Day 22 Toulouse to Léguevin, 23 km

I’m writing this on a terrace in front of the Maison St Jacques, an association gîte in the centre of a village that is very beige, but pleasant enough. (I expect people must commute from here to Toulouse.) The village has provided the house to the Association Jacquaire and volunteers take care of the gite. 8 volunteers and each one is responsible for greeting the pilgrims, cleaning and whatever else for 4 or 5 weeks over the season. That’s a lot of work! It’s a big old house. Good kitchen. Dormitory with 7 beds downstairs toilet and shower room upstairs. €10 a night.

Long walk out of the city. I must have checked the track on my phone a million times. The route I took was not the GR and it is marked, but sparingly. Lots on concrete, more aerospace stuff, huge fences. Roundabout after roundabout. But then there was a town with good coffee and apple pastry. And then a village not too long after that. Another short break for a cold drink at a bar/tabac where I talked with a couple who were going out for their first rides on their brand new, matching, beautiful red bicycles. Quick stop in a church, out the other side of the village, and then finally off the asphalt as the chemin entered a really lovely woodland and followed a “biodiversity” path for a kilometer or two before heading back on the road to come down into Léguevin.

For a long time I thought I would be staying here alone, but there are now 4 of us. Me, a straight coupe, he’s French and she’s American, and a Brazilian woman who lives in Munich. The first two are going to turn right at the Chemin de Piemont and go to St Jean Pied de Port, and the woman will turn at the same place and go to Lourdes.

Tomorrow is long and it’s promising to be hot so everyone has agreed to get up early.

And there’s a Sunday market that starts at 7 and apparently has a coffee roaster!Read more