Mileage: 15.74 Elevation gain: 1282 feet

A beautiful room was set for our breakfast. We had both a plain croissant and a chocolate, seeded baguette sliced for toast, and homemade yogurt of course.

After enjoying our meal we ran a couple blocks to the store for bottled water as we had the shortest bathroom sink that no bottle would fit under..

While putting our packs together I received a “what’s app” phone call and it was our lodging for tonight. She explained that her husband died and she had to cancel her booking.com account and couldn’t contact all the people who booked with her because booking.com wasn’t giving her any information on whom to contact. They never contacted me until after this phone call.

It turns out her husband died in April of cancer so in her words it was anticipated. She was able to contact me when I sent a message through booking.com confirming our stay 2 days before. Somehow they sent her that message. She was very nice and apologetic but that didn’t help our bed situation…

Thankfully Juliette from our hotel made a few calls for us and found a bed for tonight. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s an additional 5 miles!

We started to take a selfie before leaving town but a nice woman offered to take our photo. Don’t we look ready to hike?

Let’s get started! The climb out of town was a doozy! We walked along the sidewalk passing homes and small businesses. Our goal was a boulangerie at the top of the hill.

As we were walking up the hill, one gentleman must have heard us chatting in English and asked us to wait while he called his friend (Jean) from inside the house. Jean spoke English and had lived in Texas for 10 years. We chatted for several minutes about the walk, where we were going, where we came from, where to find the boulangerie, etc. I think they all would have enjoyed us staying longer!

Flat roads and trails for a while, at least after we left town. We walked past a beautiful lake next.

We finally made it Miramount Sensacq where we had original reservations and stopped for a break.

This young man, Valentine, sat at our table to eat his sandwich and spoke English well. Turns out he’s only 19 and still in high school. Must be the next step after our high schools because he was knowledgeable about world travel, wine both in France and the US and so much more. It was a fun conversation.

With 7k remaining we hoped the trail wasn’t too challenging as it was already 3:30. Speaking with Valentine kept us at the table longer than planned but he was so interesting. That’s why we travel!

We put our heads down and walked as briskly as we could. When we arrived in Pimbo we headed for the Gite Communal which is where Juliette said she had made a reservation. Turns out that wasn’t the place but a nice French hiker called the two other places in town and found someone who had my name as a guest. We were getting worried!

All is well. We found our room, had dinner at the restaurant and when we walked in to sit, our friends Christian and Pierre were seated. It’s a small trail!!

Dinner was delicious and we were exhausted and ready for bed. I will say this room is amazing for the view out the window. I can clearly see the Pyrenees. our destination 8 days from today.

Our destination tomorrow is at a place where you can get a massage and we have a cute bungalow all to ourselves. It will be interesting as usual!

#GR65inFrance # ViaPodiensis