The Way of St. James #32: From Saint Antoine to Marsolan

I was woken by the sound of pigeons, with the morning light coming into my room at the Ferme de Villeneuve. There can be few more uplifting ways to start the day. My hosts gave all the guests a hearty breakfast, and we were soon on our way, leaving the gite

Although it was cool, there seemed a good day ahead, and I made steady progress. It was already late for the local cows, resting and chewing the cud. The morning was a succession of villages. First was Flamarens, just four km from Saint Antoine. I was there by nine o’clock. The village has a castle, but the church is under reconstruction, and there was no access.

Leaving Flamarens, I got my first glimpse of the Pyrenees away to the south. Still snow-capped, they were just visible in the distance and a reminder of journey’s end for this trip. But there is still a long distance to go. Another four km brought me to Miradoux, where I stopped to fill my water reserves and enjoy local strawberries from the small shop at the entrance to the village. Delicious!! Miradoux has an interesting gothic church, which was worth the time to visit. Midway along the wall in the picture is a statue of Joan of Arc, while almost opposite her is our old friend Saint Jacques in pilgrim garb.

After another five km, I came to Castel-Arrouy. Again, the church was worth visiting, with interesting carvings around the door.

And then came the first long walk of the day. It was nine km of walking across undulating countryside to get to the large village or small town of Lectoure. Alas, I had arrived too late to have a proper lunch in one of the town’s restaurants, but I was doing fine with a spaghetti carbonara take-away from a local establishment, even if it was not true French cooking.

Lectoure has a cathedral rather than a church, and the tower of the cathedral dominates the skyline of the town.

After Lectoure, there was another long stretch of ten km, and in spite of the afternoon heat, there was nothing for it but to just get going. Luckily, there are relatively few hills on the way, and none of those too high or too steep. I reached my destination of Marsolan in good time, and had a beer before heading to the gite.

Marsolan has a small church, which must have the darkest interior of any that I have visited on this trip, so I have no photographs of the inside. Marsolan also commands fantastic views of the countryside to the south. Apparently the locals believe that if you can see the Pyrenees from here then it is going to rain. And the snow-capped peaks were just visible this evening. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

The flora and fauna continues to be interesting. After hearing no cuckoos yesterday, I heard one briefly this morning, but the most common bird sound is from pigeons. Much of the walk today was along the grass verges of roads, and there were orchids to be seen in several places. The European temperate orchids may not be as flamboyant or bloom as long as their tropical cousins, but they have a beauty all their own.

Finally, today’s step count was 49770