Day 4 August 30– Sauges to Les Faux

 

29km 690m ascent 522m descent 7hr. 20 min. 24⁰ C

The same fellow that helped us with our phones was there in the morning with a fleece on that said Jesus /01/ is my savior, in French of course. He was going out and waved us to the part of the hotel restaurant that had the breakfast buffet. I wondered if he was going to morning mass.

It was the perfect breakfast buffet for pilgrims. What was surprising is that he, or someone else, was not there making sure you didn’t take anything you weren’t going to eat for breakfast. I routinely walk out from breakfast with a tea bag, a sugar, and a piece of fruit (if they have fruit at the breakfast – most do). I resist the temptation to make a sandwich too.

Every day when we set out, on all our pilgrimages to date, I bring black tea and sugar in my travel mug which lasts me for about the first two hours, before it starts to get hot and you want water to drink. We have a European immersion heater you just immerse in the mug to boil the water for the tea. I boil the water and put in the tea bag while getting dressed. When we leave, I remove the tea bag and add the sugar. At first I would leave the tea bag in the mug (I like strong tea), until the first time the tea bag disintegrated. That made a real mess in my coffee mug and the tea was ruined too.

The three pilgrims from France were at breakfast and we all wished each other a bonne Chemin. They must have booked with Le Pelerine too.

When we set out it was very cool. Almost, but not, cool enough that we could have had more clothes on.

It turns out that there is a Canadian connection here in the thirteenth-century church in Saugues. There is an altar in the church dedicated to Noel Chabanel, born in 1613, trained as a Jesuit, sent to Canada, and martyred by the Iroquis in 1649. He was one of the Jesuit priests that came to early Canada to convert the heathens. Maybe the natives were right? Saved from what for what?

Leaving Saugues there were many more bealutiful wood carvings, including a large carving of St. Jacques.

I haven’t mentioned yet that GR65 is extremely well marked. You really don’t need anything much more than your eyes, following either the red and white GR65 markings, or the bronze shells in the sidewalks in the cities. 

Not only is the route well marked, but the wrong route is well marked as such also. If you don’t immediately see the GR65 marking at a point of divergence, you usually see the red and white X telling you not to go that way.

The other important thing is that we very rarely are not walking on a safe dirt/ grass/ gravel pilgrim path which is off the highway. 

My bursitis in my heel doesn’t do well with walking on tarmac, and thankfully there has been very little of that, so far.

Leaving town today, once we were out of the city, which was along city streets but almost immediately were on a dirt road through a farmers fields.

It was lovely rolling country-side. We seem to often be in hydro tower right of ways, and we wondered if that is more than a co-incidence. It was so humid you could hear the high voltage crackle.

After saying this, today was the first short bit of walking along a major highway.

The cows were once again our companions. We walked through a forest, over rivers and walked though La Clauze with an ancient freestanding tower which is the only remains of a late 12^th century castle.

In a forested area approaching Le Sauvage, in the Montagne de la Margeride area, we met a French lady for the first time, picking bilberries (in French myrtille), who engaged us in conversation and offered some to us. Further along we passed her husband, off the trail, also seemingly picking bilberries.  I wondered later if perhaps she was providing a decoy for her husband. There aren’t many WC’s along the trail, and nature does call occasionally. These Bilberries are what our ice cream dessert were made of at the Bristol Hotel in Le Puy.

We got the impression that forestry operations in the area had redirected through the GR65 through those woods.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a stone table across from the Sauvage gite. While having lunch the small girl from France with her big pack, that we met at the Camino meet and greet in Le Puy arrived with a large collection of other young pilgrims. We said hello, and asked how it was going. She said well, and that she was going to stay there that night.

We carried on, past a dog sanctuary, through the woods, to the Chapel of St. Roch. There was a bus load of what appeared to be cycling tourists there. Apparently the Chapel is usually closed, but it was open. It was a lovely Chapel, and I feel indebted to the cyclists for being able to see inside. I’m sure the tour bus had arranged for it to be open.

Our hotel in Les Faux was 15 minutes off the GR65 (approximately 1 km). It was a lovely building and we arrived around 2:50pm after walking almost 30km. A sign said they opened at 3:30pm.

We sat down at a picnic table outside to wait. A little later, Bridgette arrived. As it turned out, the proprietors were in the hotel the whole time. Slightly after 3:30pm, the unlocked the door.

There was a sign in the room saying they had endured a catastrophe of being infested with bed bug the year before. They had a list of do’s and don’ts to avoid this happening again.

We had our showers, did our laundry, worked on the blog (trying to get caught up). The room was okay.

At dinner, the proprietor had put everyone travelling with Pelerin at the same table. We ate with Bridgette, Danielle & Luther from France (the bilberry pilgrims), and  Michael and Enga from Germany. It was a lovely meal of squash and vegetable soup, sausages, pasta and vegetables, and dessert.

We had an interesting conversation, considering most people spoke different languages. Danielle complained of English people coming to France and just speaking English (she spoke the best English of everyone not English at the table). Bridgette only spoke French. The Germans spoke reasonable English, almost no French, and Luther was able to speak just about any language, including Dutch and German.

We all agreed Donald Trump was dangerous, and totally incompetent. ISIS, and Syrian refugees were major issues, and the Camino was wonderful.

Bridgette is going to Nasbinals, I think Danielle and Luther and the Germans are going to Conques. The Germans are taking taxis/ buses as they see fit.

We had a reasonably sleep, as now we are tired every day from walking! I got up during the night to go to the bathroom and saw my first spider I have seen in a European hotel. It was very large and Russell was employed to dispose of it.