Day 15 September 10 Figeac to Cajarc

32. 7 km 724 ascent 752 descent 8:10 hr. 30⁰ C

We both had a good sleep last night, and went down to breakfast 10 minutes early. There was a gang of British cyclists there already getting ready for the days’ ride. Nice breakfast. Really nice hotel again.

We set off across the bridge to a bakery, which said it opened at 7:30am, for lunch materials. I have completely lost track of what day it is, what the date is, etc. It wasn’t open yet, because today is Saturday, and it doesn’t open until 8am on Saturday. We gave up on it and decided to take our chance with the stars. None of the places we are to pass through today have any services, according to our guide. Russell even checked this out on-line before we left, and we marked the places that do have something.

It was a lovely walk out of Figeac. It is a truly beautiful city. The grand river Cele passes through the town, with lots of bridges. Our Hotel de Bains was right at the foot of one of the bridges, and used to be a Public Bath. 

The river was full of ducks, and lined with a walkway on each side. 

On our side it was nestled up against the cliff we climbed, with lots of flowers and a lovely park. We had crossed over our bridge to go to the bakery, and the GR65 followed along that side for about 500 meters, and then we crossed back on a grand foot bridge that led through the park and up the cliff. It was lovely and cool.

We passed a pilgrim from the Netherlands, who had been walking for 9 weeks. He had a very large pack and lovely fedora on his head. The Kiwi’s were just ahead of us, and another woman who looked like she had rubber boots on, which seemed pretty strange.

We also passed a sign warning walkers that the GR65 route out of Figeac had changed, and true enough, we were not following Russell’s GPS track.

The 300 meter climb out of Figeac started after the first 500 meters. Usually Russell and I do the ascents without much of a change of pace. However, I was having a really hard time with the ascent today. Upon reflection, I think there were two reasons why. One, I drank too much wine yesterday. We did have a rather nice time at the bar though, with the lady from Quebec, so no real regrets about that. Two, the incline was the wrong angle – which really kills me. The steeper the incline (or shallower), the easier I find it is to climb. Anything around 30 degrees, especially if it is on tarmac and it goes on and on (which was the case here), I find just gruesome. The man from the Netherlands passed us fairly early on in the ascent.

The new route took us over what looked like a very new overpass over a major highway below. We also had grand views of the valley below and the other hills surrounding Figeac. We also lots more major climbs and descents throughout the day, but I seemed to get my stride back after the first major climb out of Figeac.

Around La Cassagnole, we passed a whole bunch of beehive huts. Some were in very good condition.

The new route took us through Faycelles, which had a plaque saying it had been granted UNESCO status for being a city of cultural heritage along the Chemin de Compostella (it has been occupied since antiquity, both in Neolithic times and during the Roman era. The city today was developed as a Bastide town in the 13^th century). Miraculously the GR65 took us up a main street in the town past a bar/restaurant/store and a public washroom. The Kiwi’s and the fellow from the Netherlands were there, as well as a couple who said, very quietly, they were from Colorado. I told them our son was going to Colorado today to attend a conference next week at the University in Boulder. I said I would really like to get an e-mail from him but no luck so far, and they not to expect too much, he was well past the age of checking in with us.

We got two nice cold Perrier’s and a saucer to peel and eat our lovely grapefruit off of. The bar tender first asked if I wanted a great big tray for that – just joking. One of the Kiwi’s had a grapefruit too, but didn’t eat it. It’s amazing how wonderful a snack that is when you’re walking. Then we went in and bought two boiled eggs, some cheese, a tomatoe, and two banana’s, for lunch. We already had two carrots and a package of olives.

Everybody left before us, but we quickly passed the couple from Colorado. The walk out of that town was lovely, we passed through a volcanic rock garden along a lovely path through the woods. Around Beduer we passed the lady with the boots. It turned out she didn’t have boots on, she had knee high socks covering her white pants on. She had been walking alone, but seemed to have met up with a bunch of other lady walkers. They were stopping at a Gite for lunch. This was at km 11.5, and we had 32km to walk today. It was starting to get hot.

It seemed like a very long stretch to Grealou, and I was getting hungry. We passed the Kiwi’s and I said, think positive thoughts about finding a picnic table. Guy said, oh we will, within the next 3 hours. I said, think more 15 minutes.

The GR65 really does go out of the way to ‘save’ the pilgrim from walking through towns, or going past bars/restaurants. I wonder if the ‘managers’ of the GR65 have ever walked a stretch of 800km? I wouldn’t want to be walking through endless towns past endless stores, but about every 10km it would be awfully nice to be able to get a cold drink and use a bathroom. Although, I have to say that the GR65 is very good for having public washrooms and picnic tables along the Way. Way better than the Camino in Spain.

We got to Grealou and the GR65 would have bypassed not only the main town, but a park full of picnic tables. If I hadn’t looked around before heading through, we would have missed it. The park was full of pilgrims we had met along the way, and we were greeted with the salutation, ‘ah, the Canadians’. This was from the pilgrims from Italy we met leaving Estaing.

All the picnic tables were in the hot blazing sun, so everyone was sitting on the ground under trees. We found a tree and did the same. It was incredibly hard to get up, which I kept doing to go wash the tomatoe, wash my hands, etc., but the lunch was very delicious. The Kiwi’s arrived and staked out their tree too.

Shortly after we carried on, we passed a Dolman. 

It remains unclear who or why these were constructed, but they are generally thought to be burial chambers. While Russell was taking a picture, I met a man from France who was out for a day hike (hence his small backpack, he explained). He said he had just met a woman from Quebec (he was going in the other direction) and I wondered if it was our friend, but he said she had a hat on – so it was not.

We have passed by a number of stone fences that appear to be built of marble, and that was the next thing we passed. I also saw one of my favorite blue butterflies today.

It was a massive descent down into Cajarc, which is surrounded by cliffs of stone. Must be quite a fault there. We also passed a large cave that reminded me of the Queen Anne cave at Murphy’s point. 

It was actually kind of scary.

We were both pretty tired when arrived at our hotel at 4pm. It is another Condo, with a fridge. Very nice place, with another bathroom shower like the one at the kibbutz in Israel.

We had a shower, got instructions on where there was a grocery store and laundromat, and headed off downtown. There was a big Saturday market set up on the main drag. Very big city, with lots of shops.

We got our laundry in, with the help of a lady with a market stall, and went and got supplies. We ran into the man from the Netherlands in the grocery store, and he ‘so you made it’. We all agreed it was very long and hot. He said he has lost 10 kilos since he began walking. How lucky! I have managed to lose about 3 pounds.

We had a lovely dinner. Salad with melon and prosciutto, chips, grilled tomatoe with garlic and herbs, and duck. I had lemon gelato for dessert, and Russ had this meringue floating in crème, which was a local specialty.

And to end the day on a happy note – we got a lovely, long, highly informative e-mail from Kristjan. Nice to hear from you! I hope you read the blog.