Day 7: A French Spring

“There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.”

Danish Proverb

Spring has sprung in France which means, rain. Based on the proverb above, our clothing is…wanting. Our gear is water resistant, not proof, which means it eventually soaks through. Happy to be in our gîte for the night where everything is drying out.

Our stay last night was at Chez Annie’s (in Saint Come d’Olt) where we and ten other pilgrims shared the gite with Annie and her adorable, two month old Labrador puppy. Unfortunately, the cuteness is counterbalanced by sharp teeth and an inability to understand “no” in French or English. While we shared breakfast, she ate a bouquet of artificial roses behind our backs.

Our guidebook says that the beautiful towns in this region could support the French postcard industry. Unfortunately for us, most postcards are shot on nice, sunny days. That was not the case today—at all.

We usually post a daily “Relive” video which shows a short video of our path along with selected photos. Laurie said she didn’t want to relive today, so there is no video. Actually, it was operator error. Regardless, no video today.

We arrived here in Estaing on a Sunday, when many businesses in small town France are closed. We were soaked though and desperate for a warm place for a meal. We stopped outside one of the few open cafes and started to shed our clothes and packs on the porch. A man came out, stopped us, and invited us inside. He pointed to a place in the back to stow our gear, and then to our warm—and dry—table. The food and welcome was so good, we may return for dinner.

NOTES: Several of you mentioned that you had tried to post a comment and couldn’t. I believe I’ve fixed the problem—speaking of operator error. If you have questions or comments please post them so others can see. We’ll answer questions as fast as we can.