Our "day-off-breakfast" started at 8.30 with a French Canadian couple and Pierre - in Pierre's luxurious dining room ... fun. Pierre, the owner of all knowledge was also interested in the bits we had to share, that he didn't know. We are aware that English is spoken for our sake so we let them know that we get the gist of their conversation so as not to take away the richness of their more familiar [...]

Final instructions from Sylvie - how to lock the main door, where to leave the key, the best way to join the track, led to more discoveries about our rafter room. Our fascinating lodgings are the remains of a castle, the leftovers from ‘looters’ during the French Revolution of 1789. In contempt of the regime of the time and because they could, people took stones from castles to build their own homes - this was [...]

Geraldine drove us to the shops for our dinner options - pizza bar, kebab shop, or restaurant in this old village being restored to good health, so still not ready for tourists but just right for us. We ate our huge kebab while wondering what the square will look like when it is finished with its superbly shaped church, a 100 year old plantain tree, a Gite and a kebab shop. After dinner we decided [...]

We met up with our Korean friends at Dinner and talked about his broken cart (gone to the grave now), their work for the government in Paris where they learnt French and Korean culture. At the table also were 2 Swiss women (i German - 1 French), 1 French woman, 2 younger women who were private investigators in Paris. We all joined in with all our languages with Anne the superb chef owner. The investigators [...]

Meeting with our friends was wonderful, and useful, seeing they both speak French, especially when you’re dining 5 star at La dinee du Viguier where your coats are taken (but given back), where your meals are described to you in detail by 2 waiters who arrive with all the plates at the same time, where only the men are given the menu with the prices on, and where you sit 4 people at a table [...]

A Boulangerie petit déjeuner started our day and probably the only thing that could take us out into the rain. A short walk around this beautiful riverside town and back to make more bookings, catching up on emails, local research and washing mud from our clothes and shoes. It's May Day and mostly younger women and a mum with her boy are on streets of Figeac, under cafe awnings and umbrellas in the rain, selling [...]

Main course was a beautiful French dish - Cassoulet, a rich, slow-cooked casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat, pork skin and white beans. The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides. Aside from the food, we also shared camino stories - Salvadore the Spanish walk and Emanuel the Portuguese. To include everyone in the conversation. Corrie translated Salvadore’s Spanish into English [...]

Our first night in an Abbey. The 60 or so of us sat at 8 tables of about 8. Our table had a close knit group so Corrie and I just imagined what they were saying and had our own little conversation as though we were part of theirs. Dinner over, and because they were so helpful to our needs, the least we could do was go to their church service. The angelic sound of [...]

Breakfast served at Regina’s (says she is the queen of the village) table - another breakfast feast and lunch made (no charge) to take with us. She took us up to their backyard between 2 massive boulders to look down on the magnificent Lot valley - I don’t think there could be a better view. These boulders have been left as years of heavy rain have exposed them in their beauty by divesting them of [...]

Breakfast just out of bed was delivered at 5.25am by the owner in her maid guise. She then went back to bed. Chambre owners (those who let rooms in their home) have gone out of their way to provide unusual requests, this was one of those. In this case Jacqueline had walked the camino and understood our need for early food. We usually don't eat until our first 5kms or so because we are not [...]