Happy Cats addendum

Dinner was a mixed bag. Having an included meal didn't offer many choices.  I chose the salad which was great--very fresh and topped with many small pieces os something like our country ham. The bread that accompanied it was really good. Then the entry was the meat of the day.  That is a very scary thought.  Possum?  Roadkill?  Weasel?  Oh, by the way, I saw a cute little weasel today.  Too fast for a photo. It turned out to be very rare pork with a touch of a gamey aftertaste.  Not my cup of tea.  Thank goodness for that baggie in my purse. I was able to avoid any hurt feelings.  I had to be very sly because this man sitting at the table across from me kept watching me.  Dessert was very good--Peach Melba.  What is not to like about ice cream and real whipped cream.  Who cares about the peach?  Just so you know not all French food is my favorite but overall France rocks!

Aumont-Aubrac to Nasbinals

Hello all!

You can just ignore this first photo.  My sister, Sandi and I were having a discussion of little twinkle lights because of a project she is working on.  She is very talented.  This was the headboard in last night's hotel.  I couldn't get it to text to her so you all get to see it.

A rather realistic scarecrow.  I only saw this because I made a wrong turn right off the bat.  I am still struggling with the knee so a half mile in the wrong direction is not so good.  I think the tendonitis is better but somehow by wearing the little strap that goes just under my knee, it caused me to pull a muscle in my calf. I know this feeling from my old gymnastics days. And it was killing me in the beginning. I was limping through a tunnel and a runner startled me and I twisted around almost falling. I practically saw stars.  She was so concerned that I was hurt.  I considered taking a taxi but I just kept putting one foot in front of another and here I am at my hotel 16.8 miles later.  It actually felt better as the day went on.  Luckily, tomorrow is supposed to be 10.5 miles.  I will see in the morning how it feels.

Look at this big fellah. He and I probably have something in common...stubborness.

A memorial cross.

And yet, another memorial.

This little baby was still wobbly and so cute. Mama looks pretty good too. What a beautiful coat and mane.  I wonder if they call them Palamenos in France.  There were three other Palamenos in the field.

I stopped in this beautiful chapel.

It was a memorial to Pierre. What a beautiful little chapel.

A rather clever farmer.  Most of my day was through very rural countryside. The trail meandered up and down.  I did get a bit of a chuckle.  I have a book about this trail with written directions so I tear the appropriate pages out.  I don't want to carry the whole darn book.  I consult the pages when I am confused.  One of the directions said to turn right at the first cow.  A little author humor.  Other than at the beginning of the day, the trail markers were very clear.

Snow covered mountains in the distance.

Very rocky hillsides.

At first, I was thinking okay, you have my attention and I stood there scratching my head.  Then I realized that the warning was for the cars to look out for me.  Did I say I was tired by this time?

I'm in cow country.

More rocky scenery. I found a nice rock to sit on for lunch.  I had the other half of my pizza from yesterday's lunch.  It was excellent! Almost as good as when it was warm.

The bridge over Le Bes River.  There were people fishing in the fast flowing water but I didn't see anyone catch anything. A fun thing to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

If you look very carefully at the right edge of the flowers, there is a banty chicken hiding.

Looked like a snake pond to me.  If you haven't heard the snake pond story...just ask Dennis about snake ponds.

Ha Ha very funny...this was about a block from my hotel. I have always thought that God has a wonderful sense of humor.  He does, after all, pair men and women together.  Well, most of the time.

I couldn't find my hotel initially so I saw an open bar.  I went in and ordered a diet coke...no diet coke. So I showed them a photo of my hotel and I was there.  Just when I didn't think I could make another step.  Hallelujah and Glory be! It didn't look anything like the photo. It is not as nice as my last hotel but the bar/restaurant downstairs was crowded so that bodes well for my included dinner.

So until tomorrow!

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!

Les Faux to Aumont-Aubrac

Bon jour!

I had such a lovely dinner.  A very nice and cute Austrail girl joined me for dinner.  She was dressed like she was a model for a women's sports magazine and I look like I was outfitted at goodwill.  She is a financial planner and is spending 4 months in Europe, traveling around, tasting many different hikes.  She claimed that she packed way too much and probably so.  We had a lovely dinner starting with Vegetable soup.  I have learned that European vegetable soup is very different from ours.  European vegetable soup is always pureed and smooth.  This was lovely.  Our second course was sausages with potatoes.  The sausages were terrific and different because they had tiny squares of potatoes in the sausage. They were served with mashed potatoes. We then had a cheese course (local cheeses)which went immediately into my baggie for today's lunch. And they were worth the wait. Our dessert was a poached pear atop a flakey crust.  Yum. She was great company and will be staying in the same hotel tomorrow night.  We have plans to eat together again.

Although today was a shorter day 14.3.  It seemed like a much longer day.  I was tired and my knee was getting on my nerves.  But I have tomorrow off.  There have been no places open to get lunch or diet coke.  I have been Coca-Cola deprived for 3 days and I finally found an open bar.  I had a Pepsi  Max which is calorie free.  It tasted of heaven and I swear it gave me a jump start.  Since I don't like coffee, I rely on Coca-Cola light for that boost. And in a pinch, I will even drink Pepsi light.

When I was in Switzerland, I was told that the bigger the bell, the more valuable the cow.  This girl had a big bell but I suspect that she frequently gets lost.  She was so skittish of me while the other cows just didn't care.  I was that unimpressive.  Some poor farmer probably has to chase her down regularly.

A very old cross and you can see my shadow taking the photo.

This is the church in Saint Alban.  Woohoo!  A church that was open.

The church was very plain on the outside and at the altar but had amazing stained glass windows.

This may have been the most beautiful stained glass window that I have come across.  Photos do not do it justice.  It was a very large window.

The light shown brightly through these windows. Magnificent.

A much more modern pilgrim.

A trail of roots.  Not so easy to navigate.

One of the things I like the most are the smells of the trail.  So often I get the smell of hay.  This must have been a fairly mild winter because farmers seen to have much hay left over.  The other smell is horse manure.  I think the farmers here in France fertilize with horse manure.  It is the only poop that I like the smell of.  It reminds me of stables in my horse owning years.

I saw several of these sheds in the middle of a pine forest.  I am not sure if they are to protect the pilgrims in inclement weather or are for the forestry workers.  

Beautiful vistas

More trail

I love these lacey French crosses.

Another French cross.

Isn't this the cutest hiker photo?

This cross looked very ancient and the primitive Jesus carved on the front looks like a child.

More views.

I love European signs.  There is no doubt about what this sign means but look at the cute drawing of the car.

Look at the baby.  I found myself singing "Away in a Manager"

This is the full view of the lambs.

Must be a Florida Gator.  Not my favorite team since I was a Seminole or as the Gators used to say "Semiholes, those half-assed Indians.  At least, we went further this year in basketball than they did.

My lovely hotel.  I was sooooooo glad to see it...14.3 miles later.  

I really have died and gone to heaven...French-food heaven. There are two restaurants connected with this hotel.  I am trying to get into the Gourmet one for tomorrow night but they are full.  I am first on the waiting list.  Tonight I ate at La Brasserie.  I started with the French equivalent of our cheese crackers.  They were oblong and about 4-5 inches long.  Made with Gruyere?  My next course was the above salad.  It was a round of a cheese something like brie but tastier.  The cheese was topped with endive, tart apples and walnuts, dressed in a tangy vinaigrette. I could live on this combination. The main course was beef slow-cooked for seven hours.  It was like pot roast on steroids.  This is the beef capital of France.  The beef was served over very flavorful cauliflower puree.  I don't know what that did to the cauliflower but it was way better than regular old cauliflower.  The beef was accompanied by a local especiality, Aligot which is mashed potatoes and a stringy cheese combination.  I couldn't decide on which of two desserts I wanted and the waiter talked me into a chocolate souffle and they brought by mistake the other one that I wanted.  What a fortunate mistake.  It was a layered dessert with chocolate ice cream or frozen pudding topped with crunchie toasted marshmallow-like creme brulee.  OMG!  The food just gets better and better.  Now I really hope someone cancels for tomorrow night.  If this was the casual restaurant, I can't wait to try the gourmet one.

I am going to need to double my hiking if I keep eating like this.

Hope you all have wonderful and great wine for dinner tonight!  Until tomorrow.