Aumont Aubrac Day Off

Good morning!  I have a day off!  Boy, do I need one.  I slept in (well, a little) and then had a wonderful warm chocolate croissant for breakfast.

I decided to walk into the little town.  And it is small-- very small.  In fact, the only supermarket is closed on Saturdays.  What kind of supermarket closes on Saturday?  I was on the verge of a panic because I needed some supplies.  There seems to be nowhere to eat during the day on the trail. Finally, I found a little market and was able to buy some cheese and crackers and diet coke.  Even the hotel does not have diet coke.  Then I found a drugstore for some chapstick and kleenexes.  I wrote kleenexes just for Dennis.  He (the Yankee) once poked fun at me because I said kleenexes.  He informed me that the plural was kleenex.  I looked it up and both are correct.  Imagine, a Yankee making fun of Southern speech when they don't speak the full vocabulary.  Nobody ever talks about Northern expressions.  LOL

I went into the town church, Englise St Etienne. I now understand the phrase the deafening sound of silence.  The old walls were at least a foot thick and it was so nice to sit in total quiet.  I was the only one in the church. The chandeliers were not lit so the only light was the prysm-like soft colors of the stained glass windows. Beautiful in both sound and color.

The plain front of Eglise St. Etienne

The Altar.

Rather modern stained glass windows for such an old church.

I ate lunch at Le Relais.  Since Le Relais is one of my favorite Louisville restaurants, I had to try it.  For lunch, they seemed to serve mostly pizza's and salad.  I got a pizza a marguerite with tomatoes, basil, and cheese so I could have the rest of it for lunch tomorrow on the trail.  I was curious about what the name meant so I looked it up and

Le Relais is related to the word "relay" in English. In earlier times, it was a place where riders could stop to switch from tired horses to fresh ones. (How do you get your own back?) Naturally, these stops became places where merchants could make some money selling food, drink, and shelter. Over time, they evolved to taverns and inns minus the horses. And of course, our Le Relais is at Bowman Field Airport.

I wasn't able to get into the gourmet restaurant but I was able to have dinner with Jo, my new Australian friend.  I had the same salad but I got chicken with walnut mashed potatoes.  Rather strange but the more I ate the better the potatoes got.  Not sure I would reorder them.  This restaurant has such wonderful food.  I wanted to order everything on the menu but off to new places and new food tomorrow.

Au Revoir!