Day 17 Bach to Cahors
You have probably picked up that I prefer to be in the rural environment as opposed to the bigger towns but the town of Cahors is our next stop and we feel it deserves a bit of time to explore and observe. It gives us a chance to do the domestics of laundromats, ATMs and topping up the phone data which is difficult to do in the little villages.
Cahors is the biggest of the town in this Quercy region with the Lot Rivet encircling around it like a serpent. It was founded by the Romans in the first century after defeating the Celtic tribes and apparently the town was the meeting place of the Roman roads leading to Toulouse, Bordeaux and Rodez. George is very excited as it is famous for its Malbec wine ( known as black wine by the English) . We have always thought of Malbec being Argentinian so it is interesting to find it here in France. We have now been told that the Malbec grape in France was extremely affected by disease in the 1700's but fortunately it had survived in Argentina where it had been planted by French settlers. It is now healthy again in this region only in France.
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The other delicacy that is heavily promoted are the black diamonds - black truffles, and there are offers advertised on various billboards to go on a truffle hunting experience with the the dogs. The truffles grow at the base of the oak trees of this limestone plateau and are harvested in the winter. Unfortunately the times and the days do not coincide with our program. The main truffle festival is in December in the village of Flaujac-Pourinjls where there are many stalls lining the main street. Apparently there is much 'side-alley' buying that goes on during the day. The white truffle is considered to have less flavour and is cheaper.

In Cahors the cathedral of Saint Stephen is recommended to be seen as one of the best examples of a Romanesque dome church with a huge 17 meter cupola. I'm conscious that everyone becomes 'over' the number of churches in Europe but this is indeed beautiful and I guess we are seeing more humble homes of worship during our travels. So the visit to a more salubrious structure is enjoyable. Being in a larger town means however the additional cost of seeing more issues of society. We saw the evidence of this problem of people in need when we were on the Spanish Camino. And so it was today that someone was sitting outside the church door with his cup sitting expectant- luckily I have some coins handy. This has been our first sighting of the begging since the beginning of our journey and it is a rude awakening to the the ailments of society.
Another great sighting of this town is to visit the Valentré bridge that was constructed in the 14th century- it's an impressive construction spanning the Lot River with beautiful stone blocks and we walk with the camera working overtime. It is apparently the oldest bridge spanning the Lot River and a good example of a fortified medieval model.
There is the luxury today of taking up the recommendation of our gite owner of a little restaurant in the old part of the town and taking a leisurely lunch. For the meal of the day it is 13.50 euros and includes a salad with goat cheese, an incredible chicken dish with a great array of vegetables, a bowl of fresh strawberries and accompanied by a carafe of fine wine. For a few extra euros George enjoys a healthy serving of excellent foie gras. It is a nice change to sitting on a log in the woods where we have our socks off and chopping up a piece of sausage and adding it to a hunk of cheese. The chef comes by to check on our satisfaction and we end up having a lengthy discussion with him about all sorts of things from wines, to where he is use to work. This all comes about because we throw our few French words that we know around with such conviction that he assumes we understand much more than we let on- but interesting enough as long as the person stays on the same topic we seem to make sense from what is being told to us ( then again we will never know if we got the wrong end of the stick) still it is encouraging and we make a little more progress each day.

My Fitbit has a humour of its own - because I sat longer than normal for lunch it decides to be cheeky and I get a ' Lets go- ready for a walk' alert as if I haven't given it enough walking so far - it reminds me of our dog Mimi who never realised that she had eaten dinner and would always look at us expectantly afterwards that we had let her down and ask for more.
I have been sitting again now writing this dialogue and it has just given me a little jab on the wrist suggesting I at least attempt another 199 steps- I must say it is rewarding when you see the data at the end of each day and read 35,000 steps.

My new information I have learnt today is the origin of the word 'saunterers'. Apparently A la sainte terre,’ which means ' To the Holy Land.’ Was used by the original pilgrims and so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. The French mountains are considered to still be part of the Holy Land, and we are encouraged therefore to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.” I am all for being a 'saunterer' not like our fit young friends who are romping it through by chasing the 30-40 km range.

Our gite owner is a lovely fellow called Pierre. He has a lot of time to talk and is happy to explain his amazing gite which is the original home of his parents. It is very narrow with four storeys and a wonderful old wooden staircase that entwines its way up through the middle of the building. Off from the stairs are a collection of doors leading to unknown rooms. Our room used to be his parents and it is huge ( it took the whole width of the building) with two big French windows opening up to overlook the garden outside. There are three pianos in this house ( including one in our bedroom) which reflects the parents love of music. Pierre tells us about the enjoyment of living in the house and as the youngest child his upbringing was more lenient whereas his older brother & sister received the stricter version and if naughty they would be locked in the cellar. He said his father denied all knowledge of this when it was brought up at family gatherings many years later. ( common amnesia of most parents)
He is a well travelled man ( including Australia) and is an interesting person to pass the time with. He is a bit stunned with the weather as in October it should not be so warm in fact he usually has the fire burning. He said that this past June it was 39 degrees which is too much for their spring - global warming cannot be denied.