The figures for the day 15.6 miles/25.1km - up 427m & down 525 m
We set out bright and early, with all our clothes clean and dried and no sign of a black spaniel! As usual, after 5 minutes we stopped to stretch, as we have been taught by Tonya our Nordic and power walking instructor at Pinewoods Gym.
After 5km we had a choice, either to take a 6km shortcut or follow the correct route around two sides of a triangle to the village of La Romieu. La Romieu's claim to fame is it's very large church, built when thousands of pilgrims were passing through every month in the middle ages. We had decided that we would where possible follow the historic path of the camino, and so we plumped for going to La Romieu and planned to stop in the church to say morning prayer.
The approach to La Romieu was fantastic, after walking through acres of ploughed fields or fields in the process of being ploughed, we were now walking through acres of apple orchards. We turned a corner and there was La Romieu in all it's glory, and at it's centre the fantastic looking church.
As we entered the village we discovered it's other claim to fame, it is the village of Cats (a place my sister in law, Meryl, would love), on walls, peeking out of windows, roofs, and signs are stone cats, lots and lots of them.
We moved into the village and looked into the cloister of the church where we saw a sign "to visit the Church tickets can be bought at the tourist information". We were not happy, the great churches in Le Puy, Conques, Figeac and Moissac hadn't charged for people to enter, so why did La Romieu? We will never know the answer as we decided not to go in! The only door we darkened was that of the pattiserie where I bought gorgeous, if somewhat overpriced, Florentines. We then left La Romieu for good, and travelled on, saying morning prayer and eating our Florentines in the next village.
The sun was getting hotter and hotter as we continued on, passing into grape country with acre upon acre of grape vines, which I had been expecting as Condom is the centre of the Armagnac industry. Walking over the brow of a hill we saw Condom laid out before us, there was a rustle in the undergrowth and Lesley saw a snake (about four foot long) disappearing into the undergrowth, (I had also seen a similar specimen on the canal towpath a few days ago).
As we reached the town centre I spied the La Poste and we popped in to get my iPod, unfortunately due to industrial action in the UK it hadn't arrived, so we agreed that we would return tomorrow morning to retrieve it.
After a quick visit to tourist information to get a map, we headed to our proposed hotel for the next two nights, only to find it closed until 4:30. So still encumbered with our rucksacks we headed back into town for a drink until it opened.
At 4:30 we went back and sorted a room, we asked for demi-pension for tonight and just a bed for tomorrow, to which the owner agreed. He then told us the meal would be at 8pm. So after showers and laundry we headed back to town for a beer. As we had the munch we picked up some peanuts to eat with our beer. At the bar we picked, when 7pm came along, the bar man brought out dishes of chips and more peanuts. Quite full, we headed back to our hotel for our meal. The chips were a mistake! The meal we were presented with started with vegetable soup, this was followed by a massive salad with charcutarie. We were then presented with poulet with spaghetti bolognaise. And if that was not enough, a pudding doused in Armagnac.
Hopefully after that little lot we will be able to sleep!
On the Camino in France
We set out bright and early, with all our clothes clean and dried and no sign of a black spaniel! As usual, after 5 minutes we stopped to stretch, as we have been taught by Tonya our Nordic and power walking instructor at Pinewoods Gym.
After 5km we had a choice, either to take a 6km shortcut or follow the correct route around two sides of a triangle to the village of La Romieu. La Romieu's claim to fame is it's very large church, built when thousands of pilgrims were passing through every month in the middle ages. We had decided that we would where possible follow the historic path of the camino, and so we plumped for going to La Romieu and planned to stop in the church to say morning prayer.
The approach to La Romieu was fantastic, after walking through acres of ploughed fields or fields in the process of being ploughed, we were now walking through acres of apple orchards. We turned a corner and there was La Romieu in all it's glory, and at it's centre the fantastic looking church.
As we entered the village we discovered it's other claim to fame, it is the village of Cats (a place my sister in law, Meryl, would love), on walls, peeking out of windows, roofs, and signs are stone cats, lots and lots of them.
We moved into the village and looked into the cloister of the church where we saw a sign "to visit the Church tickets can be bought at the tourist information". We were not happy, the great churches in Le Puy, Conques, Figeac and Moissac hadn't charged for people to enter, so why did La Romieu? We will never know the answer as we decided not to go in! The only door we darkened was that of the pattiserie where I bought gorgeous, if somewhat overpriced, Florentines. We then left La Romieu for good, and travelled on, saying morning prayer and eating our Florentines in the next village.
The sun was getting hotter and hotter as we continued on, passing into grape country with acre upon acre of grape vines, which I had been expecting as Condom is the centre of the Armagnac industry. Walking over the brow of a hill we saw Condom laid out before us, there was a rustle in the undergrowth and Lesley saw a snake (about four foot long) disappearing into the undergrowth, (I had also seen a similar specimen on the canal towpath a few days ago).
As we reached the town centre I spied the La Poste and we popped in to get my iPod, unfortunately due to industrial action in the UK it hadn't arrived, so we agreed that we would return tomorrow morning to retrieve it.
After a quick visit to tourist information to get a map, we headed to our proposed hotel for the next two nights, only to find it closed until 4:30. So still encumbered with our rucksacks we headed back into town for a drink until it opened.
At 4:30 we went back and sorted a room, we asked for demi-pension for tonight and just a bed for tomorrow, to which the owner agreed. He then told us the meal would be at 8pm. So after showers and laundry we headed back to town for a beer. As we had the munch we picked up some peanuts to eat with our beer. At the bar we picked, when 7pm came along, the bar man brought out dishes of chips and more peanuts. Quite full, we headed back to our hotel for our meal. The chips were a mistake! The meal we were presented with started with vegetable soup, this was followed by a massive salad with charcutarie. We were then presented with poulet with spaghetti bolognaise. And if that was not enough, a pudding doused in Armagnac.
Hopefully after that little lot we will be able to sleep!
On the Camino in France
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