Day 11 Livenhac to Figeac October 7, 2010

Don't need an alarm clock when your gite is beside the town church. Holy early morning church bells! Those chimes guarantee that even the deepest sleeper is 'up and at em' early. Those bells accounted for the fact that Julia, Dayton and I headed out just at the break of daylight. The morning was a little cool and there was a thin strand of gossamer fog floating just above and along the River Lot, nowhere else. Beautifully eerie. We hit the patisserie as we left town. Nothing like a chocolate croissant to stoke the energy for our usual 'good morning' climb and, for a camino and especially for this Chemin Le Puy, a less than killer day. We covered six kilometres to Montredon before 9:00am and had a brief stop in the church - free tea, water and muffins were set up in a little room by a side entrance. Very kind. By the next church in Saint Felix we stopped again and had lunch at a picnic area, then off again. We arrived in Figeac quite early, around 1:40pm, and sat outside the tourist office until it opened. Everything else was also closed at this time but the owner of a 'closing for the afternoon' restaurant sold us soft drinks to quench our thirst. As the days have been getting warmer, borderline hot, dehydration and rehydration is a major concern. We've consumed and replenished our water bottles a couple of times a day and still had a craving for cokes, perrier, lemonade or, Julia's favourite, Fanta orange. When the tourist office opened we were able to confirm our reservations at the Hotel Toulouse. Dayton and I have a room in the hotel and Julia is in the accompanying gite. This was not the best accommodations we've had; acceptable but not that great. The gite looked more inviting than the hotel. I headed out to find a computer, a task that involved a walking tour of Figeac. I found the local youth center where the computer and internet were free. Hmmm, this is the day I first noticed that tempermental left ankle starting to hint of impending tendinitis - just like last year. Figeac was quite a pretty town. The river flows through the centre of town - or what I thought was the centre of town and the little square in front of the tourist office was a friendly meeting place. Later Julia, Dayton and I went out to a great pizza restaurant for dinner. Interestingly all the restaurants we've been to in France have all been pizzarias. Go figure. Dayton had the most disgusting pizza ever. It was covered in ground beef and topped with a runny fried egg. Yuck.