Yesterday we reached the town of Mosiac, famous for the Abby Church of Saint Pierre and its Cloister, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recognised as the oldest cloister in the world! The cloister is unique due to it its antiquity, it was completed in 1100, and is architecturally intact. There are 76 pilars featuring amazing, intricate, medieval carvings which are stunningly beautiful. The town itself is somewhat uninspiring, but we stayed in a really good gite owned by a lovely Irish couple, and the Abby and Cloister made the stop over worthwhile.
Tonight we are in the historic village of Auvillar which has narrow streets, beautiful stone buildings, a medieval market place structure at its centre, and of course a magnificient cathedral towering over all. There is a wonderful view from the fortified wall of the village looking down on the La Garonne River, with two huge stacks from a nuclear power plant in in distance.
For the past couple of days we've walked through nice country side with fields of wheat, orchards of pears, cherries, plums, as well as other fruit or nut producing trees we couldn't recognise, but today the terrain changed completely.
We left Mosiac early this morning for the 20km walk to Auvillar. Rain was predicted for the late afternoon and we wanted to beat it, which we did, as we made excellent time walking in delightful weather conditions. It was cool, we had jackets on all day, the terrain was flat (yeah!) and pretty, running adjacent to a canal for most of the day, leaving just a few km at the end on a bitumen road before a short, steep climb into Auvillar.
There were many walkers today, the trail has become busy, and it has became quite social. We stopped with other pelerins for lunch in the paddock of a strawberry farm where we all purchased a punnet of the freshest, sweetest strawberries we have ever eaten. Even the French walkers said they had never tasted strawberries so good! Another wonderful day in rural France.
Tomorrow we make our way to Castet Arrouy, another 20km along the way, with no idea what lies ahead!
Amazing & beautiful villages on your journey. So much history at every corner.
ReplyDeleteYou have both done very well. Still looking fit & healthy.
Thanks for your wonderful blogs & great photos. Wendy must be the main photographer because Steve seems to be in most of the shots.
Keep on walking.