Day 22 September 17 Dufort to Moissac

18.6 km 275 ascent 353 descent 4:10 hr. 22⁰C

We had an excellent sleep last night, from 10pm to 7am. We both felt much better in the morning.

The breakfast was very good, and we were the first to leave, at 7:50am. It was lovely and cool, but of course there was a big climb right off the bat. We had a lovely view of the rolling hillside. I had no idea, on our map, where we were. I showed the map to the lady and asked her to show me where we were on the map. Although she spoke English, I think her responses were limited (ie, I had to ask the right question). She just pointed on the map and said ‘you are here’, Dufort-Lacapelette is just on the other side of the highway. That didn’t answer my question. I was trying to figure out how many kilometers we had to walk today, so I really needed to know how far from Dufort-Lacapelette we were. It turns out that wouldn’t really have helped me all that much with that specific question, because Moissac is very big, probably even bigger than Cahors, and we walked quite a way after we got to the city.

Dufort-Lacapelette was about 1km from the Aube Nouvelle. There was a highway sign there, saying 13km to Moissac. We followed the signs for the GR65, which conformed to the GPS track Russell had for the GR65.

We were off on a track running through a large farm. There was grapes, sunflowers, kiwis, other fruit trees, and a very thick, tangled forest along the right side.

I said to Russell, ‘I sure wouldn’t want to bushwhack through that thorny woods’. There were also lots of interesting footprints along the Way. Because it had really poured yesterday (thankfully, the heavy rain held off until after we got to our lodging), the clay was very greasy. At that point, ahead of us, we saw a man with a rifle thrown over his shoulder, accompanied by a pack of hounds. Too many to try and count. They were all loose, of course, and my chief concern was that none of them jump up on me, it was so muddy. Not to worry, the man and his hounds scrambled into another field, and disappeared. The woods were so dense there, I’m sure foxes would be a problem for the farmer.

We then climbed a great hill, and came up to a vineyard where they picking grapes. On the other side of the road, in among more grape vines, was a big fat red necked pheasant. I wondered if he would follow us too, like Phil, but he didn’t.

We then met up with the highway again, and lo and behold, along the highway came the Austrians, and the Germans. The sign said 12km to Moissac. I said ‘you guys cheated’, they said ‘did you take the old GR65?’ Are there two GR65’s? Russell’s GPS said we had walked 2.5km, rather than 1km, to get there. It was worth it though, because we saw the hounds, Phil’s cousin, and got to do a lot of climbing – a pilgrim’s favorite activity.

We were still slightly in the lead. A short distance up the road we ran into Celine. She told us there was a festival this week-end in Moissac, and a lot of tourists would be visiting. It turns out the 17th and 18th of September in the Centerville beside the Abbey was the Chasselas (white grape) and Patrimoine (history) festival. Celine was also staying in Moissac tonight, and we said we would see her later.

We took a slight detour at St-Martin-de-Durfort to go see the church there, but it was closed. The Austrians kept going, but everyone else also took the detour. The funny thing was, we never caught up to the Austrians, and never saw the Germans or Celine again walking. That seemed pretty strange, and we wondered if they were following another ‘new’ GR65.

All in all, it was a lovely walk today, with lots of ridge walking (aka, rolling hillside views all around), and we both felt good for the walk. The weather was perfect, nice and cool, but sunny. The only thing missing were my blue butterflies, but that is likely because we got here early. We don’t usually see them until the afternoon.

We went past a Casino walking in, and stopped and picked up lunch. We walked past the abbey and the tourist information before the hotel, and stopped there. We ran into the Austrians outside the Abbey, and asked if they had flown here. They were not stopping in Moissac and were concerned because a GR65 marker was saying to go back the way we had come. The markers do mark both directions. I hauled out my map and showed them how to follow the GR65 out of town. They were skeptical because of that one marker. One of them went into the Tourist Office, I did too, and the lady told him exactly what I had.

There is a LOT of security around here. I guess because of the Festival and the problem France has been having, in particular. I had to take my backpack off to go into the Tourist Office. There are police and security guards everywhere. I started to wonder if maybe we should avoid the festivities, but wouldn’t that mean the terrorists had won?

We got to our hotel, where the door was locked and the sign said it wouldn’t open until 3pm. I was hoping to at least be able to leave my backpack there, even if we couldn’t get into our room. We were about to walk away, when the door opened. I said we had a reservation, and she let us in and we got our room. Our bags were there!

We came up, had lunch, a shower, and got organized to go do laundry. Things all need to get properly clean. Thank the lord they actually have laundromats in France. They almost didn’t exist in Spain, although a pilgrim told us that if you stayed in the hostels, they usually had them. We didn’t stay in hostels in Spain!

We went off in search of the laundromat, and got in there and were humming and hawing about how it worked, when the couple sitting in there spoke to us in English. Turns out they were biking in France. We got our laundry going and went off for a cold drink. Something we had never got when we arrived. An all-time first. Shows you how easy an 18km hike can become!

On the way to the laundromat we met the young man from Boston, who said he was taking a train to Toulouse this afternoon, spending the night at the airport, and flying home tomorrow. His Dad had just had an emergency triple bypass operation and he was going home to help him out. He said his Dad was the major breadwinner in the family, and a salesman, and he knew a lot about his business and could help him while he recovered.

I asked him why he was walking the Camino, and he said his mother knew the producer of Martin Sheen’s movie ‘The Way’, and he had told Martin he was doing the Camino because of the movie. He said Martin was very pleased about that. He said he had just finished high school, and was going to be applying for college for next September. We said our thoughts and prayers would be with him and his father. He said he planned to come back next year and finish the Camino, starting from Moissac, before he started school. What a sweetheart.

We also found another grocery, and got supplies for lunch tomorrow. It is Sunday. Tomorrow we go to Auvillar, and have a day off on Monday (again). Monday can be worse than Sunday. Who knew?

While coming back with our laundry, there was Jim at the window waving at us. He still had his poles in his hands so must have just arrived. He came all the way from Lauzerte today.

We hung up all our laundry (aka, everything we have) and went out sightseeing. The room had a portable fan, the first one we have had in France. We love fans!

The Abbey dates back to 650. It was consecrated by the Romans in 1063. It is a wonderful example of Romanesque art. It ceased to be an Abbey when Abbey’s were secularized 1626. They were replaced by Augustine Canons. In 1793 the French Revolution put an end to monastic life.  In 1960 there was a big initiative to restore the church, and the interior decoration was restored. The guide said, touch the walls, no it is not wallpaper.

We visited the beautiful Cloisters for free, because of the Festival, and viewed the tremendous collection of Romanesque art.

We wandered about a few art galleries, and came back to do the blog.

Because of the Festival, the hotel restaurant is closed, and we are to eat at the Abbey Restaurant, which is right across from the Abbey, and right in the middle of all the Festivities. Also, right on the street below our hotel window, starting at 7pm, is a ‘comice’- which means ‘no assembly of people’ is allowed! Really makes you feel safe.

We had supper with Jim, nice dinner, and we all had a pie with the Chasselas grapes for dessert. Turns out these grapes really are for eating, and raisins.

At dinner Jim said he was walking the Camino to sort out a few things in his life. That sounded very intriguing. The beautiful thing about the Camino is you can open up to other pilgrims, and tell them things you’d probably never tell your closest confidant. There is an anonymity with other pilgrims you can’t parallel. It can be very healing to talk about the issues you are struggling with - with someone you won’t have to live with knowing they know- for the rest of your life. Just the act of trying to put your concerns into words can help you to understand your problem better, and help you find solutions you hadn’t considered before.

There was a concert in the square outside the Abbey tonight, and it started before we finished dinner. So we attended part of it. But we all had to get up early and walk tomorrow, so went back to the hotel right after we finished dinner.

The police checked us out when we walked back to the hotel, being an assembly of three people.

We didn’t see Celine tonight. We did see the German’s at the restaurant, they are at our hotel, and are going home via Toulouse tomorrow. They walked for two weeks.