Day 21 - Natural Beauty and Lessons in Patience : Labastide-Murat to Vers

We had planned to get up at 5:30 and leave by 6:00 to avoid some of the heat of the day, but at 5:30 it was pouring rain, so we decided to sleep an extra hour and see if the weather cleared up.  Luckily by 6:00 it had, and we were able to set out after consuming our chocolate croissants and the instant coffee we had purchased last night.

As we set out the cloud cover provided some much appreciated relief from the sun.  It was a pleasant walk down county lanes, without too many ups and downs.  

We again noticed that the GR system in France tends to take you up to the edge of towns, but unlike in Spain, it does not always go into the middle of them, to the church, or past any potable water sources. Today we were prepared however, and had a nice picnic of baguette, cheese, and chocolate at a nice spot with a view.

For much of the afternoon we were walking down a dirt track beside a small tributary of the Vers river.  The best word to describe this walk was moss.  It was everywhere, and super thick!

It was a cool, easy, and very pleasant walk. There was only one moment of slight creepiness when we stopped beside a roped off drive with many no trespassing signs on it.  Sean was taking a photograph of the water, and I was standing still on the path for a few minutes waiting for him, when a small robot that looked like the bat mobile came trundling into view across a grassy stretch behind a hedge and seemed to be scanning us. We beat a hasty retreat!

As we approached Vers, we passed by some picaresque ruins of a building that had been built into the cliff-side.  We paused a minute to explore.

We arrived in Vers around 2pm, well before we were allowed to check in, and so sat on the local hotel patio and enjoyed coffee, cake, and ice cream. While enjoying our respite, we met two French ladies who had just completed the Cele Valley route and were headed north towards Rocamadour.

By 3 pm we had moved over to the park beside our Gite, which included a wonderful waterfall and two scenic bridges. Here we relaxed, uploaded pictures, and began drafting the days blog.

When we checked into our gite we discovered that it was a very interesting building - three very narrow stories tall, and we were given two beds in a loft above the top floor.  This was very neat, but the downside was that it was very hot up there under the roof!

After getting ourselves installed for the night, we set out back to the local hotel patio to enjoy a refreshing beer, write postcards, and plan the next days lodgings.  We returned to the gite for a communal dinner around 6pm, which included hot soup, pasta, Rocamadour cheese, red wine, and rhubarb crumble.  It was again good food and good company, although the warm food on such a warm day was a bit difficult to enjoy.

Soon after finishing our wonderful meal we set off to explore the region in the cooler air for half an hour. 

When we returned to our lodgings a little after 8 pm, we found that all of the windows and shutters had been closed and people were being instructed about how sleep by one particular pilgrim. As a result, a warm suite became much warmer, and many who were not tired lay awake in their bunks for several hours to avoid conflict with one resident.  I guess today's lesson was patience and compassion!