Le Puy Route 2012 22.6. - 24.6.

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22.6 Moissac to Auvillar 21.5 km
Idyllic walking, flat and shady along the canal most of the way, a few locks, canal boats, the last hour or so along the road. We stumbled across a new donativo gite, run by Vincent, a very nice Swiss man, who fell in love with the superb stone house with huge lofted open barn verandah spaces. it is called Le Par Chemin and located in Espalais just 1.5 km before Auvillar, where we had booked. Since John had developed some muscle pain in his right leg, we felt tempted to stay especially since a German chef was volunteering there, but we decided to climb up the hill instead, where I had booked into the gite communal for the night. I stayed there last time and it is beautiful. We had a double room and I cooked dinner for us and a couple of nice French women.







23.6
Auvillar to Miradoux 18 km
Lovely walk today, every hour we came through a beautiful village and had a rest, as John needed to look after his leg and it was extremely hot.
St Antoine was our favourite, so quaint and immaculate, full of little ancient houses and flowers everywhere, exquisite little church.
We arrived in Miradoux hot and bothered and had planned to stay with Therese, a very pilgrim friendly woman, in her 70's, who is known all along the route. Unfortunately the ancient beds looked like we were in for a bad night's sleep, given John's leg and back, so we went on to stay in a marvellous new gite, La Bonte Divine in yet another beautiful old building, restored by a young couple. Nathalie used to restore antique paintings and Stephane used to and still does in the winter paint houses.
The mattresses were great and dinner cooked by Stephane was restaurant standard. A Pousse Rapiere as aperitif, which is a drink of Armagnac and white wine, delicious, followed by rocket salad with bruschetta with local cheese, tomatoes and poppy seeds, with yellow chicken from the Gers region, cooked in turmeric, white wine and olive oil with prunes and couscous. For dessert we had grapefruit sorbet with fresh fruit salad, liberal amounts of a very good local red and tisane or digestif to follow. The bill was 30 euros per person for the night, dinner, drinks and breakfast. The shower and bathrooms were finished in charcoal grey tiles with twin shower heads and granite stone basins.
The only unfortunate thing was that we shared the dorm with 3 French women, all wearing earplugs, who ignored their cellphone rings during the night and we were woken no less than 5 times. To top things off, the women decided to get up at 5 am for an early start and after the usual plastic bag rustling we were finally able to get back to sleep around 6 am.

John here: You think you know your body and which bits are vulnerable under stress. Well right out of the blue, yesterday, after a full day's rest and three hours into a dead level shady walk along the canal, my right calf which has never given me a twinge began to show serious signs of muscle strain. This got progressively worse and I hobbled through the last 5km to our destination for the day. After a good night's sleep and regular massage with Antiflamme I nursed it through a therapeutic day reduced to 18km. Fortuitously we passed through three beautiful villages which provided an opportunity for a half hour break every hour and a half and not only have I survived but it seems to be coming right.

24.6. Miradoux to Lectoure 16 km.

We decided on a short day today to allow John's leg to recover, which it is gradually doing. I felt really tired after the bad night and took a tumble on a bit of wet grass, slight graze and a bit shaken up, that's all fortunately. As we were walking along there was a big brown envelope stuck to a lamppost in front of us with our names on it. John had changed the rubber tips on his walking sticks and left the old ones on the breakfast table by mistake. Stephane and Nathalie who had to go to Lectoure anyway had put the bits into an envelope for us along with muesli bars and good wishes. How .absolutely amazingly sweet.
When we arrived in Lectoure, Marie Ange, whom I had stayed with last time I walked this route called us on our cellphone and offered to pick us up to take us back to her house for the night. She had recently moved house and as it was some distance out of town we gladly accepted. We had a very relaxing afternoon and after an early dinner, a grillade in the garden, we went off to sleep. Marie Ange only takes in people occasionally now, she is too tired she says.