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!

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.