Saturday, March 6, 2010

Wonderful Chambre d'Hotes Atelier des Volets Bleus at Grealou

Excuse the spelling, I'm using a french keyboard and no English spellcheck in this computer.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to give you a few brief highlights of the walk so far and for the benifit of my friends who are making plans to walk La Voiue du Puy this fall I will give some comments on the trail and our lodgings.

February 27, 2010: We stayed at the Abbaye Sainte Foy at Conques, which is an excellent facility very clean and modern even though it is in the 11th. century building. Good evening meal and good breakfast.

February 28, 2010 We started our walk from Conques to Decazeville a distance of 19.5 KM. A good first day of walking, mostly sunny with one brief shower in the afternoon. Tonight we stayed at a small hotel because the Gites in the area were not open for the season yet. Had an excellent meal at a little Chinese restaurant. This is where I had to take my extra walk to pick up my man Purse.

Man Purse

March 1,2010 Decazeville to Chaunac a distance of around 10 KM a short day because the next avaliable Gite would have made the walk over 30 KM, so many of the gites are not yet open for the season. We stayed at Gite Les Mont de Chaunac which wasn't really ready to open for the year but the lady let us stay. No hot water for showers in the evening but there was lots in the morning. We cooked our own evening meal in the kitchen and it was the best I've had so far , Pasta, broccollie in a creme fresh sauce with lots of smoked wild Pacific Salmon. Even had leftovers for breakfast.

March 2,2010 Chaunac to Figeac a distance of 20.5 KM. A beautiful day sunny and warm all day by 10 AM I had removed my jacket and was walking in a short sleeve t-shirt. We stopped mid-day at an Auberge-Bar-Restaurant and had a five course meal with wine for 12 Euros each. It was wonderful but I ate too much and could hardly move that afternoon. We stayed at Gite le Soleilho, to be avoided. The Gite was nice enough but the man is nuts. Evidently he had bed bug problems last year and is running the place like a concentration camp now. He had a long list of orders for us including garbage bags for us to put our backpacks in and not to remove them.

March 3,2010 Figeac to Grealou 20.5 KM and a fair amount of rain today but not too bad it was gentle without any wind. We stayed at the wonderful Chambre d'Hotes pictured at the top of this post. We had the whole house to ourselves and a Jotul wood stove to keep the house warm. we paid 10 Euros extra for food to cook for the evening meal and the lady left enough to feed a party. A wonderful old stone house a must stay place for any of you coming this way.

March 4,2010 Grealou to Cajarc another short day but we did stop for another wonderful lunch a bit more expensive and not quite as good but very nice all the same. We stayed at Chambre d'Hotes L'Atelier very nice, clean and comfortable. Neither one of us felt like a big dinner but we had a good breakfast with the family before we left in the morning.

March 5,2010 Cajarc to Limogne 18 KM and another beautiful sunny day. We stayed at the municipal Gite nothing special but clean and comfortable and only 10 Euros each.

March 6,2010 Limogne to Mas de Vert 21.5 KM and a lovely day. We are staying at Gite Poudally which is run by a very nice young couple and has a wonderful atmosphere, great food and laundry facilities. Need I say more.