Day 14 Lalbenque
Friday 30 September and the forecast is good after a couple of days of mild dampness. Talking to the gite d'étape owner over breakfast I am only the second Brit to stay at this gite this year and that is normal as most Brits think of Spain and perhaps Portugal for the camino.
I am trying not to repeat earlier blogs such as my French cycling tour but today was the purest form of French breakfast; tartine with coffee served in what the English would call a cereal bowl. Also, I am walking through an area with lots of dolmens, and as I passed a place offering truffle talks I assume the place is rich in this delicacy.
"Thirty days has September..." goes the popular rhyme and tomorrow being October might explain the brown leaves though I suspect a scorching summer had a part to play.
And here is another installation. I had it wound up (40 revolutions!) just in time for a party of four French walkers to hear the song which they happily repeated.
A good day of walking and it is a 3km detour to my accommodation. On entering the seemingly deserted village my accommodation location is not very clear though someone quickly emerges from nowhere to ask if I need help. It's my gite owner who lets me walk with him to the gite just 400m away. He asks me where I am from and is pleasant enough but has something of the sinister about him. The gite itself, if indeed it is my gite, has no sign or welcome just a creaking front gate. We go into the garage, boots off, up some stairs and I am shown my bedroom/dormitory. I am in the girls room and even the sign on the door is menacing; one hand holding a teddy, the other holding a colt 45 behind the back.
If this is my last post, then my body can probably be found buried in the back yard of ahhhhh......