Boog's Blog

12 September. Cool quite windy then hot

Was advertised as a very hilly and steep ride from Lectoure but a strong westerly wind was not mentioned.  Pedal down grades that should have been joy rides.

QB arrived at the cathedral too late to see and listen to the Mass.  After a short parable and a very long seamiinly endless explanation of its meaning by the head priest got to hear the big organ and group singing. The organ and voices are just special in these wide open Gothic buildings. Have been enamored with then since hearing Beethoven at the Madaline a hundred years ago.

Condom was a Gaulish area and later a commercial success from its position at the confluence of two rivers, baise and another. City was destroyed during the religious wars. Much has been restored.

Vineyards and Armagnac.  Here is where the later seems to be centered. Might be time to try Floc.

Richilieu beheaded the Count of Armagnac. 

Canal boats for hire in the river.

11 September warm and sunny

Rest day. 

15th century cathedral available elsewhere or on web.  To many this is past the medieval period. Academic wars have been fought for less.

Washing at the gas station. Picture sent earlier.  Quite convenient and once again we have clean duds to start the next section

Perfect lunch. Really perfect. Wonderful tomatoes, generous amount, with very fresh mozzarella, oil, Basil and a side of frites.  Perfect.

Bought two large tomatoes for afternoon snack. Whole Foods would charge $4 to $6 per pound.  In the store with hand picked service, were not allowed to touch the fruits, about 2 euro per kilo. Roughly a dollar a pound. Peaches similarly priced. Fruit and veggies are almost free. Coffee costs more than Starbucks, as does tea, or Perrier. 

Dinner done by chef with Grande Toque

September 10, 2010

Early am very Keats, cleared and a lot warmer later.

Unclean socks. Still wheezing but not as much.

Slacker pilgrim had a great walk yesterday along the Canal between two rivers, Tarn and Garonne, although some confusion in the sacking party over which river was which (canal obvious).

Path flat for a change so was able to make decent time to Auvillar. Only wildlife was squashed hedgehog, which we don’t see in NA (that is, squashed or 3-D).

Now in departemente of Gers, which is also Gascony.

Today was hugely agricultural. Took taxi to Miradoux, then hiked over hill and dale and field to Lectoure (naturally on a huge hill). Close to 10 miles. Most of the land I passed by or stomped (frequently) on was cultivated down to the last meter. Not much livestock visible except the occasional Xtreme free range chicken (well, pigeons). Big crop is sunflowers. This time of year most looking sadly down.

Also saw what looked like (high bush?) blueberries, but wasn’t sure enough to sample. Perhaps a gardener in the crowd can identify them. Tomato, ficelle and young cantal for road snack. Tomato not that great. Lectoure appears in the distance after a certain point on the road. It looks about five minutes away, but actually takes over an hour to reach the center. Pilgrims find this quite common en route. Cathedral and spa town; home of Armagnac. Good size hospital to go with the spa (thermal baths for the cure). No laundry in town center–very disappointing because certain items now quite unpleasant. Lots of British here. Some chat about hotel having Grand Toque chef. Tomorrow, rest day and laundry search.

Shout Out to Herb: here’s a fifteenth-to-nineteenth century church, St Blandine in Castet-something. Good paint.

10 September cool and then warm

Gained less than 10 meters over an almost 40km ride but due to steep rolling hills ascended 500 meters. Nice if a bit challenging ride.

More medieval villages like St Antoine and Flammens. Both with old churches.

Stopped to get some dark bread and fruit and ended up with fig and apricot bread, quite nice. Gave some to a trio of folks from Brittany.  After asking them if they were almost English they warmed up, maybe it was the bread.  Taught me a new French word. In Brittany they say kenavo instead of au revoir.

Passed many vineyards to have something to show other than old buildings.  Landscape of big rolling hills with agriculture other than soy or corn.

Lectoure is another walled town with an old cathedral.  Sitting inside composing while listening to the organ and choir practice. Turns out that a Bratislava group is doing a Vivaldi and many other pieces here tonight. 21 euro per person.  Practice sounds great.

Lectoure was the main residence of the counts of Armagnac during the middle ages. After that same story of 100 years war and religious wars. Then like the other Bastides towns prosperity. 

Got here just in time for the market and some nice samples. This market had a truck with shoes.  

Went to the thermal bad but had to leave.  Water temp 32!!! Incredible.  Barely skin temp. 

9 September.  Cool overcast some sprinkles.
              
Imagine Cezanne rising a bit late for him and going out with his tools. On his left is the Garonne river.  Then 10 meters of forest and shrub, a paved tow path for the Canal entre les deux mers,  and then the fine canal one his right. Walking towards him are two Babushkas covered in bright colors from head to foot, scarfs on their heads but faces uncovered.

They pass by all too quickly to be captured.

The ride and walking path from Moissac to Valance, about six km from Auvillar, is on the tow path.  A few parts of the Erie canal are still like this, far too parts.

Short side trip into Valance d’Agen. Church pictured. grand cafe and a pain au raison! 

QB walking path pictured as well as the large Garonne. Tarn also crossed.

Auvillar’s church is, like moissac called St Pierre.  It is part of the Abby and has a similar history of Roman to post middle ages. Restorations, wars, religious wars, and prosperity from traffic on Tarn.

Sept. 8, 2010; rain, drizzle, sun, not too hot
Still wheezing, but less than last week; clean socks!

Shout out to greve general! Yesterday there was a national strike, including Post Office (Monday was a “fermeture exceptionnel,” presumably to conserve energy for the strike) to protest the plan to raise retirement age from 60 to 62. Second strike since we’ve been here and still a couple weeks to go. Awesome.

Yesterday (to Lauzerte) was a pouring rain and mud slog. Boots not quite as waterproof as advertised. Paths were basically up and downhill streams. Disgusted all round. Lauzerte is another perfect medieval town perched on a very high hill. Since the hotel was a dump smelling poignantly of local farms at the base of the hill, I missed the town due to fatigue. On the other hand, after dinner (sucked) we observed what appeared to be a philosophical version of rugby. We stood and watched for a while, waiting for action, but the coach (or whoever) seemed to be instructing in a loud voice and moving people around. At no time was there any team action. I assume after a while everyone went home since it was getting late.

Today, did not want to miss Moissac, so took a bus/van, which cost Euro5.30. There were two passengers including me. While riding, pondered extreme free range chickens of France (one was dashing like track athlete through stubbled field). If chicken “accidentally” becomes roadkill, does driver claim chicken or does farmer rush out and grab deceased for soup? Does driver have to pay?

Moissac has a famous medieval abbey church and cloister (“le plus beau du monde”). Includes many interesting wood/polychrome figures and hand-painted walls and arches, including the ceiling (see photos). Moissac not perched on a hill and has a canal for the Tarn and Garonne running through.

Cloister (not pronounceable in French) has many decorative column capitals, is beautifully proportioned with pigeons (see photos). Tourist Office has stranglehold on visiting rights and charges to see the cloister (we received pilgrim discount).

Tea at a Salon de The. Oddly, there was no strong black tea other than Earl Grey; enjoyed a large cafe creme. When arrived in UK, will spend several hours at Bob’s slurping PG Tips or Barry’s, whatever they have.

Watched meat delivery truck double park. Truck was width of entire narrow street. When the rear door was open it nearly decapitated someone on the sidewalk. Driver began hauling out huge sides of meat. Cars piling up behind.

Tomorrow, Auvillar. Supposed to be a flat canal path walk. Auvillar is perched on a hill, of course.

7 September raining and even more raining.

QB and I set off in opposite directions this morning. She by the muddy path and I by a nice easy road, which after about 15km climbed straight up at 8% or more into the old medieval town of lauzerte.

Here we find the beginnings of the Castlenaus, a type of urbanization that preceded the Bastides.

Lauzerte is one of the “beautiful cities of France ” an appellation much coveted.  The name means light or enlightenment and was another important stop for the pilgrims. Another place where they had to climb up 100 plus meters for a safe place to rest their heads.

Buildings and streets from 13th to 17th century.

The paintings in the church are by Joseph ingress the father of the more famous son.

This is very much a town of artists. A highlight is the jardin de pelarain. A tour of the route with a maze and plaques of poetry. Multi language.  Peaceful and appropriate. 

Picnic lunch and then to hotel.

6 September overcast and some drizzling

Perfect bike ride.  Uphill for 8kms rising 100m and then down 115m at the same slow descent.  Finally a short climb into Montcuq with it’s tower built in the 12th to 13th century.  In the 13th century the armies of Simon de montfort occupied and pillaged and the town again pillaged during the 100years war. Never really recovered. 

Nice old buildings and the tower. Not much else.  I even checked at the touristic office.

QB walking today. Slow but real progress.

Leaving cahors was via 3kms of car dealers.  Then the pictured wine place.

For one point identify the crop.  Have seen many sunflower and summer wheat farms but I cannot guess this one. Dee has two points for the pun,in French, identification. 

6 September Overcast, very humid, some light dripping

A few parts to this post: the ride to Montcuq, QB walk, the fabulous and interesting place we are staying, and comments about the exterior of the buildings.

Not very clean socks.

In the post by KB the ride was discussed and QB’s (aka Slacker Pilgrim) walk mentioned. This post contains pics from her walk.

Slacker Pilgrim cabbed to Lascaban (“village fleurie,” very clean stones, closed). After marching forthwith in the wrong direction, wheezed back uphill and headed toward Montcuq, allegedly 9km. Interesting walk over open Heath with old sunflowers (photo). Occasional sprinkles, no wildlife or roadkill. Surfaces of paths are white. Area is called Quercy blanc. Saw shepherd’s hut. Arrived Montcuq in time for lunch (croque madame); otherwise Moncuq mostly closed. Watched guys playing petanque (photo). Found open boulangerie.

After suitable investigation of the village we went to the Chambre d’hôte. This is a renovated 15th century building – renovated by Bob and Claude Vell, previously successful in the fashion industry.

see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Vell

naturally you can use google translate to convert the page into your native language.

Their place is described at

http://www.4ruemontmartre.com/anglais/home.html

but sadly it lacks pictures of the place. Some are supplied in this post.

As a side note their daughter has a restaurant in Berkeley, CA.
http://www.lanoterestaurant.com/

Discussed with Bob that the exterior of the buildings in this region, for the past several days and even longer, are clean and scrubbed. Not like the North of France we were more familiar with, nor like the South when we last visited. He said that persons here take pride and have spent the expense to clean up the lovely buildings, unlike other parts of France. It is quite spectacular to see. Bob and Claude being designers are heart have done this place with great care and outstanding taste. Including washcloths in bathroom. Unseen elsewhere. QB clean for first time since leaving Cali. 75 steps from the basement to the top floor – Bob and Claude will remain in good shape.

Dinner was suggested for 8:30, much later than the 7:30 we have been accustomed to. We may have compromised on 8pm due to early bedtime for pilgrims. Changing as we get closer to Spain?

Shout out to Nike dri fit socks with R & L foot. Sold in packs of four. Better than regular hiking socks and not very expensive. Similar hi-tech socks here are 9euros.

Some additional pics