September 17th Conques

What a lovely small walled city to explore on a day off! Our Chambre de hotes Casalou was at the bottom of a steep hill on the Chemin going out of town. We had a large attic room decorated for a child and had in addition to our large double bed, 2 bunk beds. We had our meal at the Cassalou the first night along with 4 other older French people who were walking and driving their car. After breakfast we walked up the steep cobbled pedestrian road 300 meters to the Abbey Church of Saint Foy at Conques.

Abbey Church Tympananum of the Last Judgement - 12th Century 

The abbey is UNESCO heritage site, as is the old bridge leading out of town and across the river Lot. We attended the mid day prayers and heard the beautiful organ. We walked though the town and had a picnic lunch of quiches and a delicious hazelnut cake. Most of the village is clearly geared towards tourists with many restaurants and souvenir and art shops. The weather was intermittent sunshine but proceeded to start raining again in the afternoon. We visited the different chapels of the abbey and the Tresor (treasure) room which included a relic of the skull of S. Foye.  She was a young girl from Agen, France who was to have performed many miracles related to eyes, but was martyred by orders of the Emperor Diocletion (we think) in 303 AD. Her skull is encased in gold and bejeweled. There are many other interesting religious relics from the Middle Ages that have been kept continously in this old abbey. The display was well laid out and we had received a brochure with all the item captions written in English which was very much appreciated.

Conques from outside one of the gates

We stopped by the Abbey Gite which is where close to 100 pelerins have been staying each night, mostly in dormitory accommodations. Our three dog friends were sitting at the door of the Gite looking exhausted, and the smallest one had her legs bandaged. As all the pelerin's meals are served at the Gite, in the evening many of the restaurants close down. On our second night in the town we had elected not to eat at our hotel and thus were surprized to find so few places open for dinner. After a nice meal we went to the Church along with all the other Pelerin for a concert of the organ. It was very nice but we were not expecting to hear "The House of the Rising Sun" played in such a venue!