Day 57 – Cahors to Montcuq (33 km) – Saturday 26.08.2023
I couldn’t really get going today. I slept until 7:30 a.m. and went to have breakfast at the hotel. I took my time and took advantage of the diverse offerings. Shortly before 9 a.m. I left the hotel and made my way through the city. Since I had already visited the old town with the cathedral yesterday, I walked straight to the other side. There we went over the historic bridge out of the city.
This was immediately followed by a steep climb, which gave me a great view of Cahors.
When I finally reached the top, I walked for a long time along narrow paths through the forest and through meadows. I had a very slow pace today. At 12pm I had only done 12km. I still took a lunch break. Then we continued through the hilly landscape.
On the way, a snake about 1 meter long crossed my path. Unfortunately, after a few seconds it disappeared back into the bushes and I couldn’t take a picture of it.
The rest of the day we walked through meadows in pleasant temperatures.
Towards the evening I stopped by a small town with a snack bar. There I got a salad and had a leisurely beer.
Then I set off again and started looking for a suitable place to sleep. This endeavor turned out to be more difficult than I had expected. Since heavy rain was forecast for tonight, I looked for a somewhat sheltered spot that wouldn’t be directly flooded with water.
At half past seven I finally found a suitable meadow. I set up my tent there and made myself something for dinner. When I had just cooked my food, it started to rain and I was glad that I had already set up my tent and just ate the food in my tent.
At around 9 p.m. thunderstorms started, although no thunderstorms were reported for today. Fortunately, it passed me by for a few kilometers and I hoped that there wouldn’t be a thunderstorm tonight, as my position on the mountain wasn’t exactly ideal for that.
But the weather report still only showed rain. I listened to the rain for a bit as it pattered on my tent and then soon fell asleep.
Day 58 – Montcuq to Lauzerte (17,7 km) – Sunday 27.08.2023
It had been raining off and on all night long. Sometimes less and sometimes stronger. Nevertheless, I slept quite well in my tent. I got up early in the morning and packed up my wet tent. There was a bench under a tree directly above where I slept. As the weather continued to be bad, I made myself a coffee and prepared some cereal with water. I enjoyed both on the still wet bench and looked at the moving rain clouds.
For today I had planned another little tour to a campsite. So I took it very easy. Nevertheless, I reached Montcuq after just a few minutes. There was a lot of activity there. A number of market stalls filled the streets and many people looked at the different goods. There were lots of different products on offer and the whole city seemed to be involved. In addition to stalls selling food and clothes, many also sold old furniture, books and toys in front of their homes.
I continued through the crowded streets to the town’s church. Unfortunately it was still closed.
I turned around and left the town again and walked along the road down the mountain for a short while.
This was followed by small paths through the forest and longer stretches past millet fields. In a place with few houses, I looked at the chapel. In between, I walked through orchards again. I tried some of the plums and mirabelle plums, which tasted delicious. This was followed by sections with grain fields and forest.
I soon saw the destination of today’s stage. Since the old town of Lauzerte is located on a mountain, it was clearly visible a few kilometers beforehand.
I walked to my campsite, which was at the base of the mountain. Since my route will take me through the city tomorrow, I decided to rest at the campsite today. First I washed some clothes and hung them up to dry. Every now and then chickens would visit me at my place and lay between my clothes.
Then I took a long nap. When I woke up again, I took advantage of the pleasant temperatures in my tent and read a book for some time. In contrast to the hot days, I was actually happy about the warm tent today.
Later I sat down at the campsite kiosk, ordered something to eat and let the evening end.
Day 59 – Lauzerte to Moissac (30,9 km) – Monday 28.08.2023
The night at the campsite was good. At 7:30 a.m. my alarm went off. I packed everything up and had breakfast at a table in my seat. Then I left the campsite and walked up to Lauzerte.
After a small climb I reached Lauzerte. First I went to church. There was no one to be seen in the square in front of it and there was hardly anything else going on in the city. I didn’t meet many people and the city seemed pretty quiet. I strolled through the streets and left the town on the other side of the mountain.
First it went downhill briefly and then up less steeply through the forest. In between I was always able to take a nice look at the city of Lauzerte.
Later I left the forest and walked through fields again. Every now and then I was able to marvel at interesting houses and see newly restored chapels. On the way I kept meeting pilgrims, but there were now significantly fewer than a few days ago. So I walked pretty much alone through nature and rarely passed real towns.
The weather alternated between sunshine and rain. I usually ran for a while without a rain jacket and when I decided to put it on, the rain usually stopped a few minutes later. So I constantly put the rain jacket on and off. Since I didn’t feel like spending a wet night in the tent, I booked a hotel in Moissac, where my destination for today was. At this point I was still almost 18 km away from my destination. With the prospect of a dry bed, I continued running happily through the beautiful landscapes.
At lunchtime the weather finally improved and I ran through nature in the sunshine. More and more often I passed fruit plantations instead of grain or sunflower fields. In addition to peaches, plums and apples, grape vines were also becoming increasingly common.
Shortly before Moissac we went up the hill again. Once at the top I followed the path on a ridge towards Moissac. After a while I was able to see the first houses in the city. I could also see the plain ahead of me, where I will be running in the next few days.
This was followed by a final descent down to the city. Once I reached the bottom, I walked a few kilometers to my hotel. There I first washed my clothes, then shopped for the next few days and picked up a kebab at a snack bar. When I got back to the hotel, I wanted to take a shower. But since my room had a bathtub, I decided to take a long bath. Afterwards I wrote on my blog and rested a bit. The evening was over pretty quickly and it was time to sleep.
From tomorrow the path will probably follow the river with less elevation gain. Let’s see how quickly I can progress there.
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