St Chely to Saint-Come-d'Olt

As we went up the hill leaving St Chely I took a photo back down over the village, thinking "Yep. Great shot. That should be first on the blog." Now we are in Saint-Come-d'Olt and I am not so sure. This is Brigadoon in France - the village time forgot. The Lot River valley has (I am told) some of France's prettiest villages, and this one tops the pops. Street names are in French and Occitan.

We had packed our one bag to the gunnels again, left it for collection and went to breakfast, which was different: two coffee machines, pots for tea, muesli and granola, but no cheese (but otherwise as usual). We left around 8:30, over an apparently famous pilgrim's bridge, up a long, steep hill with amazing views back over the village, and off through farmland. It was lime green, since trees already had new leaves, and it was noisier with birds. We wore ponchos as we assumed that, being overcast, it would rain, but it didn't , and we were sweaty, so off they came. There were a few steep ups and downs, and often rocky paths, but nothing very hard. We went through one hamlet, but alongside numerous old farmhouses and barns, often with enormous piles of straw and cow dung ready to be spread back over the paddocks.

We arrived at St-Come-d'Olt around 1:15, and as we stopped to look around a young woman asked if we needed anything, then told us about the shops being closed and the few bars etc that were open. She had an apron from a cafe (Cafe La Pause), so we went there later. The village has a few 11th C features, a church with a twisted spire (design or bad builder? no-one knows) and looks untouched. It might need a section to itself, particularly as the hotel tonight is a convent.

Overall, it is so far, so good physically. Weary feet, but nothing worse than aches and end-of-day tiredness.

27,785 steps, 22.0km and 51 flights. Tomorrow is a short day - only 7km to a large townRead more