Le Monastier - Bouchet-St-Nicolas - 30,830 Steps

 

Before we left on this trip, Felicity had to decide if it was OK for us to occasionally share room when called for due to lack of space.  Her main worry was whether I snored or not, nothing to do with 19th century modesty. I told her to ask Fianna, and she was reassured, but I should have mentioned that Fianna sleeps with ear-plugs, so even if I snored like a warthog she wouldn't hear a thing.  So this morning, I asked Felicity how did it go on the snoring front?  She told I did snore a bit, but it was from 6 AM, but she was already awake, so no problem. I may not have mentioned that Felicity is Canadian, so I interpreted this to mean that I started snoring as soon as my head hit the pillow and didn't stop until I woke up.  Thankfully for Felicity in tonight's B&B we have separate rooms.

The morning walk was mainly fields, and we still escaped the rain that has been promised for quite a few days.  Arriving in the small village of Ussel we decided to stop in the one open restaurant for our lunch.  The restaurant was full of locals, eating four course traditional French meals (the options included Tête-de veau, Andouillettes and Tripes) with accompanying Beaujolais of course.  We ordered just the starter which consisted of salad, charcuteries and cheese with water and were hard pushed to finish our plates. After lunch, we set off for our 2-hour hike to Bouchet-St-Nicolas.

*** AP - NEWS FLASH ***

MAJOR DIPLOMATIC INCIDENT BETWEEN FRANCE AND CANADA AVERTED BY PROFESSIONAL NEGOTIATOR

From our correspondent in Bouchet-St-Nicolas : Today at 3:02 PM Ms F., a young(ish) Canadian hiker on the Stevenson Trail, wrote to her hostel to say she would be arriving around 4 PM and to confirm that there was a jacuzzi in her room as she was looking forward to having a relaxing bath.  She got an immediate response : NON!. Ms F. was extremely surprised as there was a jacuzzi in the pictures, and she had booked this room very specifically for the bath.  Texted exchanges became heated, which progressed to angry telephone calls, and it looked like a Franco-Canadian tourist war was about to be added to the general transatlantic tension we are witnessing today. Luckily, Mr F., no relation, a certified negotiator, happened to be hiking the trail at the same time.  After clarifying each parties' positions and thanks to some intricate negotiating, Mr F. was able to bring about an amicable settlement.  The jacuzzi was not in the bedroom, but Ms F. could have full access between the hours of 4PM and 10PM.  It is nice to see in these troubled times that diplomatic solutions can still avert major crises between nations.

We arrived in Bouchet-St-Nicolas around 4PM, and Felicity had a nice long bath while I had a nap in my bedroom, to recover from a tough day.