Walk on by

[TravellingSonn]

Hi all,

I'm curious to know, which towns/gites would you recommend walking on by?

Merci,
Sonn

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Sonn,
This is such a beautiful walk that it's hard to come up with miss-able places. But I've got a few. I thought the town of Nogaro was kind of dismal, it was grey and kind of charmless. We were very glad we had planned to walk on for several more hours to Lanne Soubiran. We stayed at a farm gite in the middle of the country, very well appointed. It's small (I think there were six of us and it was full). Very nice place, great dinner. We walked a few hundred meters to the local 13th century church and got a personal tour from the people who live next door and have a key. This was 7 years ago, so the info may be out of date but here is the contact information I had:

Gite Monique de San Nicolas
phone: 05 62 08 83 81

(my journal goes on in rapture about the cheese course!)

The other place I just didn't like at all was the city of Cahors. The bridge is amazing, kind of a fortress bridge, and there are some old parts of town that could be wonderfully restored, but I just didn't have the feeling that this was a city with a lot of civic spirit. Everywhere else we were amazed by tons of colorful flowers, here not. It was jut not one of my favorites. Others will undoubtedly disagree, this is all so personal.

Anyway, I'll look through my journals some more to see if I have more places to put in this category, but as I said, the hard part of this camino is deciding which lovely town to stop in, not which ones to miss! Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is not shown in the latest Miam Miam Dodo, but there is a place in La Communal after Livinhac-le-Haut that had a lot of character and a lot of mold and moisture. It is a farm with several dorm rooms in farm sheds. The owner had to chase a giant frog/toad out of our room, saucer sized. It has lots of sinks, mostly outdoors, and a couple of indoor showers. The kitchen was well equipped, but there was no food to purchase except when passing through Livinhac. There were a few items like dried soup mix available for sale and use on an "honor bar" shelf.

The place had character with horses all around, and would be great for summer parties in the large patio area, but the dampness and mold left me with clogged sinuses!!

I don't know if I would say to avoid it, but know what you are getting. It is about 1 km off the route.

 

[robertt]

Whatever you do, don't miss Decazeville! (I know, I know. I just wanted to be the first and only pilgrim ever to say that.)

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Les Volets Bleus in Decazeville was one of my favorites!

 

[robertt]

Hey, Falcon, I stayed in Les Volets too, and loved it. In fact, I rather liked the town. It's like an Australian coal town that's seen better days. (In fact, it's a French coal town that's seen better days.) Seriously, after getting with the whole Conques thing for a couple of days, it was good to encounter a busy shopping strip, rugby stuff, mall rats and all that.

Next day, Fred and Vero's wonderful rural gite at Montredon. Another world again!

 

[Kitsambler]

The only places I really ran into trouble, was because I was NOT staying at a demi-pension, and then had to deal with Sunday or Monday closing. A can of sardines and a carrot does not a dinner make, sorry. So do plan ahead.

 

[TravellingSonn]

Guys, thanks again for sharing your recommendations. Much appreciated as always.