Wednesday 25th May Castenet le Haut to Ceilhes-et-Rocozels

Just more of the same I'm afraid, perfect weather, great countryside and nice places to stop over.

The food in the Auberge de Fau was excellent. Really impressed with the young couple who were running it obviously as a side business to their farm. So as well as making sure I got a perfect table d'hote, they had been busy getting the silage in all day and keeping their two young children entertained. Notice that the silage is being cut at least a week ahead of David in the Archers, although to be fair he does seem to have a lot on his plate at the moment.

Auberge de Fau

The only disadvantage of the Auberge was it involved dropping down into a valley from the GR 71 and all of the height lost had to regained. It took nearly an hour to get back to the route but the starting point was further along the trail.

Although it was all very nice it was, to be honest, all very similar, no huge views and no obvious pattern to the landscape. Although at one point I think I was looking back to the Pic Noire the views to all points of the compass were the same.

Montagne de l'Epinouse

The only settlement you go through is the village of Melagues, and it was very small although the GR signs were vague enough to get me lost. After wandering up and down for a few minutes, consulting a local, I was back into the trees and on my way to Ceilhes-et-Rocozels.

Melagues

Arrived at about 4.30 and Christine got here at 6.00 The first thing she wanted to do was go for a walk! Managed to persuade her to restrict this to walk to the bar overlooking the lake along the road. We spent the next hour or so catching up on all the news.

Tomorrow's walk to Lodeve is just a bit too long particularly as we are not going to get away until 8.30 in the morning. Might need to figure out a way of shortening it a bit.

Tuesday 24th May Fraisse-sur-Agout to Castenet le Haut

Had a really nice meal in the Auberge Spinouse where I stayed last night, mega salad, the local variant on black pudding and three different types of dessert all for 13 euros with wine. Things definitely looking up on the food front and the weather continues to be excellent.

The main problem today was that the route of the GR 71, which is what the E4 is supposed to be on at the moment, has been changed. Seems like my route which I down loaded from the GR-info web site and the digital maps are out of date. I think it must be some sort of official re-routing because the GR signs have been carefully removed. I was still able to navigate using the GPS but had no on-the-ground clues to support my efforts and until I got to the last third of the route I just wasn't on the official trail.

Can understand why they might have changed the route because while the beginning and end of the walk were nice the middle bit was dull - essentially through a never ending commercial pine plantation.

The first stretch involved a steady climb up to the Col de Fontfroide, where there was an interesting war memorial, and then a really nice walk through open countryside with good views south and east. To the south, through the distant clouds you could see a ghostly Canigou, it's now haunting me.

War Memorial at Col de Fontfroide

Montagne de L'Espinouse

After that it was walking along forest access trails through regimented pine trees, it was starting to get hot and progressively less and less enjoyable. Eventually the trail disappeared altogether and I had to bushwhack down a very overgrown firebreak and then the GR signs re-emerged. The joy was short-lived however when I got to a junction and there was a cross and a scallop shell, not the GR 71 but the St James Way and heading towards Spain. Was starting to think that a route just didn't exist, retraced my steps a couple of times when I saw a sign down a fairly overgrown route in what was almost the right direction. It got better and better, after about half a hour a sign actually said the GR 71.

Really nice walk for the last few kilometres, lots of those tree tunnels, saw a eagle flying overhead and disturbed a deer.

Shady Tunnel

Deer in the broom

Staying in the Auberge de Fau which is completely in the middle of nowhere and about a kilometre to the south of the route. Two other people staying here and we will be eating in a very grand dining room with a massive fire place containing a suitably massive log fire, not cold but a great display.

Monday 23rd May Angles to Fraisse-sur-Agout

So I still don't know what Gite d'Etape is. It can be a room with bunks where you have to find the key holder to get access (the miserable Gite d'Etape) or it can be like last night where the only inconvenience is that you have to share a bath room (the nice Gite d'Etape). Last night also served good food, four course meal and as much wine as the Frenchmen sat next to me could pour into my glass (well I did keep emptying it). Whole thing including breakfast, 35 euros, good value or what.

Angles also had an all purpose Boulangerie open at 8 on a Monday. Was able to dump my 2 day old baguette, which was now so hard it was dangerous, get a new one and a lump of Pate de Campagne for 2 euros. Traditional France is seriously endangered but reports of its extinction are exaggerated.

Angles, Salvetat-sur-Agout (half along today's walk) and Fraisse-sur-Agout are similar large villages, small towns. The buildings are clad with slate which gives them a bit of a run town look but all of them are surrounded by little holiday bungalows and I suspect it gets busy here in the summer. As well as the countryside the attraction is probably the swimming and fishing in the rivers and lakes/reservoirs.

Lac de la Raviege

La Salvetat-sur-Agout

The weather has also got better again, in fact a perfect day, sunny, clear but not too hot.

The walk was very similar to yesterday. Mixed wooded countryside, gentle climbs and descents, and periodically opening up with hay meadows. Just a little bit more road walking than I've got used to but mainly quiet country lanes with a virtual absence of traffic.

Did get one big view back to the Pic Noire, the one with the rocket on top, and, as the mountain slopped away you could also see the Pyrenees in the background. I keep thinking I seen the last of them and there they are again, seven days walking since I left them, they must be stalking me.

Talking of stalkers, loads of walkers coming the other way along the St James Way, must have seen about twenty this morning. One of them even had the same bag as me. The woman at the Gite wanted to know if I wanted my card stamped - not me matey, not unless you do E4 stamps.

A St James Way Walker

So another lovely walk, particularly if you like the pastoral forest mix. Pretty sure I saw a field of orchids but could be wrong but certainly had more of my share of lush meadows full of flowers.

Orchids

Hay Meadow

Sunday 22nd May Mazamet to Angles

A rest day yesterday and given my sore feet it was just as well that there is nothing to do in Mazamet. One web site claims that it is one of the 10 prettiest towns in France but trust me it isn't. Once an important textile centre making uniforms for the army the empty factories line the route into town. The town centre itself is a dismal place with lots empty shops.

Left the lovely Chambre D'hote at about 8.30 fully laden. After running out of food last weekend I had stocked up with enough food yesterday for two days. Really annoyed to find a Sunday market and that open bread shops. Je ne comprends pas!

The weather had changed from hot and sticky to cloudy and cloud. It wasn't really problem as it was a route through trees and a least it wasn't raining.

Having travelled north from the Pyrenees I'm now travelling east until I get to Lodeve in four days time.

Today continued the sort of walking I had when I came down from the Pic Noire the day before yesterday. Having negotiated the suburbs of Mazamet and gone past Leclerc supermarket (which is probably the culprit in the murder of the town centre), the walk involved a fairly gentle climb up to about 900 metres through a forest which occasionally opened up into flower laden hay meadows and patches of broom.

A meadow in the trees

Endless broom

The forests are a mix but with a lot of sweet chestnut, beech and the most enormous pine. The pine are truly enormous I guess at least 100 feet high and today with their tops reaching into the low cloud they looked like giant sentinels on the hill side.

Huge mist laden pines

The other interesting feature of today's walk is that just to the north east of Mazamet the E4 leaves the GR 36 (which I think carries on up to Normandy) and joins the GR 71/GR 653 which is the main French feeder to the St James Way which comes down from Le Puy. In addition to the usual brilliant French way marks you now get the extra treat of scallop shells to keep you on the right route.

After 26 kilometres and 900 metres of climb I got to Angles at about 4. Staying at a Gite d'Etape, which is a cross between a Chambre d'Hote and a Refuge. You get your own room, you share a bathroom, but you also get lots of rules. Can't bring your sticks in the house and your shoes have to go in a special rack. Actually the landlady was savage with my shoes banging them on the wall outside which given the increasingly delicate state they are in was really unnecessary. Both pairs know have holes in the soles and still four days to go before a new pair arrives from London with Christine. Can't wait for the new shoes and can't wait to see Christine.