Chasing After Jess

In our comfy beds we slept soundly, and were rudely awakened by our alarm at 6 am. We set out just after 7am in the cool, sunny morning, feeling refreshed for the next stage of our journey.

The hiking conditions were perfect, with paths through forests, rolling countryside, and freshly ploughed fields. After about 10kms, we stopped for coffee in the lovely town of Montcuq. We were warned the night before to sound the ‘Q’ at the end of the name to avoid changing its meaning to ‘my backside.’ I’m happy to say we saw the town, not our ‘backsides,’ and even visited the beautiful cathedral.

After about 16kms of easy walking, we came upon a donation coffee station where we stopped for lunch in someone’s shed.

The next part of our walk was a bit tricky with some muddy patches, but not as bad as we’ve experienced before. On a very steep section, we met a lovely lady from the Flemish part of Belgium who unfortunately lost her balance and fell backwards down a slope. I heard her scream as she fell and my nurse instincts kicked in to run up to her. Thankfully, she was unhurt. She had started her walk in Belgium and had already covered 1700kms. Since she spoke good English, we walked and talked together until Lauzerte, sharing interesting stories from our travels and homes.

We arrived at our overnight Gîte and were rewarded with views of the beautiful town of Lauzerte perched high on the hill.

Unfortunately, in my opinion – our overnight Gite was not good at all. I have struggled with the topic of naming Gites that I haven’t been impressed with. More so because I like to give the benefit of the doubt that my bad experience will not be someone else’s bad experience. Also because Gites are small businesses. But – this Gite was so bad that I feel like I need to say something.

We stayed at “Le Gite Fleuri” just outside of Lauzerte. The Gite only opened at 3pm, but unfortunately this was delayed until 3:30pm because our host overslept. The Gite felt like someone’s house with nothing done to make it feel like an accommodation, it felt messy with washing everywhere etc. Our main issue with the Gite was that it felt very unclean, with mould in the bathrooms. Also we were sleeping on a dirty mattress.. no full disposable sheet coverings

We were asked to leave our bags outside, normally bags are left in a secure outer room, but our backpacks were left just outside the house, thankfully when it rained they didn’t get wet as we had moved ours undercover. Before we had moved the bags undercover, the dog peed on the balcony and the pee ran down splashing people’s bags. Luckily I saw this happen in slow motion and was able to move our bags out of the way. Shortly after a cat brought a dead rat inside.

Dinner was cooked by this woman’s 8 year old daughter. It started with a simple salad with no dressing, and for the main it was pasta with no sauce or cheese, just plain pasta, with sausages as a side. As I said, normally I wouldn’t say anything but this was particularly bad and unclean. I saw some bad reviews online after the fact and the owner had just replied aggressively so I didn’t bother reviewing.

We went to bed early hoping for the morning to come quickly so we could leave early. We had a 30km day the next day so we needed the early night. We’ve now more than halfway on this journey, having covered more than 400kms in just 2.5 weeks. This trip has been truly amazing, and the privilege and opportunity will forever be appreciated despite its challenges.

Jess