Day 12: Estaing (166 km) to Golinhac (182 km)

May 23

Estaing (320m) to Golinhac (650m)

Annie:  What a night!  We had had such a pleasant evening – before dinner, we had gone out to explore the town and church, and ended up having a drink with our Dutch friends, and running into Jean and the amis d’Angers.  Life seemed good.  But the night’s sleep!  Someone was snoring so loudly that it was very difficult to sleep.  I suggested a grosse ronfleuse, but Dave thought it was a basso profundo of snoring. 

Jars of jam, at Hosp. St Jacques

Still, breakfast was very jolly – good coffee, plenty of good jams with the bread, and everyone was super-nice.  The clothes I had hung out to dry, however, had actually gotten even more wet during the night.  Dave and I had to peg our wet things to our packs, and set off, towel and underclothes flapping in the breeze.

Estaing

Dave: It was bright and sunny as we set out at 8:30am. The air was crisp and clean, after the late afternoon rain. 

Like yesterday, we began by walking across a bridge over the Lot. Then we set off down the D road, following the river. The path was mostly flat, until we reached a 3 way junction, where we branched off left and then began climbing. 

Annie: The morning was spent walking towards a place called Montgut, which I started to destest since we never really seemed to find it. Sad lack of points d'eau and picnic tables in this area. More of a hard luck countryside.  

Dave: We took one steep shortcut which Alison mentioned in the guide, but otherwise spent the rest of the morning climbing ever upwards. After an hour or so, the path, still climbing straightened out and ran along a ridge. We ran into our friend, Jean!

The balises finally directed us off the road and we followed a series of undulating paths through woods and fields. We stopped for lunch on one path. 

Annie: We finally had our picnic lunch, then caught up with Véro and Joss from last night.  It was sad to say goodbye to these fellow pèlerins, as we parted ways, near Golinhac.

A cross, dating from 1544

Dave: It began to cloud over, and the path narrowed into a trough like channel which cut through the fields. Along the way we saw several examples of the distinctive Golinhac roadside crosses, some which dated from the 1500s!

Our Chambre d'Hote in Golinhac

Snow on the Aubrac plateau

Annie: Our room in the Auberge is very nice, big and airy.  After our shower, we planned to visit the small town and church, but ended up taking a very long nap before we headed down to dinner.

Dinner was fabulous, one of the best we’ve had yet:  first soup, then pâté with pickles, then a salad of green beans, followed by roast chicken with mashed potatoes!  And a baked apple for dessert.  But it also felt odd, because we all ate at separate tables.  That felt lonely, after all our jolly communal meals.

Dave: It had rained later in the afternoo; the air cleared, and the temperature dropped significantly. We took another walk after and looked out across the valley to Aubrac plateau. The innkeeper informed us that it had snowed there earlier!  Just three days ago we had been there.