Waking up cosy to views of autumnal hills appearing and disappearing in a cloud of rain, begrudgingly trudging out into the wet cold morning, getting instantly soaked and heading up and over a col on a path that varied betwen crappy slippery goblin tunnels and a windy D road all the way to... the next village where a lovely man opened up his shop (usually shut on Wednesdays) and interrupted his lunch to make us up a room at his B&B where it is dry and warm and cosy again. Sometimes two hour's progress is enough for one day :)
***
We were so very happy to arrive in Py and find another warm and dry place to stay. We might have only spent two hours walking but it was enough to get soaked through again and all we wanted to do was get dry, get provisions and eat! The very kind owners of L’auberge de Py were hosting a family meal on the day we arrived, but they very kindly popped out, opened up the shop for us and set up a room whilst we waited. We were so happy to spend the wet afternoon warming ourselves and drying all our possessions in a cosy room. We ate a hearty breakfast the next day up in the restaurant which involved lots of local jam and delicious bread. If you’re in need of somewhere cosy along the GR10, then I would highly recommend this place!
The vital statistics:
Time spent hiking: 1h50!
Peak: 1765m
Total ascent: 194m
Total descent: 755m
Waking up in a frosty tent again (hooray for thermals) and embarking upon in a pretty thankless day of hiking up steep, stony paths into the clouds, and down diabolically steep slippery paths back through the clouds. Highlights/lowlights included negotiating our way past a huge beast of a bull, a frog, a huge dead snake, spotting a goldcrest, glorious autumnal foliage on the rare occasions the clouds parted, soaking wet grass that saturated our boots, dark viewless paths in murky forests, perfect red toadstools and glistening soggy spiderwebs, freezing winds on cols, golden grassy plateaus, cows blocking the slippery narrow path into the village which promised four places to stay (all open all year according to the guide. lies), getting turned away from three but finding a log fire, cold beer and cheap cosy lodgings in the fourth.
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 |
| Autumn mornings |
Not for the first time, the French guidebook proved to be rather outdated and just plain wrong about the facilities available in the tiny village of Mantet. It was very much fermé for the season - perhaps if you turn up there in July or August, you might have a more welcoming experience and a choice of four places to stay and eat, but on a cold, wet evening in late September we had no such luck. It really is a very small (and steep) village, and given the awful weather and the fact that it was steadily getting dark by the time we turned up, there was nobody out in the streets to ask for help. There had been no phone signal anywhere for the whole day so I hadn’t been able call ahead to make inquiries or book anything and even in the village there was no mobile service whatsoever.We were turned away by all three of the places in the village itself – with no help or suggestion about where we might go and stay, despite the awful conditions.We would really have welcomed anything and considered trying to pitch our tent on one of the few flat spaces of earth above the town before it got too dark to see. We were feeling pretty hopeless, but luckily we persevered and decided to check out the fourth option. Thank goodness we did – we found a little piece of GR10 magic in the form of a charming gite d’étape, La Cavale. It was 13 euros each for a 4 person room, but seeing as there was nobody else there, we got the room to ourselves and slept on a huge double bunk bed which was very comfy and cosy indeed. There was a kitchen downstairs where we cooked ourselves a huge plate of pasta and – the very best bit – a huge log fire burning where we could warm our toes and dry our boots just like I had dreamed. Like many of the other gites, refreshments and supplies were available on an honesty box system and we honestly drank all the beer in the fridge!
The Vital Statistics:
Total hiking time: 8h53
Peak: 2384m
Total ascent: 1462m
Total decent: 1717m
