A Fortress City

 Day 21  Lauzerte

     A quick breakfast of banana, oatmeal bar and Starbucks powdered coffee in a dixie cup, and we were out on the trail at dawn. Today’s landscape took a dramatic turn to farm fields of various crops on rolling hills.  We passed fields of lavender, sunflower, sorghum and corn. Unfortunately, we are late in the season and the lavender is cut and the sunflowers dried up.  

     We met up with several pilgrims that we had seen on previous days, and walked together for part of the day.  Usually pilgrims walk alone unless they are a group traveling together.  But occasionally, they spend a couple hours together.

     We are staying in the old city of Lauzerte. It is uniquely situated on the top of a hill and was a twelfth century fortress town. We arrived shortly after noon and hung around with Denis and Elise until our gite opened.  We were joined by several others whom we had met before and a few new ones.

    We had rice and cream sauce, our first rice in France. After dinner we walked around the town with friends, soaking up the architecture and stumbling on a food festival with some real impressive cuisine.  It was a bit of a shame that we had already eaten. We went back to our sweaty beds for the last time.  Coolness is coming tomorrow.