Via Podiensis: On the Way to Rocamadour
Today began my diversion from the main route towards the great Marian shrine of Rocamadour, which I hope to reach on 01 September. Most of the day, I climbed up to the Causset de Gramat, a limestone plateau. Unless I indicate otherwise below, just assume that every step was part of a gentle, but inexorable, uphill walk.
This morning was a leisurely breakfast with some fellow pilgrims, many of whom I will not see again, but two of whom – Ávila and Bruno (from the Netherlands) – are also going to Rocamadour. I did not leave the gîte until well after 9:30, and then I spent some time trying to find the route. So it was a very late start, indeed. Figeac is a marvelous city, and I would’ve loved to spend some more time there.
It was a chilly morning, chilly enough that I considered digging out my fleece, but in the end I just went with the long sleeve shirt. It was going to get quite a bit warmer, and constantly taking off and putting on my pack tends to break my walking rhythm quite a bit.
On the way out of town, I attempted to visit the church of Saint Thomas, but it was locked up tight. After this, it was much easier to find the route markings, which was just as well because I had run off the edge of the paper map I got from the tourism office yesterday.
I think I prefer walking alone on the mornings on Camino; it helps me process my thoughts from the previous day and spend some quiet time with the Lord while I walk. Also, I have been writing sonnets as I walk along the way, and I find the mornings to be best for this. I often dictate them into my phone as I walk, sometimes with hilarious results as the phone attempts to parse my morning mumbles into words.
If I am to have company – and to be clear, I do enjoy company – I prefer it in the afternoons.
Once I left the city, I continued walking on an asphalt road through the woods under a beautiful canopy of trees. I would occasionally catch glimpses of a stream off to my left, and I would occasionally pass small meadows, with or without cows.
As per usual, at some point the road disintegrated into patchy asphalt, and then eventually gravel. about 9:30 AM, I passed a small picnic area with a number of roads intersecting. The Camino followed a newly invigorated asphalt road.
The road forked at an abandoned stone building, just beginning to crumble to ruin, and the Way uncharacteristically went downhill a short while before resuming its usual slant. Asphalt quickly gave way to stone and gravel along a wide open meadow, affording me my first view of the surrounding terrain. I was on a valley floor, and I saw a whitewashed village on the hill up ahead. A cheerful cowbell rang in the distance.
The Camino continued through forest and field. There was a slightly steeper uphill a little later in the morning, but nothing difficult. The day warmed up fast, and there was not a cloud in the sky. Eventually, even my long sleeve shirt proved to be too much.
I came to a dairy farm, positively swarming with black flies, and found myself roadwalking once again, though only for perhaps half a kilometer before the Camino followed a dirt path under tree cover. There was a road on the embankment above me to my left, and fields and meadows stretching away to my right.
The path eventually took a sharp right turn away from the road and eventually to an entirely different road, past scattered and very modern houses towards the village of Cardaillac. This village was once the home of an important local noble family. I spent much of today walking through their former lands.
The asphalt ended after the last house, and I followed the roughest sort of dirt road. At one point, I thought I had lost the way and had to backtrack a bit. This was not the last time this happened today. My tracking app does not cover this alternative route, so I must pay careful attention to the physical markers, which are sometimes difficult to spot. I ran into a fellow pilgrim, Paul from France, who put me right.
Eventually, it was back to a much easier forest path that wended its way (generally downhill) to the village. I finally arrived in the very spread out village of Cardaillac about 11, but it was nearly a half hour later before I got to the village center and a café for lunch.
The church was locked.
Ávila and Bruno passed by while I was lunching on a lovely tomato salad and beer. They had purchased sandwiches and were planning a picnic at a lake about 3 km on.
After lunch, I visited the remains of the local castle and then continued along the Way, which was once more on a downhill forest path. The “downhill” part of that probably didn’t last for more than a couple of hundred meters. I crossed over a stream on a stone bridge, and then it was back to the uphill.
I reached the shores of the little lake at about 1 PM, and Ávila and Bruno were still picnicking there when I arrived. It was an absolutely beautiful spot, with lily pads and dragonflies.
After that, the three of us more or less walked together the rest of the afternoon.
The terrain was relatively easy, and much of it was a roadwalking. We never really left the forest for long. Near the end of the day, there was a rather challenging downhill over a rough path of dirt and stone. But then it was back to roadwalking.
We arrived at our gîte in Lacapelle-Marival just before 4 PM. To my great surprise, this town has a castle to explore!
So after a shower and some laundry, we did exactly that. First of the castle, because it was closing soon. It had a lovely exhibition of contemporary artists, some of whom I found quite fascinating.
And then to the lovely little Gothic church of Our Lady of the Assumption. While I was finishing the final prayer of Vespers there, a Mass broke out. It was a small, intimate Mass, celebrated in a little chapel with the priest, a server, and perhaps ten of us.
Afterwards, five of us had dinner outdoors at the restaurant facing the church. It was a great time of pilgrim fraternity, as we shared what the Camino meant to us. Some of us are stopping in Rocamadour – itself a great pilgrimage site from the Middle Ages – and some of us hope to make it all the way to Santiago.
Date: 30 August 2023
Place: Lacapelle-Marival
Today started: Figeac
Today’s Photos!
