Day 27 Saint-Christaud to Auriébat 27 km

I had thought today would be about 7 km shorter than it was. Bad math on my part! And not accounting for starting and ending gites being off the path.

I was happy to get out of the farmhouse this morning. But I was slow. Didn’t get out until about ten minutes to eight. Overcast, windy. Definitely needed a jacket. And then miles of wet grass. At some point I forced myself to sit down (in some slightly dryer grass) and put preventive tape around my heel. It worked.

The landscape was rolling hills around flat valley bottoms, agricultural fields on the hills and on the flats, woodlands around the edges. Yesterday there was a field where the farmers had clearly changed their minds about letting people cross it. You could see the path in between the crops - about 50 metres from one side of the field to the other. But the GR directs you to circle the whole field instead. I was obedient, but annoyed. Today the path clearly went directly across a massive field. The farmer had changed the pattern the plough made in the earth to show you where to walk. I always feel weird walking across planted or soon to be planted fields. We certainly don’t do that at home. As I got to the far side today a man drove right by me in a huge tractor and waved. Fields as far as you could see. Tractors on all of them.

Coffee and bakery stop in Marciac. Good coffee. Really nice village. Huge square with arcades all round. I have one more night in a tiny tiny place. But I am ready to be back staying somewhere bigger! Saturday and Sunday will both be bigger.

By mid afternoon it was broiling. 30 degrees. Thankfully there was done shade. But honestly, it’s April!

The only person I saw on the path was an elderly woman and her dog. She used to live in Canada, she said, but can’t remember where. She was hard to understand, but I think she told me twice that her dog has a tumour and they are going to have it out down, though she didn’t use such a euphemism, she used the verb ‘to kill’. And then she was really sad. After we talked a bit she thanked me for stopping.

I am staying at another very old school gite. Run by Anne-Marie, a woman who, I think, said she was turning 90. She does not stop moving or talking. Old farmhouse. Kind of chaotic in her part but the gite is spotless. Big huge room that looks like it might be an installation in some kind of history museum. A kitchen and smaller (warmer) bedroom at the back. I took that one. And then I cannot even begin to describe the evening I just had. Anne-Marie’s niece is here for a few days, after going to the Pyrenees to meet her boss for the summer. She is going into the mountains to work with a farmer making sheep’s cheese. I have two samples of the farmer’s cheese to take away with me tomorrow.

But dinner! First there was an enormous amount of food. Bread and soup (of course). Then a large plate of small chopped vegetables and herbs and flowers and a devilled egg. I thought that was the end. But then a plate of sautéed vegetables, rice, and sausages. I ate a fraction of it all. Then cheese - 4 kinds. Then some kind of fruit bowl with cream and booze. I am being sent away with a small piece of a cake that takes ten days to make. I can’t tell you why because the story was complicated, I was tired, and I could not follow. When I got out my credencial to be stamped, there was comment made or question asked about a good number of them. Then we took a picture. The. I wrote in the livre d’or guestbook. All the while there is a constant stream of stories and comments about the state of all the new gites, where people just do it for the money. She was very curious about the place I stayed last night. I guess the people I met are new. She wanted to know what they are up to!

She showed me pictures of her family’s huge house that I will walk by tomorrow. Sometimes when she was talking she moved well into what would be ‘normal’ personal space. She never sat down. It was exhausting and yet she does have a very warm and welcoming vibe to her.

I was able to take what I’d like for breakfast (banana and yoghurt). And I am going to try (I say this every day) to leave at 7. Tomorrow is long and I’m guessing it will be hot again.Read more