Pilgrims on the Way

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

At just about 1pm, I entered the town of Nasbinals, my destination for the day. According to the electronic sign at the pharmacy, it was 32° C, which is about 90° F. The pilgrim in the photo is Delphiné from Brittany. I caught up to her as we were entering the town. First step: find my gîte (which in this […]

To complement the forest cows of a couple of days ago, here in the Aubrac we have the river cows. A little later on, the Camino would cross over the river on a stone bridge, and there I got to see some river pilgrims as well. I believe that this is the river Bés. Date: 22 August 2023 Place: between […]

Just before the village of Rieutort-d’Aubrac, I found a food truck with an attached outdoor café. It was a quarter to eleven by the time I finally had my breakfast, and by this point I’d been walking for about 20 km. The temperature was already 81° F. This was the best bread and cheese ever. I had a brief reunion […]

This was my view 45 minutes after passing the sign and the tiny village of Finieyrols, and there was still no sign of a place for breakfast! My guide said that there was a café in Finieyrols, but if there was I did not see it. My only companions were a handful of fellow pilgrims and herds of cattle scattered […]

Throughout the morning, I took many photos of the landscape as I walked through the Aubrac plateau. Virtually all of them look pretty much like the one I posted last week. The terrain was undulating, and I walked up and down many slopes, though it wall all sort of trending upwards. And everywhere grass with occasional boulders. It was something […]

By half past eight, I was well and truly into the Aubrac plateau. This vast sea of grass (with occasional boulders) is cattle country. I crossed through numerous cattle gates in the next hours, and if I couldn’t see cattle I could certainly hear their bells. Might explain why beef was pretty much always on the menu for a couple […]

Somewhere past Lasbros, I ran into this fellow. He was making the pilgrimage with two human friends. They weren’t moving very quickly, and after I passed them I never saw them again. It’s a timely reminder that there are as many ways to do a pilgrimage as there are pilgrims. Also, this is when I found out that in France, […]