I awoke early, breakfasted and was on my way. I was passing the cathedral in Condom just as the bells were ringing out for 8 AM. The route crosses the bridge over the Baise river, and turns left, following the levee of the river to get out of town.
As yesterday, the route was initially a mixture of light woodland and open fields, and this continued until going past the village of Larressingle. There, I came across one of the distance markers for Santiago. It read 1000km. Back in Chaumont in 2017, I passed one that said 1826km. And back before that, I passed markers that said over 2000km to Santiago. So while I cannot attest to the accuracy of these markers, all I can say is that I have come a long way since starting out on this enterprise.
After passing Larressingle, I soon reached the Pont d’Artigues. This ancient bridge looks quite modern, and one could be forgiven for thinking that the restoration has actually damaged the overall effect of the bridge. But looking at a photo on a nearby information board, I can see why the restoration was needed.
After the Pont d’Artigues, I was back into open country again.
Just a little off the route, about 150m, was the Eglise de Routges. It is one of the oldest churches in the region, so worth a visit. It has two doors: the larget at the back of the church and the smaller at the side. The smaller door was used by a group called the Cagots. They were an outcast group of uncertain ethnic origins, smaller than most people in the area, and treated as unclean, evil and of very dubious character, They were not fully integrated into society until the early 20th century. Because of their outcast status, they were not allowed to use the main door of the church. Thankfully, social attitudes have moved on somewhat since then.
And so I came to Montreal-du-Gers, though if you live in Gers it is the only Montreal that matters. The town has a central square built for markets. The church, like so many in the region, is out of all proportion to the community it serves
It was just coming up to noon when I arrived in Montreal, so I decided to have lunch while I figured out what to do next. And lunch was excellent!
But my problem was this. I had originally planned only to get to Montreal today., it seemed wrong to stop at lunchtime. But I would have to find a gite to stay. The next village, Lamothe, had a gite but was 9km away, and when I phoned them, the gite was full, so I would have to go further. The people in the gites after Lamothe did not answer the phone. I kept trying, and when I got to Lamothe, I found a place for the night but in Eauze, a further 7km from Lamothe. But I decided to go for it, and went on.
Before leaving Lamothe, I took a look at the local church. There is a wooden carving there of the pieta, dating from the 16th century. This was around the time when Tilman Riemenschneider was working in Germany, making his wonderful carvings in wood. The Lamothe pieta lacks some of the finer detail of Riemenschneider’s work, but it makes up for that in its ability to portray the completely broken body of Christ and the look of sorrow on his mother’s face. I can’t help feeling that this pieta deserves a wider audience.
From Lamothe, the route follows a disused railway line pretty much all the way to Eauze. The tracks are gone, but the route of the line remains now as part of the Chemin de Saint Jacques.
Here and there one can see evidence on the former life of the route. There are several bridges. At Bretagne d’Armagnac, the old station house still stands. It has been converted into a private dwelling, but the station name is still clear. The current owners even have a station clock on the wall, though no trains are like to run there for many years to come.
This section as almost flat, shaded from the sun, and soon became boring. But on a hot afternoon, I will happily accept shade and a flat route. I would much rather a flat shaded route in the afternoon, than in the cool of morning. So perhaps my decision to go on to Eauze was a good one.
Eauze is an ancient town, having been a Roman regional capital in what was then Roman Gaul. Ecclesiastically, it held conferences for bishops, which is why the church is still classed as a cathedral, even though Eauze does no have its own bishop today.
And that was my walk for today. It was longer than planned: 32km instead of 17km. And my step count is 51,675.
Walkingman 