Sept 15th and 16th Espalion to Conques

September 15 Espalion past Estaing to Golinac (about 28 km)

After breakfast we walked quickly over the thousand-year-old bridge and out of town along the Lot River. we saved ourselves some up and down by going along the road for about eight kilometers until we reached another very picturesque village, Estaing, which is dominated by a 900-year-old castle that was purchased in 2005 by former French President Valery Giscarde D'Estaing. His grandfather had purchased the aristocratic Estaing name, being only distantly related. After a heavy lunch, we walked along the river for about an hour before we stated to climb over a thousand feet to the top of the overlooking mountain. Unfortunately there was no coffee stop or even a bench on this track!  We finally straggled into the small hamlet of Golinac at almost 6 pm. Our pedometers registered over 40,000 steps for the first time, and about 230 flights of stairs of climbing, for a distance of 29 kilometers. We had a good dinner and enjoyed the heat in our camp-style cabin at Pole Touristique Bellvue. Dinner was down the road at the Auberge--Chambre d'hotels la Bastide D'Olt and was delicious and worth the extra steps to get there.

September 16 Golinhac to Conques (18 kilometers)

We had breakfast at 7:30 and were on the way by 8:20, pretty good for us. we covered the 8.5 km to Espeyrac very easily in the mist, but when we reached the next picturesque town of Senergues 3.5 km further, it had started to rain. We had lunch with our French friends and we all for shared a cab for the last 8 km down a steep road to Conques, where we said goodbye to Martine and Jean-Luc, who were retuning home the following day. We had reserved a room for two nights in a cute place just below the village. After another wonderful pilgrim meal with four courses, we crashed and looked forward to explore this famous pilgrim town next morning.