Another day of very
pleasant walking. Nothing very spectacular,
but nice. So nice, in fact that a year later
we hired a cottage near Condat and stayed
for a week. There are some details on
another page.
The Diary
The Commentary
After breakfast, we got
some bread etc., packed the bags, paid the
bill and were walking at 9:30.
It was a lovely day
for walking - blue skies, no clouds but a cool
wind especially in the morning. The
countryside was good too - woods, fields,
heaths.
A couple of miles
short of Condat the route has a deviation
presumably because of an uncooperative farmer,
so we walked along a white road. Then A
noticed that another white road, through the
hamlet of Coucoule would take us into Condat
quicker. So we took it. And got there at
12:30. Bought some nice nectarines on the way
through and had lunch at the bridge.
We were not too
puritanical about sticking to the GR, although
we did keep to it most of the way. But when,
as here, we were keen to get as far as
possible we would take shortcuts. But
generally the GR was as direct as any of the
alternatives.
Condat looks a very pleasant town and would be
a good place to spend a few days exploring
this area.
We decided to go on to
Lugarde and set off. The only difficulty was a
long 270m ascent through a thick wood - here
an altimeter would have been helpful to answer
A’s cries of "Are we at the top yet?"
We met the two
Frenchmen of yesterday. They had stayed at
Condat and had had a late start. They were on
their way to St Saturnin.
We got to Lugarde at
4 and discovered that the hotel was no more.
The railway line stops at Lugarde too - there
is a fence across the track. They now run
cycle powered trucks along the line. They come
from Riom-ès-Montagnes.
Looks like fun.
So we stayed at the
Gite d’Etape (100F) and found that we had to
supply and cook our own food. After a
stiffening drink at the local bar, we returned
to the boulangerie, (where the gite controller
is) and bought various supplies - bread, eggs,
biscuits, fruit, wine and sweets for the
journey.
The hotel must have
closed down relatively recently. The village
looks as if it will close down soon, too. It
is extremely sleepy. There was a dog asleep on
the road outside the pub. A small boy had his
remote controlled car making circles round it.
The big event of the day (besides our arrival)
was when three members of a local football
team arrived home in the village with horn
blaring to celebrate a victory.
The boulangerie is the only shop in the
village. People have to go to other places for
everything else (Condat?). One wonders how
much longer can it last.
At the gite I did some
washing, had a shower and got cooking. We had
scrambled eggs on bread with Cantal cheese,
side dish of tomatoes, melon to finish.
Accompanied with wine and Orangina. Round
about this time the camera broke. I don’t know
why but nothing would make it work.
Then toured the
village and had an ice cream, lemonade with
cassis sirop and a pastis. And so to bed - no
sheets but lots of blankets as we were the
only people there.
Alasdair was much
impressed with my culinary skills. He got a
much better meal than he was expecting. But I
don't know what we would have done if there
had not been the butter in the fridge.
