After getting rained out yesterday, it was encouraging to wake up to dry weather. Once again my French is less than 100 percent. Dayton and I got up for the 7:15am breakfast only to find out that that was the time for 'matins', morning prayers. We were the only pelerins who made it to that service - go figure - the others understood French.
The day turned out to be gloriously warm and sunny. Julia, our young German friend, passed us early in the day breezing briskly by as she listened to her iPod. I'm not sure that even an upbeat tune on my iPod would have helped me pick up my pace. Actually, it's not that my pace is slow, it's that it's SHORT. However, we were surprised to catch up with Julia at the epicerie in Golinhac and had lunch together and then we decided to bust it out to Conques. Julia motivated us early on and we encouraged her the last 10 kms. There was a painfully long and steep descent into Conques which is really hard on the knees and toes but oh my! what an amazing sight Conques is.
Conques is just a magical city - it made me think of the old movie Brigadoon where a mythical town appears out of the mist every century or so. It looked just that surreal. We stayed at the Abbey there having booked a room with WC and shower. We were greeted by the most friendly hospitaleros and offered juice and tea. Such a welcoming treat. The Abbey is big and such a maze of stairs and corridors that it was a feat just to find our way to the dining hall to enjoy a friendly communal meal with the other pilgrims. For me the meal itself was a little sparse as their idea of vegetarian was salmon so I went a wee bit hungry but that's the daily breaks for a vegetarian here.
The day turned out to be gloriously warm and sunny. Julia, our young German friend, passed us early in the day breezing briskly by as she listened to her iPod. I'm not sure that even an upbeat tune on my iPod would have helped me pick up my pace. Actually, it's not that my pace is slow, it's that it's SHORT. However, we were surprised to catch up with Julia at the epicerie in Golinhac and had lunch together and then we decided to bust it out to Conques. Julia motivated us early on and we encouraged her the last 10 kms. There was a painfully long and steep descent into Conques which is really hard on the knees and toes but oh my! what an amazing sight Conques is.
Conques is just a magical city - it made me think of the old movie Brigadoon where a mythical town appears out of the mist every century or so. It looked just that surreal. We stayed at the Abbey there having booked a room with WC and shower. We were greeted by the most friendly hospitaleros and offered juice and tea. Such a welcoming treat. The Abbey is big and such a maze of stairs and corridors that it was a feat just to find our way to the dining hall to enjoy a friendly communal meal with the other pilgrims. For me the meal itself was a little sparse as their idea of vegetarian was salmon so I went a wee bit hungry but that's the daily breaks for a vegetarian here.
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