Day 5 August 31 Les Faux to Aumont-Aubrac

23.3km 462m ascent 545m descent 6hr. 26⁰ C

The room in Hotel L’Oustal de Parent we stayed at was okay, but not the greatest. The hotel itself, outside, in the lobby and restaurant, on the other hand, was very nice.

The breakfast was very nice, served at 7:30 am, making for a bit of a late departure. We had breakfast with Bridgette, Danielle, and Luther. No sign of the German couple.

We had printed out maps of getting to and from all the 35 hotels we are staying at on the Camino. Since this place was a km off the GR65, we reviewed our exit strategy from this hotel with the proprietor before leaving. We planned to walk along the highway for about a km rather than doing the other two sides of a triangle to go back the way we came. He pointed out to us two places off the highway that connected back to the GR65. A much better plan. We set off, with Bridgette not too far behind. The trouble with Bridgette is that she speaks unilingual French, and it really gets tiresome trying make conversation that anyone can understand. Russell and I walk primarily in silence, and we both seem to like that.

Once again it was very cool starting out. We had to climb, as usual to get out of Les Faux. Early on we passed a procession of cows near Le Rouget, going off for milking, presumably. Betsi the cow was in the lead, all the others following nicely behind, except for the cow bringing up the rear, who was walking on the other side of the road, and keeping a close eye on the cows in the procession. 

There were no dogs herding this bunch of cows. This was unlike the next procession of cows we encountered, where both a man, woman, and their dogs were supervising the whole thing. Of course the second procession was on a more major road with cars racing about, so the stakes were higher (or should I say steaks).

At the meet and greet, Jossee, the pilgrim from Quebec, told us the first three days of the Le Puy Way were up and down, but after that it would be basically downhill to the sea. This was her first pilgrimage. The first thing you learn along the Way, whatever country is involved, is that if they say it is flat, that’s only because the ups and downs cancel out. This is our 4^th day of walking, and there is lots of climbing up and down.

It continues to be a wonderful mix of mountains, plateaus, areas of natural beauty, green valleys, rocky landscapes, characteristic villages, secluded hamlets, ancient stone crosses and pastures hemmed in by ancient stone walls.

We passed through Rouget, the village taking its name from the red stone in the area. After this town, the characteristic red tile roofs of the houses in of the area up to and including Saugues, give way to grey slate.

Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole was a large city with many hospitals, presumably serving a large area. This is very efficient for the service provider, but not easily accessible for the family members. When my mom and dad each passed away, it was very convenient for my family that there was a small hospital right in Grimsby, close to their house, making it easy for us to go back and forth visiting them.

We went out of our way to go to the Tourist office, which was in an old castle, but the lady was very curt and unfriendly with us. There was a large group of mentally disabled individuals near-by outside the socio-therapy clinic, and they were very friendly and eager to help with directions,etc.

We stopped for coffee at a bar passing through, and visited the church after, where we met another German pilgrim with two youth from Lithuania. They sort of followed us out of the city, following the signs. After that, we went through a series of climbing mountains, descending off the mountain, followed by climbing another mountain, etcetera. Much of the time we were in a very pleasant forested area.  Past Chapannes, we saw a teepee and thought it looked like an Upper Canada Village, but decided it was a log cabin being built in the woods by a family, and they were living in the teepee while building it.

There was extremely steep descent down to Estrets, which provided a lovely picnic place, where we stopped for lunch. 

While there, Bridgette walked past. I’m pretty sure she was walking about the same speed as us. We had exited from the forest down that steep incline into a small village, and while there a truck with large timber logs drove up the hill. Where was he going? Maybe delivering logs for the log house?

We ran into Bridgette again entering Aumont-Aubrac, where we were both staying at Hotel Prunieres. We stopped for a Perrier at a bar, then went to the hotel. The water in the hotel was non-potable. The town is a bit of a laughing stock in the area because of this. Apparently the water in the town is dangerous to drink because it has a lot aluminum in it. They did provide us with a very large bottle of water.

The room was okay, but not terrific, but the hotel had a laundromat so we washed all of our pilgrim clothes. It was nice to get everything really clean. We wash it all by hand, day by day, but the machine does a much better job.

The dinner was okay. The salad was chocked full of cheese cubes and ham, which just add unnecessary calories, I order steak and Russ ordered beef stew, but we switch because the steak was rare and I like it well done. The stew was good.

We had a pretty good sleep there. It was a hard day.