Cahors

After our lunch and relaxation stop in St Gery, and a pleasant bus ride, we arrived in Cahors around 3.15 and made our way to Chez Pierre.

Pierre was welcoming and full of smiles - and excited to talk to us about his many travels in Australia. I think he's seen more of my home country than I have! There were a few other pilgrims there including the family from Quebec - parents and 2 'tween' boys. We'd first met them at the Gite in Espagnac and had seen them a few times since. On one particular stage, they kayaked along the Cele River, rather than walking, with their bags being deposited at the next stop. What fun, especially for the boys, and a rest for the legs - though maybe tired shoulders and arms by the end of the day.

Chez Pierre is a chambre d'hote, mostly for pilgrims, in a grand old home in the historic centre of Cahors. We learned that it was Pierre's grandparents home, and then his parents. He has been operating the chambre d'hote for 17 years. I should have taken photos!

After lots of chat Pierre showed us to our enormous bedroom, with a bathroom almost as grand. High ceilings and high windows, with pale blue shutters - reminded me of our apartment in Lectoure, thought let's just say a little more 'rustique'. He asked us to close the shutters when we were going out as a storm was predicted for the afternoon or evening.

We'd both been to Cahors before (separately when we were each walking the Camino Le Puy in April 2014) so we had some familiarity with the town. We strolled around for a while but it was so hot and with storm clouds looming - I don't think our hearts were in it. We had an early dinner and were back at Chez Pierre, just in time! An enormous storm arrived soon after.

The next morning, we had a coffee around the breakfast table with Pierre and the other guests, and then walked across town to the home of Amx, a long standing friend of Domi's. Amx and Domi were in the military together and have kept in touch, but hadn't seen each other since Domi stayed with Amx and his wife when walking through Cahors in 2014. We had planned to see them on one of our earlier visits to France but Amx's wife was ill. Sadly she has since passed away.

Domi asked Amx what time would be convenient for us to come by in the morning. He said he is always up at 5.30, with his small dog Minnie, so any time after that! We arrived around 8.30 with croissants. Domi and Amx had a great catch up - I could understand some but not all of their discussion Domi had told me that Amx is a great dog lover, so I was able to connect on that point - and his eyes lit up, and he showed me photos of some of this other doggie companions from years gone by.

Later, we all walked together to the Saturday market, in the centre of the old town around the cathedral. Nothing for us to buy, but always fun to see everyone out and about, especially on such a glorious - hot - day. After the market, Domi and I took a stroll down by the river to the wonderful Pont Valentre, a 14th century six span stone bridge that crosses the Lot River. This is the bridge that pilgrims cross when leaving Cahors and making their way onward.

On the bridge, we came across a family of mother and two pre-teen children walking part of the Way during their school holidays. They were setting themselves up for a 3-person selfie, when Domi offered to take some photos of them. We continued along the riverside path, back to Chez Pierre, collected our backpacks, said 'a la prochaine fois' (until next time) to Pierre and made our way to the train station. We were back home in Lectoure soon after 5pm after a wonderful week on the Chemin du Cele Valee.

I'll do one final post with a few thoughts on this Way. Until then …Read more