Conques Day Off

What a beautiful but cold day it is here in France.  This is the tourist center of Conques.  It was so wonderful to have a day off. Tomorrow I start back walking again and have six days in a row.

My hotel is one of the nicer ones I have stayed in.  The entrance doesn't do it justice.  Last night for dinner I had a beautiful salad with blue cheese and a common dressing here in France that is sort of a white vinaigrette.  Then I had the best white fish with four vegetable medleys.  I love parsnips and one of the vegetables was parsnips.  

There is not much in this little town but this magnificent church called the Abbey Church of Saint Foy.  Saint Foy was a young girl who was martyred in the first century for refusing to worship pagan Gods.  She was known as the Saint of pranks.

It is a somewhat plain church but absolutely cavernous. It is surprising to find such a grand Church in a town of about a thousand people.  It appears that there have never been more than a thousand people here.

I believe they must hold some concerts here.  This is the first time I have ever seen a baby grand inside a European church.

I think the standing statue is Saint James because of the shell in his hand

A tribute to Saint James or Saint Jacques as the French say.

If you look closely in the center...there is a figure who looks exactly like Dobby in the Harry Potter Series.  

Lunch was this amazing tarte with salad.  I would have called it a quiche but it had puff pastry instead of the traditional pie crust.  And finally, a coca-cola zero. I saved half of the tarte for lunch tomorrow. This is the hardest place ever to find supplies.  There is no market in this little town and I am totally out of supplies.  It is easy to collect bread because they serve it with every meal but they do not serve protein for breakfast so I rely on cheese.  I couldn't even find local cheese in the town.  What kind of French town doesn't allow you to  buy local cheese?

A view of the main street.  A car can just barely fit  to drive through.

Conques is filled with little archways and cubby holes.

A view of the area below.

Conques is also known for its narrow  medieval streets

Another fabulous dinner.  I had an enormous walnut salad with these incredible local salad greens.  My main course was a sausage with something similar to ratatouille. It was supposed to come with mashed potatoes.  I never thought I would say this but I was tired of potatoes.  I felt my forehead and I don't think I am ill. I skipped dessert because I was stuffed.  I had dinner with Jo, the Australian girl and a Frenchman that she had met on the trail.  He was also very nice and his English was pretty good.  So tomorrow I head out again.  Good night and sweet dreams.