Day 2 August 28 – Le Puy to St. Privat d’Allier transfer to Monistrol d’Allier

23.8km 811m ascent 588m descent 7 hours 32⁰C

Russ and I slept very badly the night before the first day of walking, mainly because of the excitement, but also because of the in room air conditioner and smell.

I really wanted to go to the pilgrim mass at 7am and start the Camino from the Cathedral, but while still lying awake at 3am I thought of a number of good excuses not to: it would delay our departure time considerably, important because it was forecast to be very hot. Breakfast was at 6:30am, so if we went to the mass we couldn’t leave until 8am, if we didn’t we could leave at 6:45am and get another hour and 15 minutes walking while it was cool; it was a major climb from our hotel up to the Cathedral, something we had done numerous times over the last 2 days, but this time we would have had to walk up that monster hill with our back packs on our backs; the service would be in French, so we really wouldn’t understand what was going on anyway. When the alarm went off at 6am, we decided to just get going. Russ never did want to go to the mass anyway! My biggest regret is that we didn’t a picture of ourselves standing with our backs to the altar in the Cathedral in front of the long flight of stairs down to rue des Tables yesterday when we were there.

Le-Puy-en-Velay, is set within a volcanic landscape and famed for its rocky peaks that rise up from the valley floor. 

Being in the Massive Central area, over the section from Le Puy to Nasbinals we pass through the Velay Mountains and the Margeride plateau, areas of natural beauty, green valleys and rocky landscapes.

We also walk through characteristic villages and past secluded hamlets, ancient stone crosses and pastures hemmed in by ancient stone walls.

It was a massively steep climb getting out of Le Puy, and the Way was continuously uphill for about 20km the first day, a total ascent of 811m. Not exactly equivalent to climbing the Alps on the first day of the Via Francigenia last year, but close enough. 

We had gorgeous views of the many statues and monuments built on the puys of Le Puy leaving the city. Along the way we passed a female pilgrim who was sitting on a rock with her boots off. We asked if everything was okay, and she said yes.

After about 5.5 km, the gr65 skirted round La Roche along a track overlooking the deep valley of the Ravine de la Gazelle. It was very exciting walking along a narrow track on the edge a cliff plunging into the ravine below. 

We then went through a little wood and descended down to a stream called Ruisseau de la Roche. This was followed by a steep climb up to Saint-Christophe-sur–Dolaison. We stopped at a bar/restaurant for a cold drink. We asked for lemonade and were somewhat disappointed to get sprite. C’est France. While there, the female pilgrim we passed arrived and proceeded to take out a syringe and inject a red fluid into a blister. She said she was a nurse and this was her first pilgrimage. I said if I ever got a blister I just punctured it with a pin to remove the fluid and put a bandage on it, she was way more high tech than that. This fluid she was injecting was apparently going to dry up the blister. I was a bit skeptical.

Shortly later, another pilgrim arrived that was from Switzerland. He too had walked all the way from his home town. We told him about the fellow we had met at the Camino meet and greet in Le Puy that had also walked from Switzerland.

Before leaving the bar we also each bought a popsicle, which was very refreshing, and then set off again. As we walked through a forest on the descent down to St. Privat d’Allier, it started to rain. So we put stopped and put on our ponchos, but the rain stopped soon after, and the ponchos were very hot, so we took then off.

We stopped at the appointed bar beside the gas station  in Saint Privat d’Allier where we were supposed to call Peter in Monistrol d’Allier to pick us up and take us to our hotel for the night. The phones didn’t work. The lady at the bar was very French but we found some pilgrims that could talk both French and English and explain what we needed to do. She was very kind to call Peter for us and arrange the pickup. There was a pay phone at the bar, but I tried that it didn’t work either. While waiting for Peter, we met a lady pilgrim living in France that was from Mexico and two Swiss pilgrims showed up. It was the two we had met and told the one about the other. They were grateful to have connected. Everyone thought Donald Trump was a complete idiot, especially the lady from Mexico.

Peter arrived and was very jolly old English. He was very friendly, but seemed to be very frenzied. He explained to us that walking the 6km from Saint Privat d’Allier to Montrisol d’Allier was very dangerous, especially if it had rained. It was a 339m drop that was strewn with tree roots and rocks. He said it wasn’t even part of the original Camino, but an attempt to keep the Camino off the highway. I told him I didn’t have anything to prove and would be just as happy to cut that section out.

We told him about the difficulty we were having with our phones, and he said he could probably help with that.

The hotel was charming and very English Country Cottage, but very small rooms. 

There was barely enough room in there to turn around. The staff were all very friendly but harried.

Dinner was pasta and sausages, with chanterelle mushrooms, preceded by a very stylish salad in a cup, melon, tomatoes etc and followed by apple tarte. Very good. It seemed Peter was the chief Chef, waiter, and bottle washer.

Unfortunately, our room was right over the bar, and patrons were drinking, talking, and smoking half the night below our window. There was no air conditioner, so closing the window wasn’t a viable option.

Lynn slept not too bad in spite of these challenges but Russ didn’t, as it turns out because he was sleeping on wrong side of the bed! I told him we could have switched sides at any point during the night, but he just suffered in silence.

We never got a chance to ask Peter about our phones. He was just too busy.