Via Podiensis: Over the River and through the Woods 

Today was a day of beautiful forest trails and way too much roadwalking. 

I left the gîte at about 6:20 this morning in search of a café for breakfast. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and I hoped to luxuriate a bit with a cup of café au lait and a pastry. It was actually chilly enough that I put on my longsleeve shirt.

White delivery trucks sped through the town – I think they were delivering bread – and street sweepers were out about their business. 

I got into the café just as the rain began. Prayed lauds and drank my coffee. It was after 7:15 when I finally left, and the rain had stopped. Nevertheless, the short sleeves came off and I put the rain cover on my back.

Back across the river into the cool, fresh morning. The air smelled of petrichor, one of my favorite scents in the world. It was a perfect morning for a walk.

There are two different routes from Estaing to my destination tonight, and I wanted to make sure to take the main route since it seems to have more support. Fortunately, the signage was very good.

I started off the day with roadwalking. This would prove to be a pretty constant theme of the day. The Camino route paralleled the river, and it was full of trees and greenery.

After several kilometers, the Camino veered left to follow a dirt and gravel road. It soon returned to following the river, which was now quite far below the road down a very steep embankment. Soon, it was a mere tributary that I was following, and eventually I crossed over it on a small foot bridge and then started up a series of steep switchbacks up to an asphalt road. Although the road was fairly steep, with switchbacks of its own, it was nothing so bad as the goat path I scrambled up to get there.

I was so heads down trying to get up the hill, I almost walked right past another goat path heading upwards. It led up past ruins, whose only inhabitant seems to be a cat, before continuing ever upwards. Whenever there was a break in the trees, the views of the forest hills were amazing.

Switchback after switchback, up and up I went, sometimes on paths, and sometimes on roads. I was sweating in a way that I hadn’t since climbing to the chapel of the Magdalene almost a week ago. I guess that means I finally restored my electrolyte balance. I passed a French pilgrim on the climb; she was the only pilgrim that I saw until lunch in Golinhac. 

At some point, it began to drizzle. Praise Jesus for the cool rain!

Finally a bit of sustained uphill roadwalking led me to the village of Fonteilles, where I hoped to find a café for second breakfast. It was 9:15 in the morning, and I had only walked a shade over 9 km so far.

In the event, the Camino bypassed the village, so I sat in a relatively dry spot under a tree and dug into my supplies instead.

When I finished my snack, it was proper raining, so I put on my rain jacket before continuing along the winding country road through cornfields, meadows, and woods. The road had stopped its constant upward slope by now, and it was more of a series of ups and downs past nondescript farmsteads. It was quite the pleasant walk.

The road soon joined a larger way, freshly asphalted and crunching under my feet. Along this stretch, I met a hiker with a blue umbrella coming the other direction who wished me “Buen Camino”. 

Roadwalking would not last, as once again the Camino diverted uphill. This dirt path was considerably more moderate than the earlier hill. It was a beautiful walk on a good trail through the woods. 

After a while, the rain stopped, and I was starting to sweat into my jacket. So off it came! The air was cool and refreshing as I walked along this comfortable dirt path. Along the way I crossed over – it’s probably more accurate to say “stepped over” – several little forest streams. 

As I walked, I was struck by the wild profusion of beauty in God’s creation. Everything is complex and fractal; there are no smooth surfaces or straight lines here. The eye is overwhelmed with detail, but instead of promoting chaos or confusion in the soul, there is only serenity.

God is eternally simple (so says Saint Thomas Aquinas), but His creation and His creatures are infinitely complex.

Eventually, the Way left the forest path for a gravel road that went through pasture and woods and past the very occasional farmstead before returning again to a forest path. A sudden and surprisingly steep down slope caught me by surprise. I remain very thankful for my trekking poles.

The path eventually turned into someone’s gravel driveway and then to a road running through a little village. This took me quickly into the town of Golinhac, where I intended to eat lunch. It was about a quarter after 11 and I had walked about 16 1/2 km so far.

I stopped at a place called “La Bastide d’Olt”and treated myself to a beer and a massive ham and cheese sandwich.

After lunch, I visited the 14th century church of Saint Martin across the street. It’s modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and it retains some 11th century bits from the original Benedictine priory on the site including, I believe, the altar itself.

I left Golinhac with the sound of the church bells chiming noon. 

After a short scramble up a rocky slope, it was back to walking on a country road. It was overcast, though occasionally the sun would blaze through, and the air was cool and breezy. The Camino soon turned down a grassy path through pasture land with long rows of trees to provide shade. The path alternated between dirt and gravel as it wound through the countryside, before it joined a road again.

Fortunately, the roadwalking didn’t last too long before I once again found myself on the much preferable dirt path through the forest. And then meadows. And then a bit of roadwalking. Rinse and repeat throughout the whole of the afternoon.

Truth be told, it did lean a lot heavier on the roadwalking as the afternoon wore on.

One of these roads wound steeply down a hillside, affording some spectacular views of the valley below and the hills opposite.

I took a little break to purchase a Coca Cola from an old Belgian lady with a roadside stand. I think it was more for the conversation than the break.

It started getting quite warm about a kilometer from the end, which neatly coincided with a return to the forest path. At one point I took a slightly wrong turn and got a face full of blackberry bush, which left some small scratches on my neck and lips. Nothing serious, but it sure surprised the heck out of me.

Approaching Espeyrac, the town is hidden in the trees, and you only catch a glimpse of it from time to time until suddenly you come around a turn and there it is, spread out before you in all its glory.

First I visited the village church of Saint-Pierre. A sign outside says it was built in the 16th century. It’s relatively plain, but it has some of the best acoustics I’ve ever heard in a church. It also has a fairly impressive collection of nearly life-size statues of various saints mounted high on the walls. 

Then to find a gîte. My attempt to reserve one this morning was met with silence, and when I arrived I found of the four listed in the various guide books, two were full and one had vanished off the face of the Earth. This left me my fourth choice, which is essentially a child’s bed in the attic of an old French lady who speaks no English. We got by on Google translate. All part of the adventure!

Unfortunately, there is no demi-pension option, and so far as I can tell this village has a shop and not much else. So dinner was a bit of a challenge. I purchased fruit, chips, yogurt, and a beer from the shop, and to this I added the remaining half of my sandwich from lunch. Quite a feast, actually.

Date: 26 August 2023

Place: Espeyrac

Today started: Estaing

Today’s Photos!