Author: Thom

Every Friday is market day in Espalion. I was lucky enough to pass through town early on a Friday morning – it was just after 9 AM when I took this photo. I was able to stock up on supplies and have my second breakfast. It seems a lovely town, and I was sort of sad to just be passing […]

The Camino approaches the town of Espalion along the banks of the Lot River. Much of this is through a long, urban park that very much reminded me of Wright Park back home in Tacoma. Except the view, obviously. While the castle-like building in the center – the Palais de justice d’Espalion – bears a passing resemblance to Stadium High […]

Although most of the interior of the Église Saint-Hilarian-Sainte-Foy de Perse has sadly been scraped to bare stone, some small remaining portions of the medieval decoration can still be found, particularly on the ceilings. I can only imagine the riot of colour the interior must have been in its heyday. You can see more of the photos I took at […]

Of the many photos I took at the Église Saint-Hilarian-Sainte-Foy de Perse, I will only post a few for this series. The upper register of the tympanum above the entrance depicts Pentecost, while the lower depicts the Last Judgment. You can see a monstrous demon swallowing people on the left, while an angel leads a soul to paradise on the […]

Originally part of a Benedictine priory, this church is located on the approach to the town of Espalion, It was the town’s first parish church by the 11th century, and despite the distance from town remained a parish church for the next 700 years. Properly titled the Église Saint-Hilarian-Sainte-Foy de Perse, it was built on the site where Saint Hilarian of Espalion […]

At the top of the ridge, from the monumental statue of the Virgin Mary, you get your first glimpse of the town of Espalion, below. The town itself hugs the River Lot, but towering above it is the ruins of the medieval Château de Calmont d’Olt. This has been a fortified position since at least the 9th century, and it […]

Finally after another climb, Nina and I came to a monumental larger-than-life statue of the Virgin Mary, arms spread like a protective mother embracing her children. This is marked on the maps variously as “Notre-Dame de Versus” or “de Vermus” or even “de Vernus”. It possibly means something like “Our Lady of Virtues”. She sits on a volcanic outcrop overlooking […]

I finally reached a large clearing at the top of the climb, and the cool breeze put me in mind of the prophet Elijah, finding God not in the storm or the earthquake, but in the gentle breeze. I found myself walking with a friendly young Bavarian lady named Nina. I was faster than her on the uphills, but she […]

I thought I was at the top of the hill. I thought wrong. On the next section, they had thoughtfully installed several sets of stairs like this. In my memory there was far more up and down than you see on the map below, but there certainly was a lot of up up up! In fact, we got above the […]