We woke up to a beautiful and foggy landscape. We had a short distance to travel today, so we stayed behind at the gite long enough to have a typical French breakfast of bread, jam, coffee/tea/orange juice.  We ate with the other pilgrims with whom we had had dinner the night before (about 6 pilgrims and 6 tourists). 

We left around 7:30 and began enjoying the wide open vistas. The cows were out grazing in green pastures while the clanging of their bells filled the air with sweet music.  Clouds still hung low in the valleys.

Miniature wild flowers were abundant along the path and became my curiosity. 

After 11 km and 50 floors, we concluded our easy day of walking to Nasbinals.  Our backpacks now just feel to be a part of us. It is nice to be finally comfortable with them.

Aumont Aubrac is a sweet little village with one grocery store, one church and two of everything else. Most of the stores are closed Sunday afternoon and 1/2 the business are closed on Monday. Fortunately we were in one of the well-known gites in town (most people book their rooms 3 months in advance!) and had wonderful dinners on two nights at the gite. 

Our chef serving us mashed potatoes with cheese, garlic, and cream (a local delicacy). 

Enjoying the town. 

This morning we left early as usual.  The sky was cloudy with a cool breeze blowing. 

It is so peaceful and serene as the light filters in and the sky gets brighter as we walk through the wide open ranch/farm land. 

The sun made a few vain attempts to break through the clouds but never quite made it through. First time during our hike so far that we wore our jackets through the whole way. 

We see people carrying all kinds of backpacks. Today these two caught our attention. 

We made good time covering 16 km with a climb of 85 floors. 

We are settled in a Chambre  d’hôte located out in the middle of fields.  This is the view from our window.  As you can the sun is finally victorious. 

We are here, ensconced in a very pretty gite. We are showered, our clothes are washed and drying. Dad is napping, and I am sitting on a chair next to an open, screened ceiling-to-floor window overlooking flowers and the courtyard 6 ft below. And writing to you!

It’s 3:15 pm here. Today’s walk was lovely. We left at 6:20 am to sweet, dark coolness with the sun just about ready to rise. I love this time of day, with the air still, the village asleep, roosters soon to crow their cacophony off in the distance.

The path was gently rolling today, the views, breathtaking. We walked steadily until about 11:00 am when we stopped beside the trail to take our packs off, rest and eat a baguette sandwich of lettuce, mayo, chicken. It hit the spot.

I thought this was beautiful and conveyed our scenic walk. All I need to do is add the pictures. 

Today also turned out to be a social day, especially after lunch. We met Bart from Belgium first. 

As finishing lunch, we met Renee, Jacque, and Claude again (we had had dinner with them a few days ago). 

Pat having conversations with Claudine and Marie-Claude, two French former pre-school teachers.

This is the gite where we stay tonight and tomorrow night (tomorrow is our rest day after 6 consecutive days of walking). It will be nice to check out the town while wearing our sandals and without backpacks.  Simple joys. 

Btw, we walked 15 km and climbed 117 floors. 

We walked 15 km and climbed 107 floors today. We are settled in this tiny town that had no power most of the after (hence no service). 

The power is back but the network is not worth anything as I can’t upload any pictures at all. We are doing great and enjoying a peaceful day. The best way to beat the heat is to be done early so we will start again early in the morning.  We will try and post pictures when we have a better connection. 

Panaromic pictures that I could not load on the previous blog for some reason (WordPress went kaput)!

After a long and arduous descent into Saint Privat d’Allier yesterday, we needed a little pampering, and that is exactly what we got at our gite l’Etape Gourmand, run by Sonja from Holland. She runs a small but very attractive and beautiful place.  She agreed to cook us dinner, which was fabulous   We were the only guests last night, so we had a nice time chatting with her. She has a wonderful heart and enjoys people (she also speaks English very well). 

Saint Privat d’Allier is gorgeous with stunning views from all sides. 

The town is indeed, gorgeous, but  there are only two stores (a butcher shop and a bakery). With a long hike of 19 km ahead of us, we stoked up on a baguette, goat cheese, tomatoes, croissants and fruits (our picnic breakfast and lunch). 

We left our gite at 6:10 a.m. this morning before the sunrise!

The day started with alternating ascents and descents, but after an hour, it was downhill the rest of the morning. 

What a surprise when we reached a town around 9:30 a.m. to find coffee (for Pat) and Gelato (for me). 

At 10:00 a.m. we began a continuous, long climb of over 10 km with beautiful panoramic views. 

Halfway up the mountain we came to the chapel Madeline which originally was a 36,000-year-old cave, in front of which a facade added in 17th century. 

The climb continued while the views and shade allowed us to enjoy the early afternoon. 

We stopped along the way for our picnic lunch in the shade beside the trail. The baguette with cheese, tomatoes and chicken tasted great, and the ability to sit for awhile after the few hours of climbing was fantastic (especially with the pack off our backs).

It was a 90+ degree day, and the afternoon sun was merciless towards the top where there was only intermittent shade. After 10 hours, we finally climbed down to our destination of Saugues.

We are staying in a large gite tonight and just finished our communal dinner with other pilgrims and hordes of kids vacationing in this town and gite!

BTW, it was supposed to be 19km hike, but based on my Fitbit, it recorded 217 floors of climbing and 26km of hiking.  We are beat.

P.S it is nice to have wifi and a strong cellular service for the first time this week so that I could upload more pictures!

We stayed in a gite last night, our first experience of this concept. 

The family built their own new house right next door to their former family home and farm of several generations, and converted the former family house into a 17 bed gite.  There  were 8 others staying for the night. We had a group meal outdoors at the gite (there was no restaurant or grocery store in town). 

We left at 7:10 am in the morning as we had 15 km to cover. An hour into the walk, we spotted a shepherd with his dog driving the sheep. 

An hour after that, it was the cows’ turn!

About 8 km into the walk, we came across this chapel that was originally built in the tenth century. 

We were steadily climbing, but after the town of Montbonnet, the climb became steeper. 

We stopped for our meager lunch of boiled eggs, tomatoes, and bread (which is the only meal we could purchase without pork from our gite owner). 

What goes up must come down. We had a steep drop to our final destination of the day. On the way down we ran into “Mignonne,” the donkey.  Guillaume with his family had rented the donkey for 5 days. Amyn and Sakkar were interested in the idea of employing a donkey, so I got all the scoop!

Cost for five days €250 + transport cost of €250 (to transport the donkey back home) if you rent one way. No food cost for the donkey,  as he (in this particular case, she) will eat along the way. Make sure to let the donkey have water every 3 days (they are like camel). It can carry up to 50 KG on its back (so a few people can share one). 

This is the family who used the donkey.  Apparently Mognonne is very stubborn and and decided she wasn’t going any further down the steep trail.  The father, Guillaume, was about to lead her out across a horizontal road, and down.  The 3-year old boy sometimes rode the donkey.  The 5-year old walked, as did the others, including the baby on mom’s or dad’s back.

We are settled now for the day after 16 km of walking, and of climbing about 68 floors. We find the climb up to be always easier than coming downhill!

We wanted today to be a day to acclimate ourselves to the GR 65 route and get used to carrying our backpacks.  We left our comfortable Airbnb studio at 7:30 am. 

We picked up the route at the Cathedral and proceeded out of town. 

I just loaded my first picture, and it took forever!!! We are at our rest stop for the day. There is no wifi here and not much of a cellular reception.  I will try and load few more pictures to give you a sense of the countryside. 

The closest town is 1/2 km back, and it has no wifi either! The town’s population is 927 people. There are neither stores nor restaurants there, just a picnic area for all the hikers to mingle and eat their lunches.  Our lodgings provide a dinner meal, and the proprietor has said she will make us a picnic lunch for tomorrow.  

We walked about 12 km today and climbed 104 floors.  A good hike to get in shape for longer days ahead.
Here are some highlights from today’s walk. 

Looking back toward Le Puy. 

Turns out, if you don’t want to carry your backpack, you may be in luck!

Thank you for all your comments and best wishes. The best reward for Pat and Me is to go over those comments.