Stage 4: Pradelles, France to Cheylard L'Eveque and A Rest Day
Today's trail led through Langogne, the largest town in the area. Breakfast had the best bread and croissants to date. Croissants are made with lots of butter between layers and you know you've got a great croissant when it flakes all over the place. This one was the best! Masses of buttery flakes all over the table, floor and us. Dragged the suitcases down the two flights of stairs and I have an important TIP for you. Put the suitcase on it's side, hang on to the stair rail and slide it down, slowly, from step to step.
Major bandage job on poor ex-Marine's feet. The skin is completely worn off from the sole blisters and we're going to have to find a pharmacie somewhere along the way for Second Skin, Compeed and bandage replacement. It's 22.2km/13.8 miles from Pradelles to Cheylard L'Eveque. Miles of wooded valleys, pastures, farm tracks and cinder paths.
Almost everything in this area is made of the local granite. Houses, water troughs, bread ovens, etc. By the time we got to Langogne...View image..., ex-Marine was really suffering. We plopped down under the 18th century corn market built of heavy limestone slabs and supported by 14 columns in the center of town. This was originally built as a shelter for cattle. There were only two options. Take a taxi to Cheylard L'Eveque or continue walking. Gutsy person! He decided to go on and there was still 10 miles of walking from this point.
Langogne is on the borders of the Lozere, Ardeche and Haute-Loire departments. The older section of the town had its houses arranged in a circle around the church with some of them built in the towers of the old wall. No energy for any sightseeing.
Ten miles of nothingness other than a few hamlets, down hills, across an old bridge, some ups and continued walking until we reached Sagne-Rousse where we noticed a road leading to Cheylard L'Eveque that said 3.9km. The trail said 5.7km. Absolutely no heavy thinking about this one. We hit the 3.9km road.....and entered Cheylard almost six hours after we left this morning. Actual rain for the last five minutes and there was the very nice La Refuge du Moure (e-mail: gitap.simonet@wanadoo.fr) right in front of us. Oh joy...oh ecstasy... It is opposite a tiny church in the center of town. There are individual rooms with toilets and showers, rooms without toilets or showers and dorms. Very pretty and we're extremely excited because we built in a rest day here. Tomorrow, we do nothing! I think that walking the equivalent of two marathons (a marathon is 42km/26.2 miles) in four days is more than sufficient. Shoulders hurt from backpack, shinsplints, going to lose toe nails again and it even hurts to breathe.
Today's highlight? A young French couple staying here with their donkey. Traveling the Chemin Stevenson in a traditional manner with the donkey carrying everything.
Dinner at 7:30 pm was served family-style. A platter of cold meats, melon and couscous. Stewed veal served with garlic pasta and zucchini. Cheese platter. Cake with vanilla and apple sauce. Plenty of bread and wine included. A very gay, convivial dinner with the two Swiss from Bern that we met before and all the French men and women. Watch the video! We're not the only wimps complaining about the long distances and sore feet. One woman has even more toes bandaged than I do, and that makes me feel better.
