Saint-Chely

Today was a tough day. In the morning there was a thick mist as well a a strong wind over the top of the plateau:

I had a few close encounters with the many cows;

Fortunately, the marking of the path is very clear, so there was no chance of getting lost in the mist.

I stopped for lunch at Aubrac:

This was a very chic cafe, although it is used mostly by walkers, including pilgrims. I had a very tasty thick soup of vegetables and cheese, followed by a tart and a hot chocolate.

The woman serving me displayed great savoir faire by ignoring the cow poo on my boots and the fact that I smelled like I had just crawled out of a bog.

After lunch I passed a cross where people had written intentions for their pilgrimage:

Unfortunately, just after this I had my first rain, a heavy downpour for the last 6 km until the gite where I am staying now. This was also a long descent of 500 m over loose rocks, so I was very glad to arrive at the gite.

I could get my clothes washed and dried here and the 6 of us staying here had another excellent meal of soup, a duck gratin and "île flottant" (beaten egg white on a custard and caramel)

I emailed ahead to the convent in St Come that was recommended to me and I now have a booking there. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for tomorrow is not good and it is another 500m descent to the river Lot. However the gite owner tells me the path is better than the one today. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

The gite here has some good magazines about the district and there was a story about a village coming up called Estaing. Apparently a castle there was bought by former French President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing. The gite owner said it was a complicated story: his name was always Estaing, but he bought the castle and the right to add "d'" to his name. He has since sold the castle, but not the name.

After all this trekking over the plateau, it sounds good that we will be walking for a  few days near the river Lot, before climbing up to Conques.