La Lectoure to Le Romieu

The lack of wifi access is a little frustrating for me as it's amazingly hard to remember the details of what happened two or three days ago! Don't we get dependent on our technologies?
The distance between La Lectoure and Le Romieu is about 19 km and the altitude change is only about 20 or 30 meters although, of course there are lots of little ups and downs. This first picture is a lovely tree just as we started out of town. Doesn't that look like a beautiful yard for some lucky family!?

We continued out of town, down steps and onto yet another paved road but we were soon onto a grassy, dirt path and crossed the river Gers. We alternated back onto a paved road and then back onto a grassy path between what almost seemed like hedges. A bit further along we saw these balloons take off from a farmer's field.

We passed several farms and the village of Marsolan where we saw this large wayside cross.

 

The rolling hills and scenery was beautiful as we passed through this area and another 10 km or so to La Romieu which was apparently named after the romieux (pilgrims. I wish I could capture the feeling of these rolling hills and beautiful views in every direction. La Romieu is a fairly small village but it has a huge church built in the 14th century by one of the Avignon popes. The seemingly disproportionate size is apparently indicative of its former importance.

We stayed in a private gite which had been a former convent - Le Couvent de la Romieu. We had our own bathroom but our room was the size of our two beds squished together with about a foot on the outside of each bed. Friendly people but way too small. 

There is a story about this town and cats - well two stories actually. The is copied from the southweststory.com website (thank you)

"La Romieu is also a … cat lover village. There are cat statues in the centre of the "bastide" and the legend says that the village was, in old times, … twice saved by cats, first when the crops were so poor that the famine came into the village houses and the peasant had to eat their… cats to survive and later, when ALMOST no cat was left and the crops, that improved, were threatened by rodents, the cats kept hidden until then by the village girl Angeline saved again the community by destroying the rodents!
Each year, in mid -August, La Romieu celebrates The Festival of Cats." 

 You may have noticed by now that I'm somewhat taken with the wisteria!

 And we leave La Romieu with a population of about 550 people.