Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière

We arrived here at about 2pm, after one of the most spectacular walks we’ve ever done, and that is saying something! But we did not do the 8 hour, étape difficile, that the Book which is in French, warned us about. Instead, after a long and rather difficult stage yesterday we decided we would not enjoy an even longer and more difficult one today. So after studying the Book, and finding that today started with a 3 hour difficult ascent (and we could see the huge rocky hillsides all around us!) we decided to organise a taxi to shorten the distance. And it was such a wonderful plan…our lovely hotel lady rang to organise it last night, and we were picked up at 9.30 and taken to a town, Arboras, which is actually a bit more than half the distance! But we are not proud, we just wanted to enjoy the day, and not endure it…

So the taxi dropped us off, right where there was a GR and chemin de Compostelle sign, and we set off happily. And the whole of today the way was well marked, never worried that we may have gone off track. And it is still cold…in fact today was the coldest yet, and in the high spots the wind felt icy! In the end I took off my hat which was annoyingly flapping in the strong wind, and just put up my jacket hood, and Amr had his hood over his new hat!

So we only had a walk of about 12 kms, but this was the part that Book said was difficile, and we did it knowing we could be slow and careful (don’t want to spoil things with a twisted ankle…) and pause and admire the view and not just be intent on reaching a destination. And so began our wonderful walk. From Arboras we walked at first among a valley of vineyards and then did a very long ascent, even higher than the one out of St Guilhem, all the while looking down at the view of the valley from the heights. We could see Arboras in the distance and were amazed at how high we were. Photos just can’t capture the scene, but will put some up anyway, but they won’t do justice to the beauty.

There were a few other walkers on the track today…one man who zipped past so quickly on the uphill - we barely had time to say bonjour before he was gone - and on the downhill to our amazement 2 cyclists whizzed past…riding over the boulders, roots, zigzagging around trees!!…and also another woman who is also staying in this town. After the exhilarating uphill we started the inevitable descent, which was the difficult part - the book had warned of sliding rocks, slippery slopes etc, and it was a bit of a tricky narrow path, but not as bad as we feared, and wonderful views over the other side. We found a perfect picnic table in the sun for lunch, but it was just too windy…and by then only a few kms from St Jean, so we continued on, and found a slightly more sheltered and sunny seat in the main square near the Mairie and ate there, as we were fairly early, and often accommodation places don’t want you to arrive before 3.

But at about 2.30 we headed off to this wonderful place, an oasis! It was another kilometre from the centre of town, not in the direction of the camino - great today, but would have been a lot after an 8 hour walk! It is a B and B run by a delightful couple, who welcomed us, gave us a beer and cake, and with whom we will have dinner tonight as we are the only guests! They like Australians and Australia as they lived in Perth and their daughter is in Nice living with a group of Aussies. So we can comfortably speak French and English! Now we are relaxing totally and will have dinner at 7.Read more