While eating the pastries (and fruit!), we got into a heavy conversation about economics. We saw this wonderfully aged lady running the fruit stand next door, who probably works 10 hours a day, six days per week. Now I wouldn't want those hours, but it seems that everybody loves that she works there, as she knows everyone by name. It's a great place to go because of her. Nowadays, people want the big salary but not all the hard work, hours, and years of dedication that it takes to get there. We prefer immediate results.
The route started off well enough, just following along the banks of the river Lot. Soon enough the signs pointed a turn to the left:
I love these wayside signs and devotionals. It gives such spiritual warmth to the route. If you look very closely at the photo above (or enlarge it), you can see the white and red horizontal bars that is the official route marking of the Camino de Santiago in France.
We passed by the 12th C. romanesque church of St. Peter in Bessuéjouls
The the climbing started. It was some difficult ascents that Rudolph and I had to master, but we relied on each others' courage to get it done.
Soon we were having lunch outside some rural church. He shared his bread with me, I shared a blister pad with him.
Then it was on to our destination of Estaing. Of course before you arrive in almost any city on the Camino there seems to be a difficult ascent into the mountains followed by a tricky descent. Estaing was no different.
However the view of the approach made the sweaty toil worth it. Estaing is a medieval city with lots of beautiful nooks and crannies.
We checked into our gîte, which was run by a Christian community, dedicated to helping pilgrims on the route to Compostella. We had a very warm welcome.
We had a delicious, simple meal that night (soup followed by lentils with carrots and sausage). Then the community invited us to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. What a great moment!
