Monday June 10

Mileage: 10.9 miles / Elevation gain: 886 feet

Marie brought breakfast as requested at 7 am with a smile. She is so friendly and speaks such good English it made our stay perfect. Of course there was too much food – several pieces of baguette, two croissants, apple juice, yogurt, jam, butter and coffee and tea.

We had previously decided to walk the road to Larressingle. The road was somewhat busy but not terrible and we arrived after 3.5 miles.

Larressingle is one of the most beautiful and smallest fortified villages in France.  Outer walls, courtyards, crenelated towers, moat, entrance gate, 13th century château, fortified 12th century church, and medieval houses attached inside the outer walls. It was fun place to stop.

A small shop was open and served coffees, drinks, small food items (pastries and sandwiches) and tourist stuff. It was a perfect stop and the only one for the day.

We entered the trail route after our stop and it was a good for quite a ways and then it got muddy. Out came our poles which helped keep us from slipping. Neither Tracie nor I will ever do another Camino hike without poles. Lesson learned along the Via Francigena in 2022!

Anyway scenery is always beautiful and soon we were in the small town of Montreal-du-Gers.

We stopped at our hotel, Victorian Lodge, but the door was locked. We decided to check out the town and found an open bar and enjoyed a cool beverage.

After a few attempts to call the number left at the door, I received a text giving us the door code and our room Number.

Our room is giant and nicely decorated. We went thru the hotel looking for the supposed washing machine. Tracie found where one probably used to be but the space was empty. Drat! We were really looking forward to laundry. There was a heated towel dryer in the bathroom so at least we have a method to dry.

When you hand wash your clothes it’s difficult to remove all the excess water so it takes longer to dry. The towel dryer is a plus!

Now for dinner, thankfully there is one open restaurant. One… so we sat outside with a drink while we waited to be seated. We waited so long without paying attention to the fact that they were seating people, that the restaurant was half full when we walked in. Service was quick however because they offered one meal option.

I asked if they had a Caesar salad available and the waitress who is also our hotel person, said yes. What I got was fried cheese rolls – they looked like a taquito – on top of a large bowl of lettuce with thin slices of duck. Not even close to my order. Oh well the crispy cheese rolls were deliciously filled with goat cheese. Super tasty but a little goes a long way.

Tracie ordered a pork cutlet and fries and we shared a dessert of thin pastry fried with ice cream and apples within. Yum!

Back to the room and early to bed. I’ve been staying up way too late as it’s so light outside until after 10 pm. I’m tired tonight!

So another lovely and interesting day. Light rain is forecast for late morning tomorrow. Fingers crossed we can take the trail and arrive before the rain begins!

#GR65inFrance