La Souterraine

A fairly easy walk today as we did another taxi deal! We were very happy to see that we had been organised to have a taxi ride from our beautiful hotel by the lake, as it was only uphill from there for quite a while. It poured with rain during the night, and we woke and decided to extend the taxi ride a little further…so we were left with 10 kms, which is manageable even if terrible weather! As it turned out, the dire predictions were as usual wrong, and it didn’t rain at all while we walked, or yet! It was cooler, and sometimes breezy, but still muggy when the sun tried to peep through.

There were 6 walkers staying at the hotel, 3 couples all about 70, and they set off to do the whole walk before we left this morning. Tougher than us, but we have decided it’s not an endurance test, but fun and a holiday so we don’t feel at all bad about cutting our distances. I must say I will get more of a spring in my step if it cools down and autumn/winter sets in!
Today we also met another pilgrim- a young German man who has been walking since June from northern Germany…we saw him on and off during the day, but he is staying further on so he will probably stay ahead of us. He was delighted to speak English as his French isn’t very good…The scenery today was just beautiful - lush open fields with cows, crops and woods which we also went through. Little villages, farms - the usual, but one of the best.

Got to our hotel - the Porte St Jean (right by the old porte) at about 1.30 when they were flat out serving lunch…we finally got a key and our room and are happy to be left alone! We went looking for a dinner place, as dinner isn’t included today, and after walking the streets - this is a small town, but with shops, banks, etc.etc. - we had trouble finding anywhere open for dinner! One hope was a crêperie which sounded perfect, but closed Wednesday…so as a last resort asked out hotel people if the restaurant here is open tonight - and yes, so we are ending up here! Maybe they just don’t do a demi-pension deal.

Anyway, will report on dinner tonight, it is bound to be good, even if the hotel staff are rather gruff! And I will include photos of dinner at Gargilesse in the lovely open courtyard, as yesterday there were too many beautiful walk photos, and also of last night’s dinner. Of course it was wonderful. The hotel (now the Crozant hotel) is run by a couple, who do everything it seems (probably more staff when things are booming)…so he had a menu, no choice, just what they had cooked today. And we sat by an open window by the lake, and watched a spectacular sunset….(even though it did rain!). A starter of grilled eggplant on a salad, with goat cheese and tomato, followed by a hotpot of fish (salmon and cod) in a lemon creamy sauce, with a little mould of rice with veg, a little frittata mould and a grilled half tomato…great presentation, and delicious!

Tomorrow we walk about 20 kms again, to Bénévent L’Abbaye.Read more