We keep on walking along passed by many but slow and steady we arrive at each destination. It is taking us between 6 and 8 hours a day to cover the distances we plan. The scenery that we walk through has changed daily from lush hay fields, green pastures and beautiful cows to barren rolling hills with big boulders. This region is an old volcanic region. The broad tracks are marked well and many have old stone crosses as well as more intricate metal ones. Each day we seem to be in packs of 30 pelerin walking within a few kilometers of us, with a few within sight.
Arriving in Aumont-Aubrac, Leslie almost burst into tears with what a lovely room we had in a very old house. The Maison was a combination of 2 houses, one from 1430 and the other 1700s. The proprietress Madame Cecile said that her family had owned the houses since 1780. Our bedroom was huge and had lovely wood carved room divider between the sitting area and the bedroom. The bathroom was lovely and had soft comfy robes. Madam also washed and dried all our laundry! This meant we could really just relax once we set up our own wi-Fi, connected to her internet, and we could post the blog. We had dinner with our walking companions Martine and Jean Luc at a local restaurant. We were served an outstanding meal which included steak and aligot. This Aubrac area is famous for its Aligot, which is a hearty mix of mashed potatoes and cheese. The food that we have had for our set price dinners have been delicious, and have included the local meats, cheeses and wines. The day was to have been a "short" day of 12 km but turned out to be 17km and few places for a cafe or a snack.
Thursday from our lovely Maison we went by taxi with our friends 5km out of town to a small chapel, thereby avoiding a long detour to cross a highway leaving town, and started on the trail from there. Martine and Jean Luc have done this trail a few years ago and with the advent of the highway the Chemin now has a detour of over 3 km to go around the highway. As the day would have been 27km long, we decided to share the taxi with them and make it a 21km day. By 8:45 we were on the way. The weather was cold and blustery all day. We had put on zinc oxide as a sunscreen but mainly to prevent chapping from the cold wind. We had a lovely hot vegetable soup in Finieyrols along with a baguet sandwich with ham. We stopped for cafe au lait at Montgros, 2 km from our evening destination of Nasbinals. We arrived wearing our rain jackets as it was a cold, 55F. The trail today was exposed to the cold wind but beautiful. Many of the pelerin we met in Spain that had walked through France had said the scenery and food were better in France than in Spain.
The proprietress of our guest house creates perfumes using the local herbs which are known here in the Aubrac area. The plateau of Aubrac is home to more than 2,000 species of plants, including such herbs as thyme, sage, chamomile and mugwort. One of these, called calaman (also known as AubracTea) is much appreciated for its mint-like aroma. We booked the next two nights rooms in Saint-Chely d'Aubrac and then Espalion, and advised the baggage people of these plans. We tried to get the proprietress to book through Monday night for us but she had had enough dealing with the 2 nights for us. We are having dinner with our friends so we will ask them to help us.
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