First Wrong Turn

We did a little more than 20 miles (nearly 34 km) after leaving Condom, and even though the last 7km was along a shady disused railway line (lovely as it is still very hot) it was still a bit too far for our paws and we decided to keep distances shorter in future.

Our good intentions went a little astray today when our planned 23km was extended after we missed a right hand turn and walked at least an extra 2km along a road before realising our mistake and turning back.

The turn we missed probably was marked, but you have to be looking out for the blazes and we had been a little distracted by a double bee sting suffered by our minders. We were all walking along, minding our own business, when 2 aggressive bees rushed out and attacked our female minder, buzzing round her ear and delivering a sting. Our other minder beat us to the rescue and in trying to remove a second bee from the face, got stung by the same bee on his arm. It was an unprecedented show of aggression which took us all completely aback.

Correct course resumed, without retracing all our steps, the rest of the walk today was very pleasant, and similar to yesterday's. Most of the time we were walking through vines laden with grapes. They extend as far as the eye can see and caused us to wonder how much of the earth's surface is covered by grapevines.

We were fascinated to see a machine in operation which automatically picked the grapes. It straddled the vines and must have been quite delicately brushing off the grapes. We also passed some grape processing factories and caught a real strong whiff of grape juice and saw skins flying out a machine.

When we're not walking through vines we're often in sunflower growing territory.


Most of the sunflowers have been harvested now, leaving a bit of a barren wasteland, but ocassionally you meet a escapee, such as this one which caught Gio's eye. We regret not doing the walk when these huge fields were full of smiling yellow faces: it must have been quite a sight.

P.S. We're quite excited as at tea tonight, our French friend Seb (a movie maker) who we've talked to over the last 2 days, specifically asked for our blog address! Welcome another reader.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Condom Capers

Yesterday afternoon we walked into Condom and 24 hours later we're still there, enjoying a well earned rest day, only our second in over 300 miles. We're wondering why there are so many English (non pilgrims) here. Could it be something to do with the novelty value of the name?

When we called at La Poste yesterday afternoon we were a bit surprised to find our Poddy was not there, especially as a man at La Poste told us post from England normally only took 3-4 days. However, we subsequently discovered you have had post strikes at home.

Anyway, the story has a happy ending, as when we reported in to La Poste this morning, it was to find there were not one, but 2 parcels waiting for us. What a relief! We went into the Cathedral (our favourite of the trip so far) where Gio lit a thanksgiving candle on behalf of us all.





We are very grateful to the Suffolk Branch, not only for the resurrected Poddy, but also for the special consignement of edible caterpillars they have sent us. They will give us a real boost as we set off on the trail again tomorrow.

Back to yesterday, we checked into a basic, but perfectly fine, 1 star Logis hotel by the river. After doing our laundry, which the proprietor's wife kindly agreed to hang in their garden (there is no laundrette in Condom) we went back into town for a beer as our demi-pension meal wasn't until 8.00 p.m.

We were a bit hungry, especially Yorkie, so we bought and tucked into a packet of peanuts. Just as we finished them, one of the bar staff brought a dish of nuts to our table, followed by a small dish of chips. Of course we ate them all, but on returning to the hotel and seeing the meal that awaited us, and the other pilgrim who was there, we seriously regretted tucking in so much.

We had quite simply one of the biggest meals we have ever had. We had a lentil and vegetable soup; a huge plate of salad with charcuterie and lots of melon and apple; a dish of chicken with braised grapes (we had to watch out for the pips), carrots and mushrooms; then we had a spaghetti bolognaise and then, finally, we had a fruit and armagnac ice cream dessert! We were secretly rather relieved when it ended. Being bears though, we had no problems sleeping on a full stomach.

Today, as well as looking round the town, drinking oranginas, shopping and visiting a cyber cafe, to try and get some more photos off the camera, we have been strolling in the sun by the river (we had to stroll slowly, not walk as it is a day off from walking).

Hopefully we will be refreshed and raring to go tomorrow for a long stretch into Eauze.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

To Be A Pilgrim

We have had an interesting couple of days since we last wrote. Yesterday's walk was quite leisurely, with time for lots of breaks, which was just as well as in the afternoon the heat returned with ferocious intensity.

We hadn't pre-arranged any accommodation, as we were attracted by the 'accueil pelerin', special pilgrim only hospitality, listed in our book as being on offer at Miradoux, where we planned to finish. These places work on the basis of voluntary donations, so that people in need are never turned away because of their inability to pay.

It was also a no reservations place, with a philosophy that we approved of: that a place is reserved for those who have not reserved.

We asked the lady owner, Therese, if she had spaces for us and were shown to a private room with double bed (with sheets, unlike gites d'etape) and a sink, so our minders were instantly happy. After dumping our sacks 2 beers were produced for us and a laundry basket came out with the instruction that we were to put out our dirties for washing.

Therese is a very colourful character who is the embodiment of all that the camino is about, and it is people like her who make this pilgrimage an experience that is far more than just a walk.

She must be in her 60s, has a bit of a walking disabilty, so has not been able to walk to Santiago herself, but instead has made it her retired life's work to look after pilgrims, including bears.

Here's me (Gio) with Therese after she stamped my pilgrim passport and wrote in a lovely message.


It is not quite the nirvana it first sounds, as her house is very ramshackle and cluttered, and needs a serious amount od of D.I.Y. But things like that aren't really important are they?

Although she is only supposed to have 8 places, 13 humans and 3 bears, sat down to dinner, and everyone was staying!

We had a lovely salad to start, served with bread and pates. We thought that was it, as we thought Therese had said we would be having a simple meal together. But no, out came a huge roasting tin full of pork and chicken, and dishes of potatoes and haricot verts. Yorkie did his best piranha impression, but even so there was lots left over.

As we left Therese's to head for today's destination of Lectoure, we found the route was a lot shorter than we expecting due to a change in the routing of the GR65, and so we had arrived by lunchtime. We had a black spaniel escort for 11km of the way and we just couldn't get him to go back home. We did manage to hide and lose him in Lectoure, only to bump into him again, in a bar, an hour later. Fortunately he didn't seem to recognise us second time round.

Lectoure kept reminding us of Hannibal Lecter, so we decided we didn't want to stay there and pressed on another 9km to a village with a lovely gite, where we have a 4 bed room and facilities to ourselves and we can smell a delicious meal cooking. We think this was a rather good move and it also means we can get into Condom tomorrow, a day early, hopefully to be reunited with the missing poddy.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Reminders of Home

Yesterday's walk was quite tough on our paws and legs, so we were very glad to arrive at the Gite Saint Martin, home of none other than a Mrs Georgina Sykes.

You will appreciate that when we saw that name in the Miam Miam Dodo (our accommodation bible - it means something like, munch, munch, sleep) there was nowhere else to book.

It was really great fun staying there with Mrs Sykes, her ex rally driver French partner, Anthony, two girls and Shaun, the huge Alsatian dog. As there was a party of 6 French, self-catering in the gite, she decided we would be better off in the main house, and gave us one of her chambres d'hôte, and we also had a glass of iced tea on arrival: it was delicious, much nicer than we were expecting. It was a great welcome.

We were the only guests eating, and we sat at a huge table feeling like royalty as we dined on wild boar pate and a bowl of fine chilli. We happened to be chatting with Anthony when our wine ran out, and he immediately brought us another half litre - what hospitality!

After her daughters had gone to bed, we chatted to Mrs Sykes until 10.00 p.m. She is a very colourful character and we were regaled with tales of previous pilgrims who have stayed with her, and her frustrations at many aspects of French culture. We were very sad though to learn of some of the cases of donkey/mule mistreatment she has had to deal with. It does seem that a lot of pilgrims are completely clueless, but we don't think we fall into that category - we hope not!

We were quite sad to leave Mrs Sykes this morning, but the pilgrim motto of 'ultreia' ever onwards, beckoned us on, so we set off for large town of Moissac. We got there at lunchtime so treated ourselves to a hamburger and fries (French style) after looking round the famous cloisters.

In the afternoon we had a walking treat: we walked along a canal all the way to Pommevic where we are staying tonight. It was nice, easy, flat walking and, while sadly there were no narrowboats, we did see a few plastic pigs on the way, and several automatic locks.



The towpath was so good that our minders did a large chunk of it in their Crocs. They said their feet really appreciated being set free from their boots.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

The Grass Is Getting Greener

We all really enjoyed reading the Suffolk Branch's post and finding out their I.T. secrets: it put a big smile on our faces, which will be even wider when the resurrected Poddy returns to us.

Yesterday lunchtime we reached Cahors and had plenty of time to look round after claiming our 2 bedded room in the youth hostel. We were bowled over by our evening meal which, sorry French people, wasn't French cuisine. We had a delicious Tex Mex pizza which was basically chilli on a pizza base, with an egg at the centre. It definitely should be introduced in England - please note Chef Oakley. We followed it with a big helping of tiramisu and washed it down with a couple of glasses of red wine. We were very happy.

We have had showers over the last couple of days, but this lunchtime we experienced our first serious rain. We can't complain after nearly 3 weeks of dry walking, and we are now beginning to see some green grass again.

We still managed to arrive at tonight's gite in the dry though, and a French couple we have met before, have kindly offered us some room in an industrial sized washing machine for our mud splashed trousers and socks.

Since leaving Conques, the way has not been quite so sociable,
as we have not seen some of our earlier friends, and most of the people now walking are non English speaking, French, Germans snd Austrians. We have only had a party of 6 Canadian ladies to chat to, mind you, they do talk a lot!

Tonight, at Montcuq, things have changed and we have just had our most sociable meal in quite a while. We have met our first English person, who comes from Oxford and has teamed up with a lovely young Swizz-German man. We sat with them at the evening meal and also with our 2 French friends who are sharing their washing machine with us. Because our new English friend speaks such fluent French, we were able to include them in the conversation and enjoyed a great Franglais entente cordial.

The other important news is that we have completed more than half of the French leg of our trip. We hope the rest is as good.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

No Green Grass

We have been very relaxed bears over the last 2 days: we have had some leisurely starts and shorter walking days with longer lunches. It has all been very civilised, although the accommodation has been fairly basic - not that a pilgrim bear needs much more than a shower, some food and a bed.

We are going to have to improve our spelling in French of our name though, as in both of the last 2 gites we have had our name on the door of our room spelt as Sykrs - so we're worried about being taken for Germans.

The mornings are definitely turning autumnal and are cool and misty. This morning, just as we were about to leave the gite (the last persons to do so), there was a heavy shower, so we waited until it had stopped and the sun came out.

No doubt the farmers will be pleased by the rain as the land is completely parched and we haven't seen a blade of green grass for days. All the animals are having to eat hay or silage as there is no grass for them to eat. The cows also have salt licks in the fields and they have sculpted them into such interesting shapes that we reckon we could organise a great art exhibition of salt lick sculptures.

This lunchtime we sat outside a church in the village of Bach (yes, we did hum a suitable piece of music as we entered) and watched lots of leaves and conkers falling off some chestnut trees. There were several cars parked underneath and there fairly frequent bangs as conkers landed on the metal roofs. Blue Bear would not have been pleased if it had been the bearmobiles underneath.

As we finished lunch there were rumbles of thunder and dark clouds gathered rather ominously. We sheltered in the church during a 3 minute shower then set off again as we hadn't too far to go.

We managed to walk fast enough to keep the storm just to the edge of us, until about 3 km from tonight's gite. We had light rain until we passed the 300m to go sign, when it started to get heavier, so we raced for 'Poudally', the gite, and arrived not too wet.

This is a private gite and a real gem. It is a very old building but the young owners have clearly lavished a lot of love and attention on it, not to mention money, and it is lovely inside. When we went into our room we were very amused by the lovely brown hen sheltering just the other side of our glass door.

We'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to post this as we are in the middle of nowhere, with no wi-fi, but as it's stopped raining now we'll hopefully go outside soon to take some photos and find the donkey we've heard braying.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

Hi all - Suffolk Branch here. The IT department has been on standby in case the Camino Bears ran into trouble & we swung into action on receipt of the SOS from France. Our minder tried the technical approach to fix the errant iPod to no avail so Fred whacked it with a hammer until it behaved itself. Success!

The iPod is now winging its way back to France (to Condom - no sniggering at the back please) although as the jiffy bag was too small for Fred to squeeze into, despite his best efforts, he's now on standby again in case of any more problems.

Bonne chance!

Suffolk Branch

Our Day Off

We enjoyed our rest day in Figeac and found lots to do. We spent 2 hours in an Internet cafe area of what seemed to be a local college, got the bent glasses mended (for free - a wonderful optician) and posted the dead Poddy to our Ipod doctor in England. We bumped into our Aussie friends again and had lunch with them, then did some shopping and went on a walking tour of the old town which has some really old medieval bits.

It is strange how you can be all alone in a big town and then hear someone calling your name. On our first evening, in the dark, we were walking by the river to find the precise spot outside the launderette where we knew there was wi-fi, when our minders heard their names being called, and sure enough there was one of our French friends, Jean-Marc, who we hadn't seen since Conques. We don't understand why our female minder got all the kisses and not us though!

We started walking at about 8.00 a.m. this morning feeling suitably refreshed and ready for the longest walk of the trip so far. Although we are now walking at a much lower altitude than our first few days, where we were at 900m+, we still manage to keep to the higher ground where we can see for miles in all directions. Of course there is always a big descent into the place we are staying and a big climb out in the morning!

Today, as with the walk onto Figeac, we felt like we were walking through a Medieval museum. We keep seeing really old barns with haylofts, old well houses, many still with the bucket ready to be lowered, and lots of tiny store places with old wooden carts and implements inside. It hasn't been so sunny today, so we managed to persuade Yorkie not to risk descending in a well bucket for a swim.

We started walking over a limestone plateau today, with very rocky ground, dry stone walls an lots of deciduous trees which look lovely as they change to their autumn colours.
We look forward to another 20km tomorrow.

We've walked more than 20 miles today to reach the town of Cajarc which has the accommodation. Tonight we are in a basic gite, but for €8.20 for a bed, we have plenty of beer and food money, so naturally we are now enjoying our first beer of the evening.

Must handover the Poddy now as it is being shared.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

We Conquered Conques

It seems a long time ago now, but we walked into Conques 2 days ago and had a relaxing afternoon and night there. Conques is a bit of a staging point, and was the end point of their walk for a lot of people who started out with us from Le Puy.

As it is a rather bijou place, with lots of historic significance, we kept spying lots of our friends that we'd seen for a few days and then rather neglectfully lost. Re-union conversations ranged from a minute or two, to over a beer (on the case of the Australians Mike & Bob) depending on how good their English was.

By arriving before lunch we managed to get beds in a dormitory in the Abbey accommodation. It was nice accommodation and food and aided lots more conversations with new people. We were very proud of our female minder who managed a dinner conversation with a lovely French lady of over an hour, and it was 75% in French!

We joined the monks of the Abbey for Vespers and Compline, which included another Pilgrim blessing. Both were lovely occasions but again it was sad that there were only 3 monks at both offices although we did spy another, younger, one on Sunday.

Yesterday we resumed our Camino and walked to Lininhac-en-Haut where we had another night in a mobile home at a camp site on the banks of the River Lot. This time we had the home all to ourselves and we also had a very nice meal which included a lovely salad, galette, filled with meat, potato and cheese, and apple tart and ice cream (no moose this time so you can come out of hiding!)

Today we have reached Figeac, another major milestone, and we have booked onto a very cheap (but nice) hotel as we are having our first full day off tomorrow. Hopefully we will spend some time in an Internet cafe and get some photos for you. Sadly we have just had the other Ipod crash, so we must hand over this one, so the main blog can continue.

First though, all 5 of us want to wish Meryl & Nick a very happy wedding anniversary today.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Bread from Heaven

Two more days have whizzed past very quickly. We're starting to write this knowing there is no wi-fi tonight for us to publish, but at least when there is, this time we'll be ready.

We last left you at the Convent. As well as being a luxury overnight stay, this was a very sociable experience. Just after we published our post, our friend Sandra from Lichtenstein, bought us all a beer so we sat in the gardens talking and drinking until 10.00 p.m. which is late for the Camino. We greatly admire Sandra as she has given up her job and her flat to do this walk, and she, like us, is going all the way to Santiago. Also going all the way to Santiago, is a German-Swiss man called Johannes who has walked all the way from Switzerland.

The next night's accommodation couldn't have been more different (n.b. the walking was again different: we followed the River Lot and, when we weren't climbing steep hills, were alongside fields of sweetcorn, with very continental vistas). In the end we didn't stay in a caravan, but in a room in a mobile home in the middle of no-where, but with views for miles from the decking outside.

We shared the mobile home with our friend Johannes, and were joined for our evening meal in the house, by 2 French couples. One of the couples had only been married 5 days and they were very young and nice. They spoke good English as they worked in the nuclear power industry in Finland.

We had tonnes of food, with lots of garlic - you'll be glad we're so far away - and even more to drink. We started with a French apperitif, which was like sherry, the we had red wine and rose, then a local (Aumont) tea and a peach vodka to finish off.

And then you should have seen the breakfast table. There was toast and lots of spreads, but also about 10 different types of sweet cake. It was a bit early to do them justice, but Yorkie did his best. We would have sneaked some for lunch if we'd known what would happen!

We'd had a very long day yesterday (18.8 miles and nearly 900m of ascent) so we lingered over this magnificent breakfast and made a late start of 9.20 a.m. as we had a much shorter day today.

As we had stayed in the middle of no-where, we couldn't buy lunch first thing as usual. We weren't worried as there was a shop after 9km. But when we got there, shortly after 11.00 a.m., we found it had shut at 10.30 a.m. Never mind we thought, we would survive on our last English cereal bars and buy lunch another 8.5km on, at the next town.

When we got there, it was after 2.00 p.m and the bar had stopped serving food and the shop was closed until 4.30 p.m. We were about to buy some peanuts from a machine, when the true spirit of this great walk came to the fore. Our lunchless plight had been heard by a fellow pilgrim (a Swiss medical student) and she gave us the remains of her bread and some cheese, and joined us at our outside table for a chat. Another couple overheard what was happening and gave us a huge tomato. This was simply marvellous and we were very touched by this generosity.

We have now walked on another 3.5km to a rather lovely private gite where - yippee - we have a clean and spacious en-suite room all to ourselves. Our Swiss student friend is also here, so it will be good to talk more over our meal.

There is supposed to be an Internet cafe here but sadly it is broken and the nice lady owner is waiting for her husband to come and fix Windows.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Mixed Blessings

Our taxi to return us to St Chely, from our gastronomic heaven (see minders' blog for an account of that fantastic meal), turned up 5 minutes early at 8.10 (we had to be squeezed in before the school run), and we got the nice lady driver to drop us outside the bakery so we could buy lunch.

Today's walking was another real gem, and can you believe it? It was different again to all the other days. How long can we keep on getting new landscapes every day? Today we followed a deep gorge, walking through lovely beech woods to start, and then switching to chestnut woods before coming out into yet more pasture, where the cows had changed to a deeper shade of brown.

It was really hot once again and we watched lizards scuttling about all over the place. Yes, it really is Mediterranean heat. Strangely it seems to get hottest after 2.00 p.m. so we were pleased to complete our fairly short, 11.9 mile stage, around this time.

We drank Oranginas in shady cafe where we found our nice German friends and talked about the Lake district. We did a bit of shopping and made a call to book us a caravan for tomorrow night (the man told us he had nice rooms and seemed surprised when we wanted a caravan, but was happy when our minder said we would go demi-pension). We then wandered up to the Convent where we are staying.

Talk about posh! It is a beautiful old stone building with lovely grounds to sit in, but the rooms are really modern, with en-suite wet rooms. And what's more you can even get beer from a vending machine, use the Internet for free and 'lave-linge' in a machine automatique. Beautifully smelling clean clothes are now drying on the line in the sun, for the first time in a week. Hand washing just doesn't get the same results! If this was a hotel in G.B. it would cost a fortune, yet here we just have to make a voluntary donation, albeit against a scale of suggested donations.

We found the downside of this place when we attended evening prayer in the Chapel. There were 8 pilgrims there and only 2 ladies from the Convent. We thought they were nuns and were disappointed that there were only 2. Having been served dinner by the same 2 ladies, and having heard bells ringing after our service, presumably to call the nuns to prayer, we concluded they were not nuns and that the nuns have their own services.

This might, hopefully, mean that the Community is alive and well, but Gio is awfully disappointed at the segregation and doesn't undestand why he couldn't worship with the nuns.

So, in summary, this is a lovely place to stay in great luxury, but the spiritual experience is somewhat lacking. Never mind, we've just been offered extra wine by the hospitalier, who turned out to be the man we spoke to yesterday and we've found a lovely lady from Lichtenstein to talk to (who doesn't work in a bank - she asked us to tell you) so we're very happy.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Off Piste

Another two days have passed since our last post, so it's time to report back in. We hope you're reading our minders' blog as it gives the full picture and all the detail. Rather than duplicate, we're just planning to give you a brief run down of events from a bear's perspective and pick out some our highlights.

Yesterday we did another long walk of just over 17 miles which we had to do because of where the accommodation falls. The scenery was as wonderful as before, but a little different. So far we've had the volcanic hills of the Auvergne, followed by vistas which have reminded us in turn of the Alps, Nortumberland & the Scottish Borders, the Dark Peak of Derbyshire and more recently the White Peak. These are all favourite places of ours to walk, so as you can imagine we're loving this walk although we could do without it being quite so hot. We've also made a new bear friend ...


Last night we got our own room in a gite attached to a school. It only cost €2 more each than a bed in a dormitory, so was well worth it.

Thinking we should give our female minder (the nearest thing we've got to a French speaker) a break from phoning ahead for accommodation, which she finds quite traumatic, we decided to ask the nice man in Tourist Info to do it for us. It was as well we did, as after loads of calls it turned out that St Chely d'Aubrac, where we were heading today was full! This is why we are currently off piste at a very basic hotel - more of a gite really - 9km from St Chely. Don't worry though, to preserve our paws, we did the extra 9km by taxi & will go back the same way tomorrow after breks.

Before our taxi ride, we had a more leisurely walk today of only 11 miles. We slowed our pace and did lots of nature sightings -Chelmer will be proud. We've seen a stoat (or weasel), a slow worm, lots of birds of prey, and the highlight, a red squirrel.

We have shorter days for the next few days, to shake off the crowds only going to Conques, and to maximise chances of getting accommodation. After getting telephone tips from Mike, our Australian friend, our minder has successfully booked us a room with some nuns in a Convent tomorrow night. Should be fun! She did end up talking to a man, and we're wondering who he was!

It's now getting close to dinner time and there are delicious roast meat smells coming into the bar, where there is wi-fi. We wonder if we will have aligot again. It's a very elastic-like cheesy mashed potato which is a speciality of the region.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

We're Back!

Sorry the last post contains only old news, but we wrote it on our Ipod 3 days ago and it has taken us that long to find a Wi-fi connection.

We'll not waste this rare opportunity though, so will attempt an update before the connection disappears. Photos will have to be added later so you may have to read backwards to see them, when technology allows us to add them.

We have now completed 4 days of walking, so are becoming old hands at this camino lark. It is proving great fun and we are seeing some tremendous scenery and meeting some lovely fellow pilgrims.

We think we have been walking through the Auvergne region and it is so inspiring that we have been singing a la style of Kiri de Kanawa (Songs of the Auvergne). Not quite as tuneful as her though!


We've only had to share a room once in 5 nights, so have been very lucky. The demi-pension meals give you no choice, but have provided us with food more to a bear's taste, than most French menus do. Lovely boeuf bourgignon last night & great soups & puddings.

Our paws are now getting quite leathery with all the walking, but at least we are blister free unlike one of our minders. We met a nice German man today who said he was taking it easy because of his 'bladders'. We had to tell him they were blisters in English!

Yesterday was hot and our minders got burnt arms without realising it. Today has been a real scorcher, and our minders have no long sleeved shirts, so had to make sleeves from buffs & Karibina towels to keep the sun off. They looked very funny.

The highlight of today was getting waved in to join a neighbourhood open air party as we approached Aumont Aubrac where we are staying tonight. We were plied with cake, wine & coffee and loads of people wanted to talk to us. With our pidgin French & their pidgin English we got by and it was an example of the art of hospitality at it's finest. Sadly we don't think it would have happened at home , which made it all the more an experience to be treasured.



Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Ours en France

Ours is French for bears by the way. Our plans have all come together, so, yes, this post is coming to you from France as we hoped it would.

Gio enjoyed his first ever flight and we were all suitably impressed by the S.N.C.F. trains, which whisked us from Lyon to Le Puy with great efficiency. We got to go upstairs in the train which gave us wonderful views over the River Loire which we followed for most of the journey.


Once in Le Puy, as we were going to spend the whole of the next day there, to allow a minder's foot to recover, we decided to treat ourselves to a cheap hotel so we could relax and have an undisturbed night's sleep.

As a result we were suitably refreshed and up for an exploration of Le Puy the next day. The French bread with choc hazlenut spread & honey we had for breks definitely put a spring in our step. The town of Le Puy is steeped in history and there is an extensive old town of cobbled streets and ancient buildings. We took time just to sit in the sun and soak up the atmosphere which was rich with centuries of history.


In the afternoon we did one of the two main tourist attractions of Le Puy. We passed on a walk out to a statue of the Virgin Mary perched atop a very tall rock pinacle as we didn't think it was worth the €3 entrance fee. But we did visit the chapel of Saint Michael of Aiguilhe which squeezes onto a small platform on top of the huge protrusion of volcanic rock for which Le Puy is famous.


We moved out of our hotel into a fairly posh private gite which was great when there were only us in the room, but when 3 non English speakers joined us it wasn't quite so nice. At least no-one snored though.

We did feel a tiny bit sorry for our fellow room mates when we no doubt woke them at 6.15 a.m. when we got up to attend the 7.00 a.m. Pilgrim mass & blessing at the cathedral. We were suprised just how many other pilgrims were also starting their walk today. We reckon at least a hundred although as far as we could see, we were the only bears present. At the end when all the pilgrims told the priest who they were and how far they are going, we discovered we are the only English, and only 2 other groups were going as far as us - all the way to Santiago.


We did our first day's walk today at quite a lick as we hadn't booked any accommodation, but most of the French had. We couldn't believe that there could be enough beds for all the walkers we'd seen. We knew we'd find somewhere, but it was our minders we were worried about.

We went slow enough to enjoy the walk and take in the scenery , but fast enough to arrive at St Privat d'Allier at about 3.00 p.m. As it happened this was before most of the accommodation opened at 4.00 p.m. This actually worked in our favour as our minders decided a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush and checked into the local hotel where we once again have our own room and private facilities - yippee! What's more we even have a hair drier which is great for drying the laundry.

Don't worry, we haven't lost our financial acumen, it's more to do with the offers available in France, which throw in an evening meal for very little and when there are 2+ of you the differentials are not huge.

How good the meal is we'll tell you next time, as we'll be trying it once we've finished our beers.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx