Smaller than expected

Heavy rain, last night, re-inforced how lucky we have been with the weather. Walking was tough at times and would have been deeply unpleasant if wet and muddy underfoot.

Today was market day in Martel and you know how John likes a market. It was an interesting collection of stalls and even included a man selling just feathers.

We had a two hour drive to St Andre de Najac to catch up with Dave and Suzy who have been living in the area for the last 8 years. John and Dave met in their early twenties but paths haven’t crossed for 30+ years.

Considering our walking holiday is called ‘Villages of the Dordogne’, we haven’t actually seen much of the river. Leaving Martel, we crossed the river and stopped off for a photo opportunity.

L’Hopitalet was where we next bumped into Jacky and Ken as we stopped for an obligatory cuppa before setting off in different directions to explore.

The walk down to Rocamadour was steep and hard on the knees. The view of the town hanging on the side of a cliff was amazing. We wandered through the medieval streets commenting that, just like Mont St Michel, it was simply a tourist destination. Pilgrims apparently do still visit to be in the prescence of the miracle working black Madonna, but in far fewer numbers. Having walked all the way down the hill, it was time to climb back up. Halfway, we popped into the church to see the vierge noir statue. As we left the church, we turned to each other and said ‘she’s smaller than we thought’. Obviously, there were no miracles for us other than getting the lift back to the top. Fundraising is interesting, for €1 you can hammer a nail into an old tree stump.

We have seen two large groups of cyclomoteurs. Moped riders to those of you less cultured than us! The first group in Rocamadour, we put down to over excited youths but the second group had us re-thinking. Our route into Najac was blocked by the Gendarmerie and we waited while at least 100 cyclomoteurs adorned with blue capes turned in front of us. They were followed by a cavalcade of cars and trucks with indicators flashing. With our poor French, I’m not sure we’ll get to the bottom of this.