Time Departed: 8.40am
Time Arrived: 2.10pm
Distance: 19kms
Cumulative Distance: 264 kms
Percentage Completed: 34% (442,100 steps)
Weather: Cold, fog, Scotch Mist, very overcast
Accommodation: Ecoasis Gite
Feelings: Neil - Excited, Henk - Enthusiast, Di - Keen
It’s been two weeks since we left Le Puy-en-Velay and it seems a long time ago. However, we feel the walk is going quickly and we have reached a third of the way. We have four weeks remaining to reach St Jean-Pied-de-Port. As today’s walk was the shorter distance of 19kms we left later after initially walking across the Le Cele River to the old city centre of Figeac. It has a very old large marketplace in the centre. We climbed our first descent along with a group of high school girls and their teachers. The fog grew very thick and it stayed this way for quite some time before turning into a heavy Scotch Mist. It was very atmospheric.
After only an hour’s walking we reached the small village of Faycelles where there was a cafe. Given there are few of these on the track we don’t miss the opportunity of stopping. Other walkers arrived including a elderly husband and wife from Sydney, a younger London couple and a German couple whose daughter coincidently lives in the same suburb as Neil. It was so good to speak English!
As we left Faycelles we had good views looking back from a ridge. Faycelles has had quite a long history with nearby Neolithic and Roman sites and it was also captured by the English during the One Hundred Years War.
Overall, this was any easy walk today. After the initial ascent the remainder of the day was undulating alongside wheat fields, fields of buttercups and clover and cows and sheep. We passed a number of the circular stone shepherds’ huts similar to yesterday’s. About five kilometres from our accommodation we were able to go inside one of them and see the roof’s stonework and gauge how protective it could be from the elements.
Close to our accommodation we passed a large flock of the local sheep with their distinctive black rimmed eyes, black ears and white wool.
Our accommodation is a modern gite about two kilometres from Grealou and it was a full house with 27 staying the night. On arrival, our friendly host, Audrey who spoke very good English gave us an introduction to the management of the gite. To prevent the big issue of bed bugs we had to keep our backpacks and suitcases on racks inside the front door and only bring in what was required in plastic containers to our bedroom. Henk, Neil and I have private rooms with the remainder being dormitories. The showers and toilets are shared and on learning that there would be 27 staying we quickly got organised and jumped into the shower.
We met Jocelyn, an adventurous and interesting 79 year old from the Binna Burra area, who had walked from Le Puy but was now stopping due an ankle problem. Unlike last night which was a quiet affair in an elegant Art Deco restaurant, tonight’s dinner was a noisy affair with mostly French walkers who were more senior than us. The London couple we met earlier in the day were also staying and it was good to catch up with them. Dinner was three courses starting with a goat cheese entree, a large egg and bacon pie and apple cake with chocolate sauce.
It was a good day walking and an enjoyable experience staying at the gite.
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