I woke up to a cold but beautiful sunny day. We left the hotel at 8AM, I with some trepidation, as today's stage started with a 200m steep elevation. As I was plodding up a forest path, Felicity as usual barely visible far ahead of me, a slim, energetic woman probably in her fifties whizzed past me on her way down. We exchanged a brief "Bonjour" as hikers are expected to do. A few minutes later, a similarly aged, but rounder man, appeared, and I hailed him with a "Bonjour, il semble que les femmes sont toujours devant les hommes". He stopped, obviously as delighted as I was to have an excuse to catch his breath. He responded "Oui cela fait maintenant des années que je suis derrière", and then glancing down rushed off after his relentless partner. I looked back up the path, saw that Felicity had by now completely disappeared, and resumed my imitation of Sisyphus.
After 2 hours of climbing, I reached the top and started my gentle descent towards Le Bleymard. On this side of the mountain, I was walking along a stream which ultimately becomes the Lot river. The water was winding through trees and green mossy banks, making for a very pleasant walk.
We arrived in Le Bleymard around 1PM and treated ourselves to some cold drinks on the terrace in the sun. I had sparkling water as this is a fasting day, I won't say what Felicity had as this is a public blog and I don't want to cast aspersions on people who have white wine at lunchtime.
Once we were refreshed, we strolled around the village in search of ingredients for our sandwiches for tomorrow. I think, browsing though a local épicerie in a French village when you are on a fast is probably the closest thing to Tantalus' Temptation that I can think of. (I hope you are appreciating my knowledge of Greek mythology). I now have a baguette de campagne, salty butter, 3 kinds of ham, sun dried tomatoes, an avocado (possibly not local), a slice of tome aux 7 fleurs and some chips au piment d'espellette. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow!
