Walking the Camino de Santiago
Although it might not look like it here, I was coming to the end of the Aubrac plateau. Just a little beyond this point, Alex and I would enter the last village on the plateau – fittingly called Aubrac as well – and then descend pell-mell into the lowlands. It was not quite yet 8AM. Date: 23 August 2023 Place: […]
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This is Alex from Sweden. We walked together, off and on, over several days in the Aubrac. I first met him on the 21st of August in Aumont-Aubrac. He was planning on doing the full 32km day, whereas I was breaking it up in halves, so today would be the last time I saw him. He was walking all the […]
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Although we saw several different kinds, this was the most common sort of cattle gate. The shell gives it a nice distinctive look. The Camino cuts through many cattle pastures on the Aubrac plateau, so we passed though a large number of gates and other clever ways to keep cows in the correct places and off the roads. Date: 23 […]
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The Aubrac plateau very much reminds me of the Spanish Meseta, with a couple of important differences. For one thing, it’s a lot smaller. While walking across the Meseta on the Camino Francés will generally take you more than a week, the Aubrac is closer to three or so days. There are more rolling hills and trees on the Aubrac, […]
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It was a day of stiles and gates. The Camino cuts through many cattle pastures on the Aubrac plateau, so we passed though a large number of gates and other clever ways to keep cows in the correct places and off the roads. This little maze is one of my favourites. It’s actually a little awkward for backpacks, but I […]
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There’s just something Hobbity about this photo that I love. I mean, the road wouldn’t be asphalt in the Shire, but other than that, it’s perfect. It was indeed a pretty perfect morning, even if Alex and I were constantly climbing for the first part of the morning, as you might be able to tell from this photo, which shows […]
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I seem to have taken a lot of cow photos on the Aubrac plateau. I left Nasbinals at 6AM, pain au chocolate in hand. I ran into Alex from Sweden on the main street, and within thirty minutes, we were out in the countryside amongst the cattle. This particular cow might have been the model for the statue I saw […]
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For centuries, cattle have been the primary industry on the Aubrac plateau. So much so, that after spending the winter in lowland stables, in the spring the herds are led up to the grazing pastures on the plateau amidst a great festival and parade. The cows are bedecked with flowers, and people come from all over France for the festival. […]
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Perhaps more than from the outside, inside you can clearly see the Romanesque heritage of the church of Sainte-Marie de Nasbinals. I sat here a good long time, having arrived in town at about 1pm, and not being able to check into my gîte until 3:30. At the time I said, “I sat and cooled off in the medieval stone […]
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The church in Nasbinals was already at least several hundred years old when it first appeared in a charter giving it over to the Benedictines in 1074. It has, of course, been restored and remodeled many times since then. It was a monastic church until the Revolution, and it now serves as the village parish church. It is, like most […]
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