Oct 7, Day 2: St Privat to Saugues (20.1 km)

René`s smiling face.
We awoke ready to go.  We figured out how to get everything we had taken out of the two backpacks back into the two backpacks.  We had a quick breakfast with the guests from the previous evening, and took our shoes out of the shoe closet.  The town seemed empty as we left in the morning, and we thought we were the last to leave.
Susan`s morning face.
Overnight I had reflected on the pace of the first day`s walk.  We had left late in the morning, and because we had 24 km, I had focused on walking and reaching the destination and not enjoying the day.  I had not appreciated the surroundings and taken in the views as much as I should have been doing.  I set out today with the intention of slowing down, pausing to look around and appreciating that were were finally here doing the walk we had planned for so long.  
Green valley
We walked uphill out of St Privat d`Allier and quickly took off the light pants we had over our shorts.  The valley was beautiful.  René had promised some downhill this morning, but all it seemed like it was all downhill.  The weather was overcast all day, but no precipitation.  We walked through valleys, farmers fields, forested areas and green meadows.    
Tiny chapel
The morning we also visited a tiny chapel on a hill.

Eiffel`s Bridge
There was more downhill, and this time it was knee crunching downhill.  At the steepest part, a group of men with hiking sticks passed, quickly reaching and overtaking us.  We walked all the way down the valley to a salmon river with class 3 kayaking.  Eiffel had built the bridge spanning the river.  The group of men were lunching by the river.  We had a snack of some mixed nuts, not wanting to lunch until we had gone more than halfway.

Lunch picnic spot
As to be expected, after a steep walk into a valley with a river, then comes pretty serious uphill to get out of the valley.  René and I took it all quickly, because we have better climbing muscles than we have downhill knees.  We got to a plateau overlooking the valley and found a spot for a lunch of sausage, cheese and some cookies.  Our picnic spot was exposed to the wind, and soon we had packed up and walked on so as not to get too cold. 
  
A stretching cuddle
There were many animals during the day, friendly farm dogs, chickens and roosters, cats, cows, sheep and horses.  At a rest spot, I had a visit from the village cat while I was stretching.  

René on the road which descends into Saugues
As we would come to experience over the rest of the trip, the last few kilometers are usually the most difficult and seem like the longest of the day.  This seemed to be true whether it was a 12 km day or a 31 km day.  So on this day, the last 5 km seemed very long.  Finally, we walked down a long steep paved road into Saugues.  We found La Margeride, which is basic gite style accommodation where we had a double room with a bathroom.  We thought we might use the communal kitchen to cook supper, but we decided to find a restaurant.  

Accueil Pelerin chez Jeanine
We walked into town to see what our options were for supper.  As we approached the church at the center of town, an old lady stopped us, asked if we were pilgrims and told us to follow her.  She ushered us into a room just off the church square.  She began to explain to us that she`s the accueil pelerin, and she welcomes all of the pilgrims who come to town.  She showed us all of the photographs, postcards and newspaper clippings which she had collected over the years.  She pointed out the maps indicating the location of all of the people who had visited.  She asked us to mark on the globe where we were from, and even though Montreal was already covered in black marker dots, we added another.  She stamped our credential, and showed us her picture in recent guide books.  She gave us a card with her name and address and we shook her hand.  We didn't take a picture with her, but once outside, René took the picture of her little blue fronted room on the square.  It was a joy to be welcomed and fussed over by Jeanine Trémouillere this wonderful lady who took so much pride in her work.
Susan is cold.
We found the only restaurant open and had €14 set meal: salade compagnarde (lettuce, dressing, little cubes of cheese, sliced ham and a fried egg over the whole thing), then a pork chop and scalloped potatoes, then a cheese plate, and a blueberry tart.  Delicious.

It was cold as we walked to and from the restaurant.  I had on all of my warm clothes (warm leggings under pants, fleece and windbreaker), and I still felt cold.  I was still worried about the lack of extra layers, particularly as the days were getting shorter, we would be climbing in altitude into the Aubrac plateau, and we would be getting later into October.



No comments:

Post a Comment