My Favorite Hands Down Best Gite on the Chemin Le Puy

[scruffy1]

Those who read my posts know of my chronic inability (OK unwillingness) to follow a guidebook. After managing to slide down the treacherous slippery sloppy descent into Limogne en Quercy on a dreaded and rainy Monday afternoon the pilgrim is faced with a dilema. No cafe/bar no boulangerie, no supermarket, no store-the pizza guy might be open in the evening but nothing certain. The day had been easy but no real excitement, there were two "Celtic stones" but after the spring by Mas Delpech just kilometers to kill, Limogene? Nothing to write home about. Next day more of the same for some hours until my instincts took over and I turned heading north towards Saint Cirq Lapopie planning and succeeding to walk the Cele Valley backwards-a very good decision! Weary from not enough nourishment and a boring countryside I pulled into La Loge, 2 kilometers from Concots. Boondocks? Yes. End of the World? Oh Yes. The most amazing, friendly, interesting, and kind people running a gite I met on the entire Chemin. Yes Yes Yes! It's a farm raising sheep organically (the French have all but derailed on the idea of Bio food), The gite is another 250 meters back in the wood from the farmhouse on a way marked by bounding deer, morel mushrooms, and the poisonous but beautiful hellebore-an ancient farmhouse in itself spotlessly clean, great showers a kitchen and for us early birds a a fireplace. Don't even consider cooking for yourself Mme Aillet offers a marvelous repast, soup salad main course with vegetables desert cheese and all the organic wine you may choose to consume all organic of course and taken with their family. Their home is rather eccentrically decorated-the entrance? Follow the signs pointing towards the dentist's' office second floor on the steps outside. My faith restored, I resumed my walkabout to Saint Cirq Lapopie walked the Cele Valley against the grain coming out at Beduer and now totally rejuvenated from the sheer beauty, retraced my steps before coming to my second most favorite gite - Le Relais de Jacobins and Serge in Cahors. Not recommended for those on a timetable or poor punctilious souls who cannot or will not innovate.

 

[Thornley]

Scruffy old mate,
We have had many a beautiful holiday in Concots/Escauzels and stayed there [ not your gite] on our GR65 3 years ago.
It is the most beautiful area and i wish i had known you were going to be there worn out/lonely/grumpy and lost
The tabac in Concots , 10 years ago was where we first met lost pilgrims well before i knew about the Camino Santiago. They had started in Holland and were to stay in the camping area and eat @ a large restr. in town. The camp was under water, the restr. was burnt 6 months prior and they were a tad stuck and a little wet.
I took them to the lovely holiday home we had exchanged in Escauzels.This home was owned by a couple from Putney who had enjoyed the tennis in Melbourne the previous December.
Over dinner and wine [ they ate plenty Scruffy ] they introduced us to their Camino .
A lovely couple who still keep in touch.
Concots should be visited more often as the owner of the tabac comes from the UK.Hazel has had the store/post office for a life time and would have loved the company of yourself.
There are some beautiful restr. in the nearby villages
Just writing this ........... i wish i was with you.

Keep well Scruffy,
David