Day 26 September 21 Miradoux to Lectoure

16.1 km 301 ascent 352 descent 3:30 hr. 24⁰C

7.7 km sightseeing

We slept for 9 hours last night. I really had a good night, but Russell found the bed too soft and his shoulder was sore. It was a pretty small bed too, but I apparently behaved myself and stayed on my side. It really was a beautiful room.

We went down for breakfast at 8am, trying out our new strategy. There were two other lady pilgrims staying here that we had dinner with last night. We asked if they were coming too and Dominique said they already had breakfast.  We then noticed she had a blackboard in the kitchen showing they had breakfast at 7am. We thought that was odd, because there were 4 pairs of boots in hall.

The ladies came down shortly after, we all wished each other a good walk, and they left. I guess they eat and then get organized to go. We are always ready to go when we come down to eat. I’d rather put off eating anyway, the breakfasts can be rather minimal, and don’t last long.

We were on the road around 8:20am. It was a long walk out of town along the highway, but soon we went off on a path. It was very foggy, so we couldn’t see the rolling hillsides. We also couldn’t see the nuclear power plant cooling towers. We wondered if we were now well past them.

We caught up to the ladies, and one of them was very chatty. She and her friend started in Le Puy last year and are going to walk about 300km per year until they finish at Santiago. They only have one day left after today. Russell was steaming off ahead, so I said bonne chemin and took off.

We passed through a village called Castet-Arrouy with a small church that was closed. The Micheline guide said there was a store here, and this is where we planned to get our lunch. We never saw a store, but there was a restaurant that was only open at midi. Oh well.

We carried on, now primarily walking through farmer’s fields along the highway or through their fields. There were two male pilgrims fairly close behind us most of the way.

At one point we heard a gunshot and saw a dog running across the field. We kept looking to see if the dog would retrieve something, which he never did, and instead seemed to wind up at his farmhouse. Shortly after, we ran into two men dressed in camouflage, with rifles and out with their hounds. We have no idea what they were hunting. Russell attempted to ask, but the men clearly couldn’t understand and were trying to keep/get their dogs under control. Russell was really just attracting the dogs with his questions and I told him to keep walking.

First, we walked past a rather dilapidated farmhouse, and then a bit of a mansion. We also saw the hunters again. I expect at least one of them was the land owner, and probably now lived in the mansion.

There was a bit of climbing today, but nothing too taxing. We walked up through a farm at the end with a field of melons on one side and green/red peppers on the other. At the top of that hill we reached a fruit/vegetable stand, with a small restaurant. We stopped for a banana break, and the two male pilgrims caught up. They too were at supper last night. We talked a bit, they were unilingual French and we are, well you know. They carried on.

At this point Lectoure was looming large on the horizon, high on a hill. I was sort of annoyed that we crossed over the highway, descended through a farmer’s field for quite a piece, then climbed back up on a road and ended up virtually back at the highway. Okay, it was a busy highway, but we could have walked about 25 meters along the highway and ended up on the road we took. Gads!

Of course we had a mighty descent down into a gorge and then a mighty climb up into Lectoure. It’s what pilgrim’s do.

We got to the hotel around noon, and they said the room wouldn’t be ready until 2pm. I asked what time they expected our bags to arrive, and she said ‘not before 3pm’. We dropped off our backpacks and went off in search of a cheap lunch.

We first passed the Tourist Information Office, and got a walking map of the city, and asked if there was a grocery store. He told us there was a small one about 200 meters down the main drag. Along the way we saw the two male pilgrims we had met, having lunch and a beer at a bar. We found the small Casino but read the sign saying it was closed because the owner was on vacation. By now it was around 12:20pm, so we hurried back past the tourist office to a boulangerie. I got a quiche, we got two Perrier, and a prune square. Russell then went back to his backpack and got his beef bourgignon dinner that is supposed to be microwaved but he’s happy to eat it cold out of the container. We went to a nice park with benches and ate our lunch. I also had a pear we shared.

As we were leaving a lady entered the park. We said bonjour and she said ‘you must be english’, in English. It turns out she is from Lectoure and comes back every summer, now lives in Toronto, and goes to Florida for the winter. Her husband is 70 and she is 63. She said Lectoure is the nicest village in France, and told us where to go sightseeing. I think, coming from here, she may be biased.

We parted, and we went to visit the Cathedral. There were a lot of flowers on the ground in between the inner and outer doors, so they must have been having a funeral soon. It was a beautiful church. When walking to the village we saw a very high tower and wondered what it was. We thought it must be the cathedral, but I said it should have a spire on top of it. It turns out the 50 meter high, four angled bell tower was topped, until the Revolution, with a spire which made the entire structure 90 meters. Wow, that must have been impressive. The Cathedral was erected in the 13^th Century, but following its destruction by Louis XI, it had to be rebuilt; thus the gothic nave dates from the 15^th Century. The vault is 21 meters high above the Nave which is the equal to the best known religious buildings.

There was an art exhibit in the Marie square next to the cathedral, and we went through there. It was very interesting. Inside, we ran into the two lady pilgrims from our lodging last night again.

After that we ran into the lady from Toronto again, and her husband, and she said ‘you haven’t done what I said, have you?’ We assured her we were going to do that next.

We visited the rampart, the thermal baths, the ‘village’ (aka, Cours d’armagnac), where they had some interesting sculptures (the elephant, the large face, the hand) and a flea market. We saw the magnificent views of the surrounding country-side on all sides, and the Tour de Bourreau, part of the defenses protecting the north-east corner of the ramparts. The tower also served as the residence of the executioner.

We ended up walking almost 8km sightseeing! We went back to the hotel around 3pm. The bags still weren’t here. There was nothing better to do than rest. At 3:30pm the phone rang and the front desk told us the bags had arrived. It really startled me, and I said I thought I must have fallen asleep. Russell said he should have recorded me snoring!

This is a very elegant hotel. When we arrived for dinner we were asked our room number and then presented with a wine list. The lady came back for our selection and we said we needed to know what was for supper. Another lady arrived and we were told it was cold melon soup with smoked duck, cod with artichokes, and apple pie. I rejected the smoked duck, which was presented like a rose floating on the sea of melon puree, the cod was very under cooked for our liking, and the artichoke was pureed as well. The apple pie at least was delicious. Very far down on the list of our
favorite meals. The wine was very nice.