Day 2 St Privat to Sauges

Today was a big day of walking! Not so much in kilometers but in just hard yakker. We left St Privat full of energy after good night's sleep and a good breakfast with coffee served in a bowl! Baguettes and fruit were purchased at the local boulangerie ( bakery) and on we marched.
We knew it was going to be a descent into a valley where the
Allier river runs and then up again the other side but we were not prepared for the steep descent into Monistrol It was real ankle breaking territory and we trod very carefully..no falling heavily here! It was difficult due to big rocks and slippery ?shale but finally we got down to Monistrol with a coffee stop on the way at a cute little stall. We were needing that. The day was getting warmer but luckily odd bits of shade here and there.
Monistrol has a bridge designed by the architect who designed the Eiffel tower which one of the locals were very keen to point out.
The total descent was 600 meters but then as pleased as we were to get that out of the way we then had to embark on a 500 meter ascent out of the valley. Luckily quite a bit of walking was in the shade but it was a slog. There were rock climbers doing their thing and it looked pretty scary. As we got near the top we stopped for a much needed rest and lunch.
Never had a baguette with salami cheese and tomato tasted so good. The camembert was particularly smelly and particularly good! Carrying the cheeses in our pack is probably not the most social thing to do.
Once we got to the top of the valley we had a fairly ordinary walk in the heat along rural paths and roads with happy cows grazing and rolling hills but we were all a bit over the views and just needed beers and a shower!
Finally after another quite steep descent we arrived into Saugues.
We haven't seen much of the town as walking around the town centre had very little appeal. Saugues is 965 meter elevation and the heart of the Margeride region.
We are staying at another cute Gite and the wife is lovely but the husband is a bit of a grumpy one. Brian and David have been watching Ireland play NZ in the womans rugby.
There is a delicious smell coming from the kitchen and I am beginning to feel quite hungry! We will all hopefully sleep well tonight with another's long day of walking ahead of us. Thanks for the encouraging comments along the way.Read more