Estaing Castle

 

Day  9 - Estaing

    We began our day with renewed optimism for our 13 mile day.  We are still in a mountainous region so there is a lot of up and down.  We seem to go over a hill each time we go from one town to another.  By noon we made it to Espallion, a small city that was filled with tourists.  We are getting good at sidewalk lunches, we can both get filled up for less than 10 Euros. We saw Claire walk by so we yelled at her.  She is the only one we have met that is going all the way to Santiago. Her English is very limited and our French is none existent, yet we have formed a strong connection.  She is a devout Catholic and stops at all the chapels and churches.  We sometimes walk in close proximity but she prefers to walk alone, as do most of the single pilgrims. Our gite tonight is in another old city with lots of character.  There is a castle in the center of town that was built for a child of Louis XVI, who went under the guillotine during the French Revolution.  A group of nuns used it for a school until recently, when a former French president bought it.  Our host speaks very good English and has walked the full Camino from Le Puy, so we flooded her with questions.  Dinner was vegetarian and very tasty. We ended dinner a little earlier so we were able to browse the town in twilight. Esther is developing another blister. so our host is offering assistance in dressing it.