Condom to Eauze

Distance 20.8 miles or 33.5 km
Up 289m down 296m

The accommodation determines the distance!

We set off bright and early, with just a brief stop at a patisserie, (we had spied out yesterday), to get our breakfast. We started our day's walk by walking alongside the river, before heading inland. At first we walked through the usual freshly ploughed fields, occasionally spying out hunters touting shotguns, or hearing their guns go off. Very soon the terrain began to change and we were surrounded by grape vines, growing grapes of at least three different varieties that I could spot (so in truth there were probably about 10 or 20).


The grape vines spread in neat rows for acre upon acre. As our path took us through the vines it was tempting to go and help myself to a grape or two, however, after our discussion about scrumping with Georgina Sykes and our feelings when we had seen others helping themselves to other farmers crops, it wasn't hard to resist the urge.




At about 12 we came to the town of Montreal-du-Gers, which was just starting to gear itself up for a fête, with a silver band, pony rides, a bouncy castle, a bar and much, much more. We slipped into the church for morning prayer and continued on our way.

For the last half of our walk we walked on the bed of an old railway line, passing an old station for the village of Bretagne d'Armagnac, aptly named as the station yard was full of vans and cars with British registrations.

Despite the distance the first 29 km were quite easy, it was the last 4.5 km which was the killer and seemed to last for 30 or 40 km!

We eventually arrived at Eauze to find that to get in the gite you booked in at the tourist office, which was closed. The office had a list of room allocations already made, which included a group of 15. The chances were that there wouldn't be a place for us, so we checked into a budget hotel instead.

It seems however, that we are suffering at the moment from the curse of the toilets. Last night the loo in our room kept on filling and filling unless we took the lid off and fiddled with the innards. Tonight it's a dodgy seat only attached on one side. The trouble with limited French is it's not easy to explain these problems!

We had gone demi-pension to save us setting out again to find food. So after a beer we went to the restaurant. The thing about demi-pension is you don't know what you are getting until it arrives. The starters came: a green salad with Anchovies. Not good for me, with my fish allergy. I gave Lesley the anchovies and hoped for the best. When the main course came, I was on cloud nine but Lesley was not so happy, as we were presented with steak and chips, the steaks being cooked Bleu. After a short discussion I called the waitress over, pointed to Lesley's steak and before I could say anything else she said bien cuit, (would you like it cooked a bit more - she obviously knew the British palate). Lesley accepted her offer whilst I declined, and shortly afterward the steak arrived back rare, the nearest a French chef can bring himself to cook a steak to well done!

Whilst having our beer before our meal we bumped into a young French couple we had seen walking the camino on a number of occasions over the last week or so, but had never spoken to before, the man spoke excellent English having learnt it so he could understand the jokes in Monty Pythons flying circus properly. They were enjoying the camino but felt that sometimes with the number of large groups of walkers it was a bit like a production line rather than a pilgrimage. Like us they are keeping a blog, but unlike us prior to this trip they had never walked, but were very much enjoying the experience. They are walking as far as St Jean Pied-de-Port so hopefully we will see more of them.

On the Camino in France