do. Also, for the first time, in what must be thousands of miles of walking I got a blister on the lateral side of my right heal. Nothing too horrible, but of course my blister stuff was in my transported bag having never needed it before. I do have a very wide selection of things, so we will see what works. The Gite I’m in tonight was way off the trail and uphill! Les Clos de Gamel, but it does have 2 swimming pools and they make their own wine, so there is that!

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!