Bigose to Finieyrols

This is planned to be a 22.6 km day with a general elevation of just under 300 metres although with all of the ups and downs that come into that it always seems like it's double the theoretical amount! So up we started and up and up on a very cold day. We are still at an elevation of over 1000 metres, not that high by any account but high enough so that spring has not yet arrived. As always on this camino there is a lot of pavement walking which for some reason exhausts me. It should have been an easier day with a fairly gentle climb- Ha! I had lots of energy for the first 5 km but then we stopped in Aumont-Aubrac for a coffee and I had a croque monsieur - a  sandwich with ham in the middle and cheese all over the outside. After that I was done - stomach cramps and generally feeling really sick to my stomach.  A bathroom break in the snowy woods helped (I know- too much information!) but I never did regain my energy on this day. In spite of all of that, we climbed some big hills today and walked on golden paths of crushed stone.

Another day which was spent in between two barb wire fences - something that feels very strange. This is common. I sure hope that barb wire is manufactured here in France because they use it for many kilometres at a time, often with an electric fence on the top. This definitely a part of the country with huge farms and huge skies, huge farm equipment, and huge fields and huge rocks. I think the fences are to keep the animals in, but it does occur to me from time to time that it is also to keep us out. It does make peeing in the woods a challenge though.

Speaking of peeing in the woods, it's not too bad on this section for toilet paper that's been left behind by someone too lazy to carry it to the next garbage, but there's definitely some and it's a shame. It's been easy for us to carry rolls of doggie bags for our daily garbage, lunch wrappers, tissues, peelings etc and I definitely recommend it. Buy them at home though because judging from the city street and country paths here, nobody uses them.

As we walked through the cold and passed through Lasbros we spoke to the dogs on the road as is our habit and along the road at that time came two very friendly ones. We were petting them and chatting with them when their owners, who had them out for a walk, appeared over the hill. They tried to call their dogs away but the dogs were happy with the extra attention so there was no way they were going to obey. So the owners came over to talk with us and told us that the woman, Catherine, had walked part of the camino last year. And, angels that they are, offered us a ride to the next gîte! We should have said 'no' but really - one doesn't want to be offensive in a foreign country;)
So we took the ride and within a few minutes we were at Les Gentianes in Finieyrols, arriving at our gîte at 3:30 instead of 7:00 as we would have otherwise.

Burgundy shutters!

Green shutters!