Day 22: La Romieu to Larressingle 21 Kilometers

A semi-traditional petite dejeuner started our day at the convent (yogurt and fruit added!). A short convo with our host, Pascal, and we were on our way.  Saw the cat statue on our way out of town, a tribute to Angeline, who legends say saved the village in an interesting story (too long to explain). Walked for quite a bit until we reached the city of Condom (no typo).  Daily business, food procuring and coffee before we were back on our way.  The trails off the road are still a bit muddy.  Not our fave but we keep hoofing it.  We had a crossroads to find where we would take a direct route to our destination town.  We stopped at a crossroads and were consulting our guide when a lady Pelerin came along.  We told her where we were headed and she advised us to take the road north.  We started walking when along came a young man who asked us where we were going.  When we explained, he told us we were going towards the busy road.  We had turned too soon.  We talked further and discovered that he was the son of the lady who runs the Gite where we are staying tonight! Our guardian angel, Michael! We went back to the path and eventually we reached Larressingle, the home of a really cool castle with a moat.  We pique-niqued in town and then had coffee and a superb crepe with caramel ice cream.  Michael and his mother, Martine came by while we were there.  We followed them back to her Gite.  Martine is a former Pelerin who has walked the Camino, her first time being 1974 when there was little infrastructure.  She has a wonderful place and is so sympathetic to the true Pelerins. She became irritated when four "pilgrims" made a reservation and only one was really walking and the others came by car. She had turned down several who were really walking.  We had a wonderful rest and then were treated to a regional dish of Casseole(sp) that may have been the best dinner we've had yet in France.  

Gite d'etape Halte Laressingle - clean, beautiful facilities, and fantastic dinner.  Owner is very pilgrim friendly

Day 21: Barrachin to La Romieu 26 Kilometers

Historic day! Well, maybe not that historic but we did see some history and we hit a milestone.  Awoke to the sound of rain again which is a bit disconcerting but we had breakfast with our friendly French hosts and hit the trail.  The overnight rain continued to muddy our paths at times but we stepped lively and did our best to keep moving.  Seven quick kilometers in an hour and fifteen minutes landed us in Lectoure.  A busy little city with a UNESCO cathedral.  We had some errands to run.  Visit to the Officine de Tourisme where we made reservations for tomorrow night. A cash machine stop and then a boulangerie/patisserie visit filled our wallets and food stash (and bellies!). We then had a superb coffee stop, followed by a quick tour of the city and we were off. The wind really picked up today and may have slowed us at times. We ultimately found our destination hamlet of La Romieu.  The village is named for the Pelerin who passed through on their way to Santiago.  We hit town just as a bit of rain blew through.  We stopped and ate our lunch and had a bit of coffee and then located our Gite.  Tonight we are staying in the renovated ancien convent.  After our afternoon routine we decided to see the sights.  The biggest thing here (literally) is the cathedral.  The massive 14th century Collegiale is rich in historical significance.  We decided to take the tour and it was well worth it and also great fun! We explored the narrow pathways and climbed in the double helix spiral staircases.  They were quite narrow but took us high in the tower that had multiple levels.  The cloisters had many artifacts and the St. Pierre Collegiate church, which was built between 1312 and 1318 has been carefully preserved and is beautifully detailed.  We enjoyed this place very much.  

A view from the cloisters. We climbed to the top of that tower!

Upon arriving here we have now traveled over 500 kilometers on this Chemin.  It's hard to believe we've done that in just three weeks.  That's roughly 100 miles a week (with a lot of elevation changes and some rough terrain).  

Gite D'etape Prive La Couvent de La Romieu - very clean with friendly and helpful host