Chasing After Jess

After well rested night we geared up for the next leg of our journey to Lajo. We left our Gîte at 7 am, greeted by a beautiful, clear morning with blue skies, although it was still quite chilly at just 2°C

The climb out of Saugues was on roads and sandy tracks making it very pleasant. Just before one of the first towns, Le Pinet, we stumbled across a ‘donativo’ – a coffee and juice kiosk at someone’s house with a donation box.

We passed through many beautiful small towns with stone buildings and churches. BUT, something we really struggled with was that in every town, the cafes / bars seemed to be closed.

However, just before Chazeaux, we could have cried from happiness when we found a food truck selling snacks! While we were sitting down we ran into Brendan again, and shared lunch with him and a young French guy called Valentine.

The next stop was to Chapel La Roche. We were starting to get tired at this point, but received a stamp in our credential at the chapel as a memory of the turn things were about to take.

Our day took an unexpected turn when we discovered that reaching our overnight Gîte required a detour via the GR4, adding another 3.5 km to the day. This meant an extra hill to climb before we could wind our way through farm tracks and forests into the small town of Lajo. I was not a happy camper at this point. I was well and truly done with the day, but unfortunately we had not been able to find accomodation anywhere else.

The directions to Lajo were easy to follow but by the time we arrived, we were exhausted and relived to have our own room with a bathroom. We were supposed to be in a room with many beds but luckily we were upgraded for free to a double room.

Our hostess Rachel welcomed us warmly, she was a very very lovely person and very accomodating. The gite had a very home like feel to it and she made it warm with her personality. Although, I probably wouldn’t have opted into staying here again, purely just because of the distance off the track. However, she did offer to drop some people at the track and even at the next town! We decided to keep walking even though we did want to take her up on that offer!

For dinner we joined about 18 fellow pilgrims around a large wooden kitchen table for a tasty evening meal. The menu included salad, baguette, cold meats, beef stew, green beans, and crème brûlée for dessert, with by rosé and red wine to drink. The majority of our fellow travelers were French, with a couple of Germans, Swiss, and two Australians (Shona and Ray) who we had met earlier. The conversation was mostly in French, with occasional help from those who spoke basic English.

During dinner, we each introduced ourselves, sharing where we came from, where we started walking, and our intended destination. Obviously, I speak little french and relied heavily on google translate!

It was a very cold night, with wet weather! I had almost all the clothes I had with me on as I tried to fall asleep. Thankfully, another early night ready for the next day!

Jess x