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  • Day 55

    Now at Châlus

    September 22, 2021 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    A beautiful day’s walk, about 18 kms. But to finish yesterday, we had a lovely dinner with Martine and Alain. We agreed to speak French and they were very kind and spoke clearly and we had a good conversation! And good food - not gourmet, but very satisfying…(their daughter is a chef in Toulouse)…we had sausages made with the local beef, rice, salad, cheese and dessert…perfect, and by 8pm we were starving! They asked where we were staying tonight and when we named the hotel in Chalus they sort of smiled and raised their eyebrows…they wouldn’t exactly say anything, but we knew to expect something a little down market…or weird…

    So we set off about 9, and it was cool, about 12°, and a little foggy but clear sky. It was beautiful and rather mystical for the first half hour. It soon cleared into a cloudless day, but not too hot, just perfect. So we just walked on, through picture postcard countryside in every direction. We’d have gradual long ascents and gradual long descents in the rolling hills, mostly walking on minor country roads with barely a car or even a tractor. Passed through pretty small hamlets and towns, and we just saying it would be nice to walk off the road through trees and that is exactly what happened…we were taken up into the most beautiful forests, with enormous trees. I’ve never seen oaks so tall. It is obviously a timber land, and we heard a chainsaw in the distance…when we were in the high land we could see forever.

    Then after several kms of tree tunnels we came out into civilisation again and were almost at Chalus. Easily found the hotel, on a fairly main road, and sort of a highway diner. We thought maybe our hosts last night just thought it wasn’t very classy and kept an open mind, and the host here welcomed us and expected us and had the bags. We had a beer first, then came up to our room.

    So this is quite a contrast …! Rather a weird network of rooms, but we found no 3. It has a shower cubicle standing like a telephone booth in one corner, a basin beside it and no visible toilet. We had seen a door with a big WC at the end of the corridor and thought oh well…but upon investigation and opening the door in the feature photograph wall of a waterfall we found our own toilet! (I thought it was a cupboard with coat hangers as there isn’t one). Travel broadens the mind, but I may take the precaution of sleeping in my silk sheet just in case of bedbugs…probably perfectly fine, but I’d hate to itch for the rest of the walk! Dinner here tonight will be fine - probably pizza the best option! Tomorrow an easy less than 20 km walk to La Coquille where we stay in a hotel again, but part of a chain which we have found very good…

    I have to thank people for their kind comments about my hat. I am still grieving and mystified as it was somewhere in that house - I walked in wearing it! But Amr gallantly lent me his hat, and will get out his Borselino to wear, and I will look for a replacement in Périgueux, but am not all that confident, based on other towns, that they will have a shop that sells hiking hats…..
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