Day 29 September 24 Condom to Montreal de la Gers

18.4 km 294 ascent 251 descent 4:0 hr. 30⁰C

Kristine tried to call last night on Skype. It was really nice to hear her, but we kept losing the connection. Our internet connectivity is really rather minimal in most places, if they even have wifi.

We made a big deal yesterday about how nice it was that the breakfast started at 7am. It’s supposed to be really hot today, so we wanted to get going early. However, we forgot to set the alarm, and we both slept in. This city is very quiet and it was very dark in the room.  It was okay anyway, we could do with the sleep and it wasn’t very far walking today.

It was an excellent breakfast. Lots of fruit, yogurt, cereal, assorted individually wrapped cheeses, etc. etc. When we left Russell said it was a good breakfast but it would have been nice if they had some cheese. He thought all those cheeses were butter, I guess.

His GPS was telling us how to exit the city, and he is very married to that GPS. I insisted on following the brass shells implanted in the sidewalk, and contented myself with just having to put up with his whining about what is the point of having gps tracks if you don’t follow them. I was pretty sure the shells would be the scenic route, and it was very scenic.

After dinner last night we went into the Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Condom, which was open, surprisingly. We were really lucky because the choir was practicing. It sounded heavenly, even though the choir wasn’t singing in the actual choir location. It was a very beautiful church, and you could tell that it was well used, which is nice to see.

The cathedral dominates the town, which sits on a hill above the Baise River. 

It was designed at the end of the 15th century, and erected 1506-31, one of the last major buildings in the Gers region to be constructed in the Gothic style of south-west France. The church has buttresses all around and there is a 40-metre square tower over the west front. The west front door has the Four Evangelist's symbols in the tympanum, and the south nave door in the Flamboyant Gothic style still has 24 small statues in the niches of the archivolt (courtesy of Wikipedia)

There is a statue outside the Cathedral of the three musketeers and d'Artagnan, which was created in 2010. Really nice!

There is no relationship between the English word condom and this town. Condom comes from the Gaulish words condate and magos combined into Condatomagos, which means "market or field, of the confluence". It is where the river Gele flows into the river Baise.

So of course there were lots of bridges with great views. Shortly after we crossed the bridge which brought us back on the GPS track, hallelujah, we turned onto a gravel path running alongside the river. I was busy looking at the theatre as we walked past it, and tripped on a manhole that was raised above the level of the path (: Unfortunately I was carrying my poles because we were in the city (the click click annoys the natives, so not using them in cities is one of the ten commandments of a pilgrim) so I couldn’t try to right myself with my poles. I did try to correct my balance but by this time the weight of my backpack had created a downward force not be reckoned with.  My arm/elbow was the first to strike the gravel, followed by my lower leg. Russell rushed over to haul me up, but I wanted a few seconds to assess the devastation first. No real injuries to complain about other than my pride. This is what we pilgrims call ‘going turtle’.   

We mainly walked through vineyards today. 

We had seen signs warning us of a 2.5km deviation on the GR65 since coming into to Condom. A bridge was under repair at Pont-d’Artigues over the river Ruisseau de Bazet. We were lucky it was a Saturday. There was a lot of heavy equipment sitting idle at the bridge, and a lot of fences, warning signs, and red tape to go around (aka, break through), but we made it over the river on scaffolding constructed along the sides of the bridge, and avoided the 2.5km detour. The bridge itself had a big hole in the middle. As I watched Russell approach the damaged bridge (before going to the trouble of breaking through the fence myself), I saw two pilgrims on the other side survey the detour and decide to walk around.  Why?

They say troubles come in threes. The next fiasco was, seeking to not walk on tarmac, I walked up on a lovely path through a vineyard and didn’t notice there was no path off of it further on. The vineyard came to a rather unceremonious end and turned into an overgrown field of soybeans with nowhere to walk except on the soybeans because there was no space between them and a majorly steep slope and deep ditch to cross to get back on the road. That is the price you pay for avoiding 500 meters of tarmac. I just about went turtle again.

There was some steep climbs today, and as promised it was very hot. We got to Montreal right around noon, but that was okay because we didn’t really need anything. We passed a picnic table just before a gas station, so went to the gas station and got two drinks (1 euro each, as good as the Casino), then went back to the picnic table and each ate a piece of our leftover pizza. We threw the rest of it out, because when would we have been able to eat it? What a waste.

Montreal was a real tourist town. We visited the Church (of St Germaine again, they must really love her around this part of France) and then accidently discovered Mont Royal park. Hmmm.

Our Gite was out of the town on the road to Villa Galla Romaine, a roman archeological site. We stopped in, and Marilyn was very welcoming. She gave us a cold beer and we had a great conversation for about an hour. She is British. She asked what we thought about Trump, and that led to a lively discussion. The rest of the world is just watching in horror as this nonsense unfolds.

Our bags hadn’t arrived, so we walked the 2km down the road to the Gallo-Roman Villa de Seviac. On the way I took a short cut through a field and was rewarded with lots of blue butterflies. I usually only see them in a field, in the afternoon, when it is hot.

The site is part of the Elusa ancient capital. A luxurious residence of the Roman Empire, Villa Séviac restores the living environment of a family of landed gentry in the fourth and fifth centuries. Of special interest was the thermal baths and the beautiful mosaics. 

It said the mosaics were created by Africans.

The bags were there when we got back and although it was getting late, we did a lot of washing, because it was hot outside and Marilyn had a clothesline we could use.

She said to come for aperitifs at 6:45pm. She was a school teacher and came to France from England, and her husband Christian was a postman. That was how they met. They retired and bought the gite, which they planned to run for 10 years, and this is the 10^th year. At the end of the month, they will list it for sale.

We were the only guests today, so she said it was a holiday. They are full tomorrow. Christian does all the cooking. The aperitif was Pousse Rapier of Gascony, France. Very nice. This was followed by rose wine, and then red wine.

The supper was delicious. We had nibblies with the aperitif, a tomatoes/mozzarella cheese/basil appetizer, grilled pork chops and boiled potatoes, some cheese, then eclairs with ice cream and chocolate sauce and coffee. Dinner was accompanied with rose wine and red wine. It was a lovely dinner, with really interesting company, and too much to drink!

We waddled off to bed and slept like logs.

In the morning we remembered the laundry, and thought, ‘oh dear that will be all damp from being out all night’. Thankfully, Marilyn brought it in.

Very nice lodging.

Talking about the pilgrim’s commandments, here is the list:

To those who give, return your smile and thank you
Don't use your poles in the village
Respect private property
Keep your good humour
Drink at the fountain
Eat at the picnic site
Do your needs at the public toilet
Discard your refuse in the garbage can
Share happiness on your walk
The locals will thank you if you do all this