Day 20 Lauzerte to Moissac

We climbed the hill to the stunning medieval village of Lauzerte. Some street lights still on, the first person was setting up for market day, but no-one or nothing else could show that it was the 21st century, so my imagination had a great time. Corrie and I were the only people on the street in what I imagine would be a place usually filled with tourists, so we took our time. Not only was this village unusually on a hill, it was a bit like Uluru in Australia – an enormous rock in the middle of fairly flat ground but with houses and gardens.

The ups and downs are still there but they are getting shorter which puts this walk today in the easy category – all relative of course. Still some forested areas but now into fruit tree country, a smattering of grape vines, fields now of poppies and lots of small but lake-size dams. So you might picture more sharply shaped hills with a lot of water run-off, so carefully built and landscaped to give them the appearance of small lakes. Most of the walk was through open country, with rain forest type vegetation left in some places to decorate and shade the path.

We overtook two French women having lunch on the grass overlooking a small stream, we see them often but only swap bonjours. A young woman offered us coffee from the back of her farm house but we wanted to get through a long shadeless area. The surrounding wheat fields bending in the breeze, the wheat heads lying parallel to the ground giving it a soft carpet look, the odd tall poppy failing to be squeezed out.

We had coffee with our Swiss friend in a stunning old building, the blue shutters at varying degrees of openness indicating it was very much lived in high up on its cone shaped hill. A rarity to find a table and chairs, let alone coffee, so we took time out getting used to having a break when the rare comfortable venue shows itself.

As we neared our village for tonight – Moissac, we were greeted from behind by those 2 South Africans I said we would never see again – they’re much faster and walk for longer. We actually passed their lodgings because of our early start but won’t be seeing them tomorrow because Stanley is off to Capetown and John to Johannesburg. One last meeting will occur when we dine together tonight. Unfortunately for them John said they would come to get us, because we are 300 metres up a very steep hill (even by camino standards) – so we’ll go down to meet them.