Stage Nine: Saint Come d’Olt to Estaing….???? or onwards….

Decisions, decisions… 

We would wake up this morning with an excellent rest, at a most excellent gite and sent of by our lovely hosts Sabine and Sylvain, a two days hike would put us in Conques the ending point for most of the people we are hiking with. We’ve met only a handful of people going to Santiago and only a handful of non-French. Laurence would explain with school starting back up things would be quieter on the Camino after this point. 

When the kids and I came about two weeks separated our timeframes from this one, and the difference in activity was night and day.  Is it because of Covid? is it because of popularity, is it because of time frame…? I suspect all three…

We had reservations in Estaing, for many, there was no place to stay, and we did know this was pre-reservation was needed. Today would be a normal hiking day and tomorrow a long one at a time we wanted our evening energy to listen to the monk's organ music, have dinner at the monastery and see the light show of the Tympanum at the church. It would be our last night with Laurence a the boys and we didn’t want to be exhausted. 

We arrived at Estaing, had a Coke, and decided to keep on going as close as we could to Golinhac and where the boys were staying. Their destination was complete, but we decided to stay in our hammocks. At 5:15 pm we decided to walk on, sent an email to our host for the evening offering our beds up for the evening, having no idea where our heads would rest this evening. 

We shared that with “MomPower” ( our WhatsApp group with Laurence and the boys) and took off… I estimated 3 1/2 hours of walking. We both admitted we were tired but when we put it into perspective we were tired every day at any moment, so what was the difference? Upon departing from Estaing we ran i to Jeremy, the only American I’ve met so far, a lovely guy, heading to Santiago!!! He and his friend had no place to sleep nor the ability to sleep outside so we shared our reservation with them and they would text later to say they did indeed secure our beds which was a relief to us! 

One hour from golinhac I texted MomPower a picture of the map saying we were a little over an hour away… we arrived at 8:45 at a campground with a gite where the kids and I had stayed five years before!!!!! The lady remembered us as “arriving late, eating lots of fries with ketchup, chocolate milk and being hungry”. Though I remember no one else really there tonight was busy!!!!! Though she had said she was full MomPower had beds in their rooms that we got to sleep in and we fell asleep relieved!!!! We could not be happier!!!!

What a huge sigh of relief and the right decision to keep walking there was no doubt!!!!

Stage Eight: Saint Chely to Saint Come d’Olt

We woke excited that we would be arriving in Saint d’Olt this evening! We would stay Gite Roumiou, a highlight of any Camino! Owned by Sabine and Sylvain, two of the truest angels of any Camino I have ever met! They too are pilgrims and it shows as they know just what a pilgrim needs at the end of a long day hiking. 

Five years ago they motioned for the kids to remove their packs, and an offer to keep them safe at their gite for us to visit the church and enjoy the town. Sabine brought refreshments for the crew, and some of the pilgrims had their feet soaking in tubs of water when we arrived. I knew this year I wanted to stay there!  This morning we got out and had coffee and met up with a group of Ducati motorcyclists, my hubby has a Ducati, or as I put it “ he has the Ducati but I have a cute jacket”, and spent our coffee time chatting about Ducatis. 

We were excited to meet up with Laurence, Paul and Maxance and walked to our gite together. They still had two hours to go, something my brain could not even comprehend after a long wonderful picnic in town. We picnicked until our wonderful gite opened. “The Cute Couple”, Flo and Oliver joined us. They really are a cute couple, but they earned their name yesterday when in the pastures of Aubrac I turned around to see him cradling her face in a pasture with such sweetness and affection. I took a picture with the hopes that I might meet this couple to share the image, and for no other reason really… I just thought they would want it! Super happy we got the chance to meet them, picnic with them, and have a few nights together.  

It was hard saying buy to our new Camino family mom and the boys… they would stop two hours from us, they would then be about three to four hours past us tomorrow night. We had put ourselves in a situation where we would have a long hike the day of arrival in Conques, a night typically you would not want to be exhausted because of all the festivities a monastery would provide in the evening for the pilgrims. This would weigh heavy on our minds, the walk of 35 kilometers to Conques, we’ve done this and then some but the night of festivities wasn’t an ideal situation. I did have a “ golden ticket” a night in Estaing. One of the most picturesque places in France. There was no bed to be had was the rumor we were hearing. Dinner tonight at Gite Roumiou was splendid, festive, full of laughs, and many conversations we didn’t understand due to the language barrier. Sylvain was quick to translate and offered us “ the best view in the house”, upstairs overlooking the bells of the cathedral. A delightful night!!!!

Stage Ten: Conques to Eglise La Roch

Did I mention the hour-long climb out of Conques? Of course, I did!!!! 

I wore my baseball hat today, the first time on a hike, but my face is pretty red, and thought I needed it. I think it made my incline easier as I could really only see down and not ahead if I positioned my head a certain way. Thus going up looked like fragments of needed leg movement vs the full picture. Lots of road walking today, but a great day. We’re both really sad to see our French family “ Mom power”, Laurence, Paul, and Maxance leave us. It’s hard for me to watch Bronwyn sad with this as well… we hate to see our children sad. 

They joked they’d send us pictures of themselves rested and clean and I said I’d send them pictures of cow, horse, donkey poop in our paths.  Most of the crew we know is stopping tonight in Decazeville, we would walk on three kilometers to a small gite across from the Saint Roch church. Five years ago a sweet lady would beckon us to stop here, I’m not certain if she was offering a bed, dinner, camping in her yard,  or wanted to chat with this mom and young children doing this trip. It was late that evening and we were exhausted so kept going… I would always regret it. So I knew this time I would stop, reached out and there is a new owner. We arrived at 6pm, we didn’t leave Conques until 11 and we took a really long lunch at the same spot as five years ago. 

We ate well!!!! We were greeted by Caroline, a pleasant gal, and her boyfriend and another pilgrim were playing the piano beautifully as we arrived exhausted!!!! ( don’t we always?). An AMAZING dinner, and a sweet gite, just four of us!!!! A room to ourselves and the best night's sleep yet!!!!!!

Over lunch a heavy set white lab greeted us, I went through my pictures to find we had a picture of this exact dog five years ago, but substantially thinner. There was another dog picture taken on this day and we both said it looked older and we doubted we would see it… well… an hour later a dog comes out of the driveway barking at us and it was it!!!! Even the owner confirmed when I shared the image. 

I forgot to mention about an hour from Conques I remembered a donkey VERY well from five years ago with pictures of Aynsleigh toddling with her backpack towards it, I kept looking for the donkey this trip and there he was!!! I screeched with enthusiasm and he brayed at me, and a pack of crackers later our true love had been rekindled!!!! It’s neat being greeted by some of the same animals as years past. The same happened to me on my Norte route of 2014 and 2016, the same sassy dogs captured over the years.

Stage Seven: Nasbinals to Saint Chely

So I’m noticing I got ahead of myself in my post from yesterday and mentioned St Chely, Saint Chely is very dear to me!  

Today is a perfect example of why a mom from the USA would pack up her kids for a long walk through France ( and then Spain)…. the Aubrac region is one of many layers that grabs the attention of tourists and travelers. We’ve met only a handful of non-French, but this region is famous for its food and beef. We would stop for a picture-perfect lunch, with a view fit for royalty! The day was hard and long but stunning!

We caught up to “the boys” or as Bronwyn writes it “ The Boiz” and their wonderful mom Laurence in town. We couldn’t get dinner tonight as the restaurants were all full or in their terms “

complete” but we had enough snacks to keep us happy. Drinks with our new dear friends Paul, Maxance, and Laurence would be the best way to end the evening. We love this family!!!  We compared notes and will be in different towns tomorrow night and the next… but will be together in Conques Thursday night, their last night!