Waking up to rain and cloud covering the views of last night, spending the day in a cloud getting slowly but thoroughly drenched by mizzle (up up through a forest, over moor, lunch in a berger's hut then down past a lake, down a track with no views but who knows we could have been anywhere), a pond full of tadpoles, emerging out of the cloud and the first person we saw in 24 hours was a lorry driver with an 80s mullet who saw us but carried on taking off his trousers anyway (?), 2 vultures perched on a heathery mound, flowery villages, a mean growling patou dog who led us to his sheep rather than away, a field of mules and donkeys, gobliny passages, and then arriving at THE MOST AMAZING place ever - a gîte d'étape farm run by the friendliest man ever where we found everything we could ever need like a pick your own veg farm, freshly laid eggs, goat cheese galore, a kitchen for cooking, a cosy room with a fireplace, freshly picked flowers, booze and so much homely comfort joy we didn't know what to do:)
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| On our way to Rouze we found the floweriest section of the GR10 :) |
The gîte d'étape in Rouze was honestly one of the most amazing places that we stayed in for the whole hike.
We had had a long and tiring few days and the actual day that we hiked here was incredibly wet and tough-going. Our boots were saturated, there were absolutely no views, just cloud and mist. The path was fairly steep all day long and at some point I think we just sort of gave up on the idea that we would ever find somewhere to pitch the tent. So when we found the gîte and stepped inside and realised that we could stay in the warmth instead, it was such a relief. We weren't keen at all on sleeping in dorms but nobody else was there so it was just like staying in a house of our own! The gîte is part of a farm – there is a fromagerie selling homemade cheeses and a huge vegetable patch that you can pick your own veg from. The whole thing is run by one of the friendliest men we have ever met - his whole face was a smile and he exuded a calm, zen energy as he welcomed us. Inside there is a big shelf that is a serve-yourself shop selling food supplies and a fridge full of beer and wine that you can buy. It is run on an honesty system – so you note down what you have taken and leave the money in a box by the door. There were so many useful supplies (all very reasonably priced) so we bought rather a lot of stuff! You can cook in the cosy little kitchen and there was a big table with freshly picked flowers where you could eat. We bought cheese, freshly baked bread and eggs from the farm, picked our own courgettes and cooked up a feast. We had the whole beautiful place to ourselves so after glorious hot showers, we put on some music, lit a giant fire and basically had ourselves a happy little party of joy. The whole place reminded us of the part in The Lord of the Rings where the hobbits end up at Tom Bombadil’s farm – a happy little haven of goodness, where we totally over-indulged in booze and never wanted to leave!
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| The beautiful fresh flowers on the table in the Gite d'étape |
Total hiking time: 7h28
Peak: 1998m
Total ascent: 1211m
Total descent: 1293m
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