Day 20 Lauzerte to Mosaic
I write this next section for those who have requested information about the gourmet side of this trip and I must recount the dinner we had last night. If you recall we had a rather wet start to our evening and then to add insult to injury we found we were too early for the restaurants so back to the hotel dripping wet we go, heading out again not so long after this time squelching. I'm surprised that they let us in the door the amount of puddles we were making. The choice was not exactly high dining - pizza or a creperie. We chose the creperie- first let me report on our meal which we thought was going to be something completely different to what we got. The crepe was large and folded in a big square - sitting on top was a meat patty and on top of that a fried egg. Hmmmmm- interesting!! The mojito helped!!
What was lovely about the dinner though was the arrival at the same time as us of a father and his daughter- who I'm guessing to be around three. It was priceless example on the lesson of refinement of the French. As they walked into the restaurant the father reminded the little girl to say Bonsoir to the owner.she was placed on top of the booster chair and without any wriggling or complaining sat there the whole time we were in the restaurant. and my favourite thing was that at no time did an IPad come out. Bliss!!! - this little girl will learn refinement for sure with this beautiful introduction to eating out and being an active member of society. The father was so patient and talked to her the whole time - I picked up the words ' doucment' occasionally (slowly) and she showed a lot of curiosity about our meals. It was a shame I couldn't speak French to her as I think she would have had some interesting things to say.

Today's walk was with a light rain which was enjoyable for a change. I still had the bottom half of my pants off as it is still quite warm. The earth was very thirsty and it did seem to appreciate the drenching it received. It was nice to see the little rivulets we crossed today were actually flowing. The only trouble was that now the dry dirt tracks are slippery muddy tracks and the poles are even more essential to stop slipping over.
The chemin has been marked by different regions as we have walked and the different regions have all had their own stamp of creativity. The marker of this area was a pleasant metal cutout of a pilgrim and usually with a chair beside it. At one of these stops I am momentarily on high alert about a dog that does not look so friendly making a bee-line for us. With memories of the goat watch dog I was trying to come up with a solution of protection ( as in putting George in front of me) but the fierceness was all abluff and he turned out to be the friendliest dog. Apart from some mad digging into the grass nearby which made me think he was trained for truffles he showed no animosity and actually accompanied us for the next few kilometres. The other surprise turn up was the yell from the distance 'George, Anne!' It was Alban - I'm sure he feels that he has finally got rid of those Aussies but we keep turning up. It was pleasant to walk together for a few kilometres before his long legs took him off ahead.

We had heard that Mossaic was a lovely old town ( important for being on both road & river junctions) but the first impressions are not encouraging- commercial buildings, road works and not so pretty but eventually as we got closer to the centre of the town it became older and more attractive and we go in search for our accomodation for the night - an old convent owned by the Ancien Carmel society that is now open to pilgrims. It is located high above the town (of course) in a lovely old stone building, luscious gardens, a courtyard filled with vegetables and wide wooden stairs sweeping upstairs to the little nun cubicles where we sleep. The meals are organised by volunteers and we sit alongside others (who appear to be the retired ladies and gentlemen of the church ) on long wooden benches on either side of the long table. One of the volunteers has the soup on a trolley and moves down the side of the table lading it out to us all, she then returns later with the antipasto- a meat loaf, radishes and gherkins, next is the main meal of mashed potatoes and beef Bourgogne (sp)!! And finally dessert of a fruit tart.

But I get ahead of myself- before eating we have walked back down into the old town to visit the Romanesque Abbey of Saint Peter - established mid 7th century by the first Christian French king - King Clovis it is indeed beautiful with its 76 sculpted stone pillars all decorated a different way on its capital - the walk continues through the narrow streets decorated with pink umbrellas to bring attention for The October cancer month, onwards to the canal and the river Turn which are all sparkling in the sunlight. A beautiful day.