Day 13 September 8 Conques to Livinhac

27.2 km 781 ascent 834 descent 7:35 hr. 24⁰ C

The hotel room was palatial compared to others, and very nice. The tile in the bathroom was also very attractive. It was very hot in the room almost all night, in spite of us having three sets of windows we had opened. Slept pretty well, in spite of the heat, anyway. Breakfast was at 7:30, and very good with a good selection. We left with no lunch materials, and the guide indicated there were no services before km 20.

It was very cool when we set out, and a lovely walk out of Conques, although very steeply down. We passed the Port du Barry, which was barrel vaulted and supported by an arch of red sandstone; then the Fountaine of Barry, 

which was set just outside the walls and built out of cut stone bonded to form the vault and a subterranean reservoir; and, then the Pont ‘romain’, called that because the pilgrims in Occitan used it to cross the Dourdou and its sometimes temperamental waters. Of medieval origin but largely reconstructed in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the dissymmetric bridge is composed of five arches resting on capped pillars which are triangular shaped on the upstream side. When we got to the pont ‘romain’ a couple passed us going at a good clip, and we all wished each other a bonne chemin. We then walked right down to the river to get a picture of the bridge. The very bottom of the valley.

After this, we started our 270 meter climb out of the valley, over maybe 1.5km.  About 50 metres up the hill, we passed the couple that had passed us on the bridge. It looked like it was going to be a long climb for them.

It was cloudy, cool, and misty going up, and we made very good time. Once at the top, the mist turned into a light rain, and we donned our ponchos. The first time it had really rained.

Russell kept complaining that we were not following the GPS, although every time he brought this up we were passing a GR65 marker. I kept asking him if he had the GPS tracks for the right day.

We went past a sign that said 15km to Decazeville, which implied we had walked 5.5km already, in the span of an hour, with a 270 meter climb. I was pretty impressed.

We carried on with some magnificent views of the countryside all around, until we came to a city called Noailhac. That city was not on our Micheline route summary so we looked it up on the map, and we were not on the GR65 route we were expecting to be on.

We were leapfrogging with quite a pack of pilgrims throughout the day today, all of whom were going to Livinhac, like us. We could see from the map that Noailhac was an alternate route, but it was not marked as being the GR65 on our map. Not to worry, it was a perfectly acceptable way to get there, and we carried on.

Happily, Noailhac had a restaurant/ grocery store, where we were able to buy lunch. While there, another pilgrim told us they had switched the GR65 route to go this way last year, so it was a matter that our guide was out of date.

Shortly after Noailhac, we passed the Chapel of St. Roch (another one). It had the most beautiful stained glass windows.

The new GR65 path soon merged with the old one, at which point we figured out the new route was approximately 2 km shorter. That too made a lot of sense! We aren’t batman!

There were a number of climbs and descents today. We descended 300 meters into Decazeville, and then climbed 150 meters out. Followed by a descent of 150 meters into Livinhac. I think the GR65 seeks out the highest routes, and lowest valleys to follow. If pilgrims are going to get pardoned for sins, they flipping well better work hard for it.

When in Decazeville, we went past a Tabac that handled Orange. Russell bought another 20euros worth of time (20 in Paris, 20 he tried to do with his credit card on-line, and 20 here). When he went outside (in the rain) to load the time, he got the same result it didn’t seem to take.  We went in and asked the lady to help. She called, and it appears he doesn’t have the classic plan, and the plan he has doesn’t show on-line how much calling credit he has. He probably now has a 60 euro balance of calling in France. How user friendly is that. At least they finally got the passport info etc (thanks to the hotel guy in Sauges who photocopied it and mailed it in) so they have unlocked his phone.

We met a lady from Quebec City yesterday we walked quite a bit with today. She thought she was staying at our B&B, but it turned out to be a different one. We also met two men doing the same route we are from New Zealand. We stopped with them at a covered picnic table for lunch in Decazeville, that had a public washroom that flushed the toilet, cleaned the toilet seat and toilet automatically, washed your hands, giving you a blop of soap, dried your hands, and locked the door automatically. Wow!

We found our B&B easily, thanks to the research we did in advance. It is a lovely house. The woman sat and talked with us, gave us a cold drink, and smoked when we first got here. It was nice, but I just wanted to go shopping and have a shower, and her cigarette smoke was blowing right in our faces.

She has a lot of rules about putting this here, that there, what can come in etc. Hey, we don’t want bed bugs either.

She also has a pool and I got ready for a swim but the water was very cold. That was okay too, I soaked my feet and legs in the pool, and they felt great.

There is a Belgium couple here too, and we all (the lady included) had dinner together. We had salad and then a Cassoulet of White beans, sausage, and duck confit.  It was very hearty, and quite delicious. People seem to think pilgrims need a hearty meal. That is not the case, at least for us. The body gets used to all the exercise and just stops burning calories. It’s very frustrating.

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