Montlauzun, Saint Martin, and Moissac; Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Soon after we left Escayrac, the rains began in earnest. The French call the kind of mud that we trudged through "la boue amoureuse" but we didn't love it even if it loved us!

The photos show the rainy skies over Montlauzun, which is not called "mont" for no reason!; a steep, waterlogged part of the trail; beautiful Montlauzun views both in the afternoon when we arrived and in the morning with the fog; Peg stuck in the mud in her blue rain gear and showing off her mud-caked shoes; Russ walking on the muddy trail with poppies matching his rain gear; an interesting building along the trail; the outside and the dining room of the place we stayed in Montlauzun; a wheat field; donkeys in the fog on our way to Saint Martin; the foggy morning view of the cross as we left Saint Martin, still in the rain; the cloister at Moissac; the blue door to our room at the funky chambre d'hotes in Moissac owned by an Irish couple with a teething baby; breakfast with the owners and other pilgrims in Moissac; and, Russ muddy boot with a big split where the upper leather separated from the Vibram sole.

The recordings follow our experiences in real time. Click on any of the links below to hear what we were thinking at the time.

Report 1-Montlauzun, Saturday May 24




Report 2-Montlauzun, Sunday May 25, 1

Report 3-A Snipet of the Montlauzun Church Service

Report 4-Saint Martin, More Rain, Sunday May 25

Report 5-Saint Martin, Monday morning May 26




Report 6-From the Trail, Monday May 26


Report 7-Moissac, Monday May 26

On the train to Saint Jean Pied de Port
Report 8-Tuesday May 27 morning


Report 9-Still on the train
Tuesday May 27 afternoon

Report 10-Demographics
May 27 evening

Report 11-Irish pilgrims, weather, shoe report
May 27, still

Lascabanes, Escayrac, and Montcuq

Getting internet connection has been much harder than expected. But we finally got on line in Montcuq and are able to post this note to say we are finding the experience fantastic, even when it rains as it is today. The whole experience is totally cool.

We have more recordings to post but no way to post them today...technical issues.(The recordings and photos in this post were edited in later.)

The photos show Russ at our lunch spot in Lascabanes, a couple of views from the lovely walk between L'Hospitalet and Escayrac, the main street of Escayrac, the living room of the place we stayed in Escayrac, as well as the outdoor kitchen where we had dinner and breakfast, the arrival of the bread truck, and the gathering clouds as we walked out of the lovely place on Saturday morning.

Click on any of the 4 links below to hear the voice recording it describes.

Friday noon May 23-Lunch on the trail in Lascabanes; Description of the pilgrim trail

The chambre d'hotes in Escayrac; The other pilgrims

Saturday morning May 24-Leaving Escayrac with rain threatening; Conversing with French pilgrims when you can't speak French

From the Trail and Montcuq, Saturday mid-day

The Trail after Cahors, L'Hospitalet

One of the photos shows a little stand with hot coffee and fresh bread and wishes for a Bonne Route for the pilgrims. It was at the top of a steep climb. Nice. Another is of the main street in L'Hospitalet. There is one of our room in L'Hospitalet. And,the woman with me in the photo is Mme Daudin, our innkeeper.






Click on any of the 5 lines below to hear the voice recording it describes.

The Trail after Cahors

Thursday noon, May 22-Lunch on the trail

Thursday afternoon, May 22-First impressions of L'Hospitalet; Waiting for the innkeeper to get out of church

Description of L'Hospitalet, our rooms, dinner with the innkeeper


Friday morning May 23 - Breakfast in L'Hospitalet and preparations for the walk to Escayrac

Gites d'etapes versus Chambres d'hotes

Report from Cahors 3

Below are three links that each will bring you to a voice recording.

Wednesday morning still-Yesterday's walk, the Soccer Club's pilgrim welcome, Impressions of Cahors

Wednesday evening from our dinner restaurant

Thursday morning preparing to leave Cahors

The photo shows Peg on the trail out of Cahors on Thursday morning. You saw the photo of the steep hill into town. Naturally, there is also a steep hill out the other side. We thought about taking the less steep route that pilgrims with donkeys or horses or bikes follow. We walked along about a quarter of a mile and were stopped by a post man who insisted that we were going in the wrong direction and needed to go back and up the hill. Just in case he was right, we did. In the picture Peg is climbing near the top of the "route sportif."

Report from Cahors 2

These are photos from our wanderings in Cahors, an old Roman city in the crook of the River Lot. It has wonderful narrow winding roads from its medieval times, as well as big squares from Roman days. The market was in a Roman square. The little boy was just too cute to not post him.





Click here to hear our plans for this Wednesday morning in Cahors.


The flat dry road is a section of the old Roman road that we hiked yesterday morning. Those Romans didn't like mud...bravo for the Romans! The mud puddle is typical of the post-Roman road building we encountered the rest of yesterday, although thankfully, this part was flat rather than hilly.

The fields often had this beautiful grass with wispy grains blowing in the breeze. Spectacular. The final picture shows some of the other pilgrims starting down the hill into Cahors yesterday evening with us.

Report from Cahors 1

At the end of a long, challenging day we reached the overview of Cahors adn began the steep downhill hike into town. The photos below are from earlier along the day's journey.

Click here to hear our Tuesday evening report about Easy morning on an old Roman road; Hard afternoon of steep uphills and steeper downhills

Russ is resting at one of our many water-break stops on this long day.
The blue "welcome pilgrims" sign was a sight for sore eyes, feet, and legs after one of the major climbs of the day. A local soccer club opens their club house (in the other photo) to pilgrims and gave us coffee and water. You may think it looks spartan, but it sure looked good to us when we saw it!

Report from further along the trail

Morning still-more on who is trekking

Report from the trail between Mas de Vers and Le Pech

Morning still-sounds of the neighbors

Lots of sheep along the path today

Report from the trail

Click here to learn who is on the trail and the difference between being a pilgrim and a traveler

Report from Mas de Vers

After our lovely dinner in Vaylats, we started off for Cahors. The photos show one of the lovely poppy fields we saw on the trail. The dog in the other photo was trying hard to get adopted by some pilgrims. Some pilgrims hike with a dog and we even saw one young couple walking with a donkey...a little hard to get a chambre d'hotes, but sure nice to have your friendly critters along.

Click here Morning for Peg's description of what she is seeing while hiking along, uphill and a bit breathless, on this lovely morning.

Report from Vaylats3

In Vaylats, we stayed at a chambre d'hotes where the family had a lovely home with donkeys in the yard for their grandkids. We had a super meal, preceded by beer at the pool, Jack Daniels in the living room, and good wine with the appetizers. Our host is retired and paints pictures of his wife for the fun of it, as seen above our bed in our room with a shower in the room, and toilet down the hall. We could have stayed at a convent, which we heard was really nice, but we certainly had no complaints about this place.

Click on Dinner to hear Peg's description of the feast our host made for us.

Report from Vaylats 2

The photos show one of the blue butterflies that accompanied us along much of this part of the trail. Russ is sitting at one of our rest spots. I included another photo of the trail...it was so beautiful, so often, especially when it was not raining. And, there is a photo of the place in Bach (named for a German family that settled there) where we had a leisurely, restful lunch and met a non-pilgrim woman from Vermont who had come to the town to visit a farm with a thousand varieties of irises.

Click on What is the Meaning of the Camino Experience for some of Russ' thoughts, to this point, on why we are doing this.

Report from Vaylats

Click on Monday for a recording from both of us about our impressions of the trail we walked today, the people we met, the flowers we saw, and the place where we are staying tonight.

As we walked from Limogne en Quercy to Vaylats, we could not help but notice all the irises in bloom. Note in the other photo that the stone walls along the path were, at times, very impressive! They also gave you a sense of the path being very old, and somehow rather cozy.

Report from Limogne 3

Click here Duffel Bag Story for a little story by Russ about our new-found meaning of being "on the Camino."

Report from Limogne 2

The photos show the Market that we visited in Limogne to buy cheese for the trail, and our room at the chambre d'hotes. At this nice place we had a shared bath, and a nice room and a good petit dejeuner in the morning to start us on our next day's trek. A French couple we had met along the trail earlier in the day shared the bath with us.

The cross at the crossroads was typical of many we saw along the Chemin in France. Notice the white and red mark in the left corner of the stone wall on which the cross is set. Those were the trail markers that we followed all the way through France. They were blazed on trees, posts, road signs, and all sorts of other permanent places along the way. To warn you from making a wrong turn, a red mark and a white mark would form an X to say "Don't come this way"!

Click here Still Sunday for more of Russ' impressions of this lovely day in Limogne en Quercy.

Report from Limogne en Quercy

Click on Sunday afternoon for Russ' voice recording telling about our hike from Gayfie to Limonge en Quercy and a bit about the place where we are staying here.


On Sunday, after our long hard Saturday, which included blowing all the fuses in our cabin when I tried to dry clothes on the radiators and cook on the stove simultaneously!, we had a wonderful, short walk from Gayfie to Limogne en Quercy. We walked with many other pilgrims. Three French women who had also stayed at Gayfie started out with us. They were about our age, or a bit older. They were patient with my French and I had great fun chatting with them about the Chemin and their goals in trekking along it...things like meeting other pilgrims and just setting the cares of everyday life aside for the time. It was heavenly to not have a long hard day. The photos show a well we saw and the trail as it passed through a little town.