Day 19 - Lalbenque - Cahors - 20 May

Time Departed: 8.45am

Time Arrived: 3.30pm

Distance: 25kms 

Cumulative Distance: 341 kms

Percentage Completed: 44% (578,800 steps)

Weather: Initial fog, overcast in morning, sunny afternoon, max 26

Accommodation: Hotel d’Valentre 

Feelings: Neil - Concerned, Henk - Concerned,  Di - Happy

Breakfast started later at eight o’clock and consequently our longer walk today started later. We ordered a lunch from our host as we weren’t going to be going past any villages with shops. Our order of two sandwiches each for Henk and Neil and one for me translated into five small pieces of bread with a tin of pate and chunks of cheese. Our host opened the tin and wrapped it in Glad-wrap for us as we didn’t have a tin opener. The pate was made by the host’s company. We were concerned that we didn’t have enough food to sustain us for today’s twenty-five kilometres. We rummaged through our backpacks and cases and managed to produce some bananas, nuts, dried fruit and KitKats. We paced ourselves with our food to ensure we kept up the energy.

We had to walk 4.5kms back to the track from our accommodation. At one stage we had to walk across a paddock in long wet grass to reach a small road to find the GR65. Thankfully, the GPS kept us on track. We will be recommending to our organising company that walkers are picked up from Vaylats or Bach. The accommodation was great, just getting to and from there was the problem and it added kilometres to the walk yesterday and today.

We initially walked again on level ground and had morning tea at ten thirty, once again under shady oak trees using a drystone wall. From eleven o’clock the walk changed as the sun came out and we walked in the open and it started to warm up considerably. For about two and a half hours in the middle of the day with very little shade the walk showed us we have had it too easy over the last couple of days with the flat Roman roads and introduced a few hills to challenge us. 

At twelve thirty we had lunch under large trees at a picnic table. It was good to sit down and have a break for half an hour. We were joined by five other French walkers at the next table. They had a great lunch and we looked on enviously. However, our tinned pate was very good and along with our other goodies we had enough to eat. I offered to take a photo of the French walkers and they, in turn, took a photo of us.

We were refreshed after lunch and the remainder of the afternoon was a mixture of covered paths and quite exposed walking over stony ground. It was warm walking. We came across a range of butterflies today and the flowers are still spectacular growing wildly on the edge of the paths and in the fields. One butterfly was a pretty blue colour on one side and the other side looked like lace.

We couldn’t see the large centre of Cahors until the last hill which then led to a very steep descent on tarmac to the Lot River Valley. The view of the Lot River was good to see.

When we crossed the Lot River on the Louis-Philippe Bridge we found a pilgrim welcome and information centre. Two very friendly ladies were handing out ice cold drinks, prunes, dates and biscuits. We had our credentials stamped and answered their survey questions of where we came from, how far were we walking, where we were staying etc. 

From the Information Centre we had a further 1.2kms to walk to our hotel. We chose the longer walk around the bank of the river rather than through the city. It was a pretty walk and a number of locals were making the most of a sunny, relaxing Sunday afternoon. The impressive14th century  Valentre Bridge was in full view as we walked. Our hotel is about three hundred metres from the bridge.

We have now walked for seven days straight from Conques and tomorrow is a rest day. The seven days have gone very quickly. We are in need of a laundromat to give our walking clothes a decent wash. After having quick showers Henk and Neil went out for a coffee and did a quick reccie of the town. We are not far from the town’s old centre which we will explore tomorrow.

Our dinner was booked at a local restaurant close to the hotel. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed so we opted for the restaurant that had been booked for tomorrow night. Needless to say at eight o’clock at night we were starving. We had a great three course meal which was served slowly over an hour and a half. Tomorrow we wil try and sleep in and have a later breakfast. It is another public holiday in France. This is the fourth one in three weeks.