Staying at Les Gentianes was a great experience. We had asked for a room in the gîte section but because we had changed our date all she had was a room in the main house.. It was more expensive but in the end much more pleasant as we had a room to ourselves all decorated in old French provincial furniture. We were a group of about 40 around the table again with everyone but us being French and of course French speaking. But we're doing alright with that - not brilliantly, but alright.
We had our first course of a soup as usual, then the kitchen helper woman came out with a gigantic pot. It was at least 18 inches across and 8 or 10 inches deep and full of aligot as it turned out. She set it on a board on one end of the table, gave it a stir with a huge wooden paddle and then lifted her arm high into the air to make a big show of stretching out the cheese in the aligot. She did it again a couple of times but as I wasn't expecting it I unfortunately didn't get a very good picture. Still - it was fun to watch. The aligot was served with sausage as usual - very rich and tasty. Dessert was something with confiture ( jam to us) and some of the French women were remarking on the variety of different jams that they had - and all homemade which seems to be the norm in this part of the country. The kitchen helper woman commented that she had put up over 1000 jars of confiture the past season, and all of the jars were almost a litre. She had blueberry, apricot, strawberry and blackberry at least. There may have been more but my French is limited so I couldn't understand if there were other kinds as well.
We are still up at 1200 metres so it is quite cold yet. Today we are to go over the highest peak of this section and although it is only about 100 metres more to go, we know by now that in reality we will walk that height several times in the hills and valleys that are inevitable. We are stressed as we leave and uncertain what the days will bring as we have 22.9 km if we are to make our next reservation. Our damned French phone with the nationwide company Orange doesn't work and has never worked except as an alarm clock and there has been no Internet connection for a few days so I have been unable to let the people know that we will not make our reservation. I'm fit to be tied and just want to get going.
So off we go with me stomping along ahead. Today the signs are clear enough so that I feel I have wait for my walking partner and tromped on ahead trying to sort out why this was all so darned difficult and why we were so far away from our goals and whether the whole thing was even going to be possible and did I even care anymore. I'm mentioning all of this not just to vent but because I know that any other potential travellers of this pass who choose to walk with others will, most likely run into something similar.
The signs on the GR65, which is the route we are following are most often clear enough but in some places either missing or very unclear. When we are on a path, it inevitably goes back and forth in a series of U-turns and if you're the one following it can be very confusing to figure out where the other person is going. It's really important to stay alert so you don't risk taking a wrong turn. Although that can lead to some interesting adventures when it does happen:)
This section through the Aubrac region is just amazing. It's like a moonscape or something. It's a bit stark at this point but so beautiful! Look at those HUGE rocks.
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