Ross and Clare walk France

We have stopped walking! Our hotel room looks out on this UNESCO listed bridge. The town is surrounded by a loop of the river Lot. We have been walking along this river on an off for over a week. It has been getting less muddy and more majestic. These shells symbolise the Chemin (path of St James) which continues on from here to Santiago de Compostella in Spain (another 1200kms). We walked the last 800 in 2013??. Our hotel room was large and cool. It was a great resting place, even if it was only 18hrs. We had a three leg train (6hrs) trip to Avignon the following day. The French let anything on trains. They also dream up crazy ways to travel. Two pilgrims/adventurers on bike and motorised skateboard. Does anyone know what this is. All the leaves were doing this?

There will be a food/drink stop half way. French mostly drive small cars. The hawker/beggar is really offering help. A dead frog on the road is not a crime. Cows come in big and bigger. Just when you compliment the walking track, it changes. Beer comes in white, blonde and amber. The hill continues round the corner. The world will never run out of rocks. French love their dogs and cats. The man who makes "Privé" signs is rich. The town after the closed Sunday town will be closed Monday etc. It does feel good to put you feet up A hamlet has no church Mosquitoes are worse than flies Australian Shepherds herd French sheep Hotels have tarrifs for dogs cats and donkeys. In quiet towns church bells stop at 10pm And All french people smoke. the french cafe isn't air conditioned These may seem unrelated but they aren't????

Don't let first impressions rule you! We rechecked our hotel door at about 3pm and met the manager arriving. He politely suggested we wait in the churchyard till 4. We are sweaty, tired and it's 32°. Not happy Jan!! He turned out to be a quiet, very very helpful man. He seemed to be the only staff member. As we were staying " demi-pension" breakfast and dinner, he may have needed the time to prepare our rooms before cooking. After being allowed in at 4pm we showered, changed and went down to the foyer/dining room for a well earned 🍺 and 🍷. It was a pattern we repeated many times. Rocks You know you on the right path when it is verrry rocky! Lavender grows well in rocks The final day of walking was moderate in all ways. Moderate distance, hills not mountains, 26° and two coffee stops. The first was a lady with a small van she had parked at a farmhouse at about 10kms. She sold tiny coffees from a thermos and crepes. We stopped, and ...

I woke this morning feeling fit. Perhaps it was the couple of shorter days, the begining of match fitness or maybe the knowledge that it was our last big day. We had a long walk today in hot conditions so we left at 7. We bought lunch at the sunday markets in Limogne Cheese lovers everywhere here. We also bought raspberries, 🔵 🍒 and an apple turnover and Jesuit slice. The walking was more comfortable today with no mountains. The tracks were good and early on we had shade. By midday however it was 31 degrees and little shade. At about 1pm we stopped at a bar in a tiny town (open) and bought drinks. We patted the gorgeous terrier under our table and chatted with the owner. What started with directions for the remaining 8kms soon became a lift. She closed early and drove us to town. Such Kindness! Town was deserted. Our Hotel closed till 4 We slept in the church yard and waited.

We set out after a nice breakfast (croissants, yoghurt 🍓🍑 and bread). We started at the bakery (boulangerie) As our guide book again said there was nowhere for lunch.The man in picture is cutting a 1metre bread for our two 🧀 sandwiches. Clare added an apple turnover and I bought a Jesuit slice, yum! Look how big the loaves in the foreground are. We then had a lovely 4km walk along the river followed by (you guessed it, avid reader) a 400m climb. Of course there was a stop for food, a pop up at about 12kms. We walked straight past, hoping for a coffee outlet, but the owner brought us back with his irrepressible good spirits. He asked us where we were from, then brought our cold drinks. A minute later Advance Australia Fair was playing and then it merged into the La Marseillaise. The eight guests he had by then all cheered. We finished about 2pm at our Chambers, which was about two Kilometers before town. A longer day tomorrow but a very comfortable stop today....

Dinner that night was very interesting. We were told it would be at about 7.30 and our host would ring a bell. The twelve house guest all sat around a large table and our hosts both sat with us. Madam then served us sliced cucumber. There was much conversation in French. I believe it was mostly about the production and virtues of their organic vegetables. It may have included an order of dishes, but for us it was a mystery. Monsieur had left to tend his sausages on the bbq. When we had all finished our 🥒, couscous was served and then a mushroom 🍄 dish a bit like stroganoff. Our sausage arrived about now also. Once everyone had finished we were all served lettuce, then a plate of wrapped Rocamodor Cheese discs about the diameter of a golf ball but 1cm thick. As an afterthought a basket of sliced bread was added. Once the 🥬 was finished.We were served a rather delicious raspberry creme desert in small glasses. It had taken a couple of hours but we were fed well. After a good night...

We are doing two shorter stages now and so may recover a little. Stocked up with a salad and cheese roll and a tartetteeach we walked along the river before starting a long uphill. There was a squashed frog on the road! Our guidebook once again said no cafes etc. So we will pretend we didn't stop at these two. We arrived at our Gite at about 2pm and relaxed over a beer. Then did our washing. Dinner was interesting!

We slept in and caught a ten am train. It was a thirty minute trip, three stops only, in a single carriage, ultra modern very fast train. Six people got off at our stop and two had cars waiting. We looked around for a bus or a taxi. There were none. Four of us then set off on foot. The sign said 2.9 Kilometers. After a few minutes the sign said 3.5 Kilometers. We got there We walked down and along a long ancient street filled with artisan stalls. Cheese, leather, delicatessens and cafes. We then walked back up to the top for lunch with a plan to ring for a taxi. Tourist information said they came from the next village. Our host rang for us and then apologised, they had refused to come. She would arrange for her father to take us. Wow what kindness! We were the only ones at the station when the slick carriage arrived. It was about half full with mostly commuters and locals. Smooth fast and very scenic. Back in Figurac we had the time and energy to exp...

Are we nearly there yet! I don't know how many traffic lights before Cahors, but I am ready to arrive. Today was a pleasant day but a long one Our bodies are tired. I have 9 bandaids on my feet and Clare is getting an aching back. We are staying two nights in Figerac so we can take a train trip (wow!!) to an ancient cliffside town. And rest!

In Conques we said goodbye to our French 4some (one I nicknamed Henri Leconte because he played tennis and was mischievous) and 3 Polish brothers who we had walked with for days before getting to know them. This was our drinking hole, opposite the Abbey, where we could listen to the choir. The only flat place in the whole town. We ate breakfast from the unlocked fridge, in the dark  before the staff arrived. We needed an early start for a gruesome walk on a hot day. Just after 6am we headed down the cobbled paths through town to the river. Then we went straight up for 400m along narrow, rocky, slippery and dark paths. About half way up, in the middle of the forest, we came across a tiny church, with a bell for us to ring. The rest of the day was long but pleasant, until the last 4 kilometers. With  Livinhac-le-Haut almost in sight, we walked up two hundred metres then back down again. We reached the town square and ou...

Waking with no aches and pains Great company  Fresh croissants and coffee A pack that feels light Cool air when you walk under tree canopy Taking a sip from your camel to find the water you put in it was very cold. Walking on flat ground Walking on a mulchy path A cheese bagette with fresh bread and gruyere cheese 🧀 Seeing your rest stop up ahead Lying flat at the end of the day Taking your boots off A big cold beer after a shower

Cows are big here! In every way. I know, they weren't all cows. But there were many that we did not photograph.

The walk to Conques was pretty with pastures  woods and two old villages. We stayed in Conques two nights. A rest day was much needed. We did our washing, got some money and bought breakfast and lunch for the difficult day to follow. It was hot, 29° at noon, and so we planned to leave at 6am the next morning. The only shop, a patisserie, was closed on Mondays and food was delivered to town in time for 7.30 breakfasts. We would try to get a yoghurt and jam hamper from the hotel and we had bought 2 croissants, 2 pane, 2 cheese bagette and tortettes. To much weight to carry so we would probably eat it all by 11am. By for now.

After dinner we walked the back streets of Estaing. It was seemingly deserted. Beautiful seventeenth century houses and narrow alleys. Some buildings were being restored but some were derelict. Every fourth house advertised as a Gite or Chamber d'hote (bed and breakfast) but the same number were empty. We left town at 8am after each buying a tarte (apricot) from the patisserie (now open). We arrived at our nights village at about 1pm and, learning from our experiences of the previous day, we headed straight for the only cafe/bar in town to buy lunch. This was situated in the village centre with this pilgrim keeping us company. Over lunch we chatted with our Swiss girl from 2 days earlier and we learnt that 3 men we had seen for days were Polish brothers, with very good English. They were hopeful that their upcoming election would bring in a less conservative, more pro western government.

Some days are short. After a pleasant walk along the river we crossed a little side creek and passed a tiny pub. We then walked up, up and up.  we enjoyed a stroll passed farms for an hour. Then we walked down, down and down, back to the river, Lot. The villages at the bottom were idyllic. We got to Estaing about 1pm and walked past the castle And several bustling cafes. This was a busy tourist spot (family seat of Giscard d'Estaing, French President 74-81).  Quick shower at our Gite and off to lunch - but wait The pub with no...... Beer was fine, coffee or wine, yes But food?  By 2.15 the town was empty the cafes were closed the pubs had no food and the supermarket closed half day at 1. We enjoyed a beer and wine and our dinner

This would have been a very hard day had we not had two lots of help. We walked steeply downhill through the town to an ancient bridge We then climbed steeply on the narrow road before entering a series of Beech and Birch forests We had bought a bagette and a tarte each as there was meant to be nowhere to eat for 18kms. We planned to walk for two hours, stop, 90min stop, 90 minutes stop in Saint-Com-d'Olt then walk the last two plus hours to Espallion. Quite a day! At 90 minutes we met two Aussies from Sydney. We walked and talked for about two hours then stopped at a farmhouse in their guidebook but not ours. The talk and torte gave us the strength to continue on to Saint-Com-d'Olt. This was a beautiful village with an ancient church Whilst having a cafe au lait we met a Swiss girl walking from Geneva to Santiago de Compostella (2000kms) She advised us to skip the mountain ahead and walk the road (saving an hour of hard work. What an inspiri...