A somewhat broken night's sleep at the hostel in Leguevin, caused by the passing traffic and a street light shining through the curtains, but it was a very well kept gite and the showers worked well etc.
An early trip to the boulangerie caught the sun just rising:
This is the communal gite we stayed in. Bear in mind that this was restored and is run by volunteers:
A quick breakfast and repack the rucksack. Jean had set out some time before me. So, out through the western end of the town. Now that I'm travelling "off map" (I left my guidebook due to weight issues) I occasionally take a trip down the wrong road for a km or so. I quickly found the right road:
I was soon in the forest, walking on shady trails:
I saw signs for "the historic chemin de St Jacques" and so followed those, unaware at the time that I was taking a detour through the small village of Pujaudran, with its church of pilgrimage. I refilled my water bottles at a public source and pressed on towards L'isle Jourdain, which is the suggested destination in the guide books. Here's Pujaudran from a distance:
A short time later I approached another town and to my amazement - because this had only been a few hours on the road - I realised it was my supposed destination. L'isle Jourdain had nothing to recommend it to me. I eventually found the communal gite (no thanks to the signposting!!) and although it was clean and by a lake, it was another basically empty building and the choices were either to cook for self or visit one of the slightly expensive restaurants back in the town. I bumped into Jean again approaching the gite, and as I discussed options (he is carrying a guidebook) I noticed a poster on the wall for another gite further along and - one with internet access! Ta-daa! It didn't take me long to make the decision to walk the addtional 15km, even though it was now 2pm and very hot outside. So I bid farewell to Jean for a second time and headed out.
Much of the first part of the trail passed beside the main road and then a railway track:
The time passed quickly although I stopped frequently to cool down. Under one particular tree I noticed it had a rather appealing symmetry (if that be the right word):
The last few km of my day were pretty exhausting and it seems that the amount of sweat produced has killed my little mp3 player which has been keeping me company on these walks. Boo-hoo. I shall take it with me today and keep it somewhere safer perchance it may restore itself, but I'm not especially hopeful. Here's my last rest stop before reaching the gite:
followed shortly by a very welcome sign:
An early trip to the boulangerie caught the sun just rising:
I was soon in the forest, walking on shady trails:
I saw signs for "the historic chemin de St Jacques" and so followed those, unaware at the time that I was taking a detour through the small village of Pujaudran, with its church of pilgrimage. I refilled my water bottles at a public source and pressed on towards L'isle Jourdain, which is the suggested destination in the guide books. Here's Pujaudran from a distance:
The day grew very hot. My way forward was on asphalt roads - perhaps making for smoother walking, but generally very hot and less interesting. Sparse shade to be found, so I took advantage when I could:
Much of the first part of the trail passed beside the main road and then a railway track:
The time passed quickly although I stopped frequently to cool down. Under one particular tree I noticed it had a rather appealing symmetry (if that be the right word):
The last few km of my day were pretty exhausting and it seems that the amount of sweat produced has killed my little mp3 player which has been keeping me company on these walks. Boo-hoo. I shall take it with me today and keep it somewhere safer perchance it may restore itself, but I'm not especially hopeful. Here's my last rest stop before reaching the gite:
followed shortly by a very welcome sign:
When I arrived I was immediately so pleased I'd made the decision to press on. What lovely, lovely people running the place (including one year old Oscar, who put in several smiling appearances) and superb home cooked food. Wow. I'm told it is the oldest established pilgrim gite on the Chemin d'Arles, although that only makes is around 25 years as a rest stop. The buidling itself is much, much older and is essentially a beautiful restored farmhouse. I ate well, slept well and, as you can see, updated my blog. When I discussed routes and onward accommodation with Andreas over supper, I realised that during this day I had covered almost 40km - more than half of it in 30 degrees. No wonder I was feeling like a rest! Today is going to be a similar temperature as I make my way to St. Criq and the recommended gite there.
There is one other apparent benefit to this decision to press on. I now find myself 'between' the suggested stopping points in the most common guidebooks. If I had stayed in L'isle Jourdain last night I would have had 33km to L'isle Arné today, followed by the next day's walk to Auch. What I am now going to do is walk the 30km to St Criq, stay there, and walk straight through Auch tomorrow morning, thus 'gaining' a day on the suggested itinerary. This means I'll be moving closer to the Pyrenees, which is an area I'm expecting to be pretty impressive. That's all for now folks.
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