BUSCA QB Conques

Friday/Saturday, August 27/28, 2010; Espalion to Golinhac to Conques; cooler than 42C but still too warm; better today; still sick.

Happy Birthday to me and thanks to St. Jacques/Jacmo/Jacob/Iago/James/Jimmy/Great Atuin, there are birthday miracles to report:

1. France received its allotted annual EU consignment of staplers and we got one! Ditto plug adapters. KB finally glutted on frites. Spoiled by catsup.

Hiked from Espalion to Estaing. Should have been easy except certain pilgrims blindly followed the signs instead of the maps, which would have showed me a nice flat road, and was forced to climb what was effectively a 2mile vertical wall of red dirt with few footholds. After a few feet, realized error, but was too afraid to roll back down so had to keep going. Near death at top (guidebook: "good views all round." Idiots!). Staggered into Estaing, lovely town (see photos, apparently the town council thinks so too). Met Ian (intrepid Aussie pilgrim, bothered by no road), who could not believe I had climbed the stupid hill. Even he had wisely taken the road. We were also concerned about Ann and two German pilgrims (Erika and Trautha??) who had not yet arrived (I'm pretty slow). After being told that an empty table for 6 could not be used because we were three, we sat around. Ann staggered in about 30min later, having been suckered by the same hill. She claimed to have climbed it literally on hands and knees because of the backpack weight. The Germans turned up after a bit, also sucker punched and not impressed by the views. Taxi for me to Golinhac via bike repair truck. Couldn't walk any more.

Shout out to Bob: 1) staplers are used by pilgrims to keep map pages in order, 2) you mean Hugo can turn around in your shower without the curtain sticking.

Today (8/28) an "easy" walk to Conques, yet another UNESCO site and imaginary medieval village (see photo). Guidebook, which lies like a rug, said it was about13 miles. GPS showed 17.5 with a 2 mile steep downhill from St Marcel (the REAL pilgrim way). Note: ST. Marcel had very vigilant chickens. Made it, but now can only limp. Beautiful city with important Cathedral containing relics (v.important to have relics) of St. Foy, a 12 year old 3rd C (or thereabouts), typically grisly martyr: decapitated-although no explanation why unless you fork out 6Euros to see the reliquary and some other stuff.

Good photo of St. Peter with cockerel from some other church.

Shout-out to NOLA. During hike, dreaming of alleged 3-star hotel (standards low in France). Imagine my surprise and delight when we discovered our 3-star "upgrade" was a metal FEMA prefab without soap, towels, etc. In a campground. No restaurant. Not amused. Made up for it with good cheese and a superb melon (Charentais?) from epicerie for dinner.

Shout out to Stephen Colbert: to Threatdown List add 1) mountains, 2) squatters (FR toilets).

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Busca by KB Conques

Posted on August 28, 2010 by boogkb

From Evernote:

Busca by KB Conques

August 28 Sunny and a lot cooler

A perfect day for banana fish.

QB is suffering. Her asthma has flared up from the very hard walks in the heat. She started the trip with a sore throat which is finally clearing but her check is congested and breathing is difficult. Add the heat and many hundreds of meters climbing a day and it has been really difficult. Not the distances, but the grades and very poor path. Even the Aussie bushwalkers have resorted to the roads on same days. QB will do some road walking here.

My ride from Golinach was spectacular. First a descent of 4 km dropping almost 400 meters. Had to stop the bike many times to let the rims cool. Dropped me into the town of Entraygues a lovely town situated on the river Lot in the Gorge du Lot. Naturally very steep hills surrounding the river road. A perfect ride of another 30 Km to Conques on a small well paved surface with little traffic. Rode extra slowly. Had a good conversation with a Dutch woman, also on bike, riding the roads for fun; here on holiday.

A day of animals. Stopped to take pictures of these lovely turkeys or small chickens but the farmer seem to think I was a fox and diapproved; moved on. Farm with many burros, braying. Different cows and now horses being fed apples by another not so happy to be photographed farmer.

Staying at a camping site right on the river Dourdou a pretty tributary of the Lot. All services. Have a very small mobile cabin more like the back of van. Comfortable and a nice change. Not sure out dinner yet but we are just a large climb up a hill ( 100 meters above us is Conques) from this important historic city.

Instead of pictures and explanation strongly suggest you go to Wikipedia and look up the city of Conques.

Off to conquer the hill ascent to town. Met QB and watched a wedding at the big cathedral – nice organ of course. Clearly a high end wedding based on the way people were dressed and the amount of jewelry and Vuiton purses. The priest or bishop, hard to know, spoke interminably about what the future couple must do and not do and how they are to honor etc etc. Suspect by their ages that they have been living together for a decade or maybe a modern second marriage.

Obtained some food for dinner in the market at Conques. They were speaking a variant of French I had trouble with so I asked if it was Langdoc Nope, a local Patois, very local to Conques.

Some recent dishes:

-gazpacho soup served as a drink in a wine glass

– confit de canard

-confit de poulet

– oven roasted poulet

-incredible list of cheeses, far too many to remember

-a gateau de fraise – we shared it as we were too full for dessert but …….

– picture of someone making aligot at the market in Espalion. No picture of the one making a

giant paella. Could smell the garlic from many stalls away.

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Busca Golinach

Posted on August 28, 2010 by boogkb

August 27. Sunny and warm but better

Espalian had a wonderful weekly market. Good apples and melons and on and on
and on. Whole Foods on steroids. Some fruit to start the day. Pics on QB
camera.

Off towards Estaing but not before a visit to a Roman church pics of eglise
de perse.

A little further up the road one finds St Clair with its 9th century chapel.
Pics included.

Estaing along the river Lot with a chateu and small winding medieval streets
being navigated by large trucks.

Lunch with Ian and later Ann

Up to Golinach with a sign in d'Oc.

Dinner of gazpacho, legumes, fabulous chicken down in an oven with large
amounts of butter. Baked apples with caramel.

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La Bastide d’Olt Golinac.jpg

Posted on August 27, 2010 by boogkb

What an archetypal auberge!
Libby

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La Bastide d’Olt Golinac.jpg

Posted on August 27, 2010 by boogkb

La Bastide d’Olt Golinac.jpg

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Montgros to St. Chely

Posted on August 26, 2010 by boogkb

From Evernote:

Montgros to St. Chely

Notes from the foot sackers. Good weather, not too hot. Still coughing. Same sQuashed toe. Rained yesterday.

Classic country walks today through cow fields. Luckily dry so no mud or wet cow pats. Cows d'Aubrac are a big breed here and are beautiful. And free range, as are chickens (see photo). Climbed up for several hours then back down a steep andu painful path. Fortunately I ran into Anna of Australia again so we were able to give one another some moral support.

Yesterday, hiking through another cow field we ran across Bernard, a man with two burros. He was halted in the field, and if I understood him correctly he was saying that the burros would not cross a very small puddle in the field and he was stuck. Also yesterday a stile that we had to climb over (photo of Anne post-stile). Not a welcomed obstacle. Saw some pigeons. Squashed frog ( see photo).

Relived re French bread. Was worried in Le Puy that we would not find any real boulangeries. No fear. There have been many along the way and beautiful bread specimens in most. KB still pretty depressed about lack of frites. Also, no staplers in France. I have yet to see soup de poisson, buto are moving out of the Massif region and into Languedoc, so perhaps the menu will begin to change.

Also tired of "pilgrim breakfast.". French way to save money by feeding you yesterday's stale bread with jam for breakfast. Not enough protein for a hungry pilgrim about to stomp o'er vale and hill.

Lovely church (see photo) and garden at Aubrac. Interesting murals inside inside. One referenced "ultreia" which pilgrims used to say along with a response (something like "et sus eiea") apparently Latin from Hebrew and per haps something else before that. Meaning something like moving on and moving up (the latter spiritually). French squatter toilets exist still, I'm sorry to say. Have been desperate enough to use them and have not forgotten the technique. Interesting how standards begin to deteriorate on the road. Now a stall shower that only flood the bathroom a little is a hotel high point.

Dinner tonight included confit of duck. Really Good. More cheese. Another tomme, another bleu.

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ST Chely to Espalion

Posted on August 26, 2010 by boogkb

From Evernote:

ST Chely to Espalion

Thursday august 26, 2010 St Chely to Espalion, fucking hot!!!! Still sick.

Hotel Moderne

42C or 157F. At these temps could be visiting G&M in AZ and loafing with Michelle at the Phoenician Spa.

Clean socks today. Lots of moleskin.

Stomped about 12 mi uphill and down (note: this section is supposed to be downhill out of the Massif. Hah!). Luckily with some good pilgrim company for a bit. Finally succumbed to beginning of heat stroke. Would have been embarrassing but luckily a 10 (?) year old school boy who had skipped breakfast and lunch was also suffering.

Gave up at St Come d'Olt with a spiral eglise tower like Carvel. Found KB at local cafe ( and possible frites stop!!!). Massive ice cream consumption, then took taxi for last 6 km to Espalion. Driv er kept saying "fait chaud" Yes.

KB also had exciting day fixing flat in boiling heat and looking for tube leak in the town square fountain. Astonishingly, the one good bike store in the South of France was conge annuel.

Said au revoir to lovely French family. The youngest of the three boys practiced his Eng lish by saying he was sad to return to school next week. At least he has a good What I Did Over Conge Annuel essay.

Now in decent hotel with shower resembling Bob's: no soap dish and no room to bend over, although plenty of hot water.

Peaches, necs and melons amazing here. Lots more Aubrac cows including a statue of one with bizarre English translation (babel fish, maybe).

Scenery changing from striking and dramatic in Lozere region to more ordinary valley.

No staplers or plug adapters in France.

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Busca. St. Cheley d’Aubrac

Posted on August 25, 2010 by boogkb

August 25. Sunny and not too warm. Good day.

We are about 8 km from Aubrac a small ville with a 12th century church and
an old tower. Tour anglais.

Qb is still coughing but is walking all day again.

The last 8 km is straight downhill. Dropping 450 meters. Had to stop the
bike several times to let the rims cool.

We have now started the decent from the central masif into the Lot valley.
From the high point a descent of 1000 plus meters.

Starting to know a number of the individuals and groups on the path. Easy to
catch up and share stories and bring others into the multilingual
conversations.

Landscape is impressive with flowers and grass and Aubrac cows as well as
wonderful stone walls.

My Clic glasses, bicycle rear view mirror and folding bike are generally not
know in this area. The iPad is a favorite of the next generation. I let
them play with and their parents are delighted.

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Busca. Montgros near Nasbinals

Posted on August 24, 2010 by boogkb

August 24 rain cooler,a lot cooler

Arrived at the hotel a little before one. It opens at two pm it is raining.
I sit on a bench in front of the place, in the rain. Sat until two pm.
Once inside they were very nice and very friendly.

Very nice ride on good roads with just under 250m of ascent. Have gotten
good at the grades, not been forced, yet to walk. Suspect this small success
will end at some point.

Nasbinal is another stone hill town with a UNESCO church dedicated to the
pelerin, pilgrims. Probably 13th century. Hopefully the picture shows the
nice arches.

Now in the margareide, a plain, undulating, at 1100 or so meters, with the
lovely pine forest replaced by many very large rocks and excellent stone
walls. See picture of typical walls in the area.

On the way stopped in a bar for coffee. Locals were speaking a strange
French varient. Maybe d'Oc but hard to know as they ignored my pleasantries
and
questions. Only that that this has happened.

One more day on the central Masif. We avoided this 30 plus years ago as it
too difficult for us to bike when we were a lot younger

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Busca Aumont-Aubrac 2

Posted on August 24, 2010 by boogkb

From Evernote:

Busca Aumont-Aubrac 2

August 23 Partly cloudy with rain on the way. At least cooler.

A rest and repair day. Laundry, sleep, tourist (Roman church of course), bank.

QB is still suffering with her nasty virus. Breathing difficulties, coughing, energy and will sapping. Desole´.

Credit cards work, generally if one is persistent. It appears that the French do not use any other than the EU Blue card. When presented with an Amex card merchants either decline or use it for a while and it fails. Visa cards work but they go into a different slot on their portable card readers. Suspect that the card readers expect a chip (no signature when a Blue card is used). We have often had to show them which slot to use on the machine and which side of the card to put facing. In general have given up using cards for items that are small and reverted to cash except in restaurants; there we persist.

A visit to the local tourist office produced more information about aligot. The cows of Aubrac have been bred to make a certain cheese, Tomme, naturally. It is the required cheese for a proper aligot. The tourist office staff member developed an expression of faint disdain when we mentioned Cantal cheese as the correct cheese for alight. Suspect we would have had a different result in the adjoining Cantal region.

Tomorrow we leave the Auvergne heading to the Lozère. Still up on the central massif, day after tomorrow we will reach its highest point a bit over 1300 meters, then a death defying descent of 26km dropping to sea level into the Lot valley. One terror at a time please.

Better breakfast today. No dry crusts for pilgrims like yesterday. Breakfast buffet included something akin to crème fraiche. It did not seem to be thick enough for c. fraiche. Not sure. Was not sour cream and was not yogurt or a farm cheese. Will ask tomorrow if I remember.

Still not finding much in the way of veggies or fruit. It can be found and, at least for the veggies, ordered but not common. The local market where we would have stocked up on some fruit was closed by the time we finished breakfast – no problem, it will open again at 15:00. Many stores and restaurants are still closed on Mondays.

Met three German bike riders. Lyon to Santiago. One was riding a Swiss Army bike. Very very strong and heavy. One gear! His partners in crime said he had to walk a lot of hills. No doubt in my mind. He claimed to do it for his heart.

Dinner: bouef fondant reduction. Like a great pot roast with a red wine and beef stock reduction. Trout and aligot along with a rosé langdouc, the region we are now in. A tartare of salmon encrusted with lentils.