Lauzerte: French Tuscany
It was a day of surprises. As I started my walk earlier, the silence of the village (Montcuq) penetrated in my mind. There were moments were memories of the past would wash my dirty cloths of life. In couple moments, I coughs my self in tears. No sure where they came from, I just let them be free and keep walking.
There was a moment where I panic for several miles. When you walk by yourself, you don’t know what is there waiting for you. After 7 kms, and at the speed I was walking, I was scared by a man smoking a cigarette under a fig tree. I kept walking. I did not know who he was. He must left the village before me to be there. I walked as light speed. It had never happened before. There were many difficult descending trails, until I arrived to a beautiful chapel. The door was opened. I just let there door opened half way to take a pict. (See picture in Instagram) When I turned around, I gave a jump, the man was standing behind me. OMG! I just took the picture, and kept walking as fast as I could. It must happened close to Roiullac. As I entered the next village of Montlauzun, the man already reached me. He spoke English to me. He said he was from Austria. He asked me if it was my first Camino. I answered, yes, it is. No more verbal contact. I just walked parallel to him on the other side of the road. We went down the hill, following the white-red marks on the road poles. After 3 kms, he was 200 meters ahead of me. Suddenly, he screamed to me that that was not the trail, because there was an X white and red, and not the parallel sign =. He told me that he would continue on that road. I had two options: go back to the village that we just passed, or turn to the left direct to the corn field. There was small path there. I just did that, when suddenly by the creek was a small bridge with the = in white-red. I keep going. I never saw the man again. There were more hills to conquest, and the topography of the region changed. It was a new country, like being in Tuscany for second time. I entered a field of cantaloupes. It was harvest. There were so many fruits, cherrie tres already harvested, sun flowers in bloom facing east, nuts trees well planted, tomatoes, pimentos, sweet corn, and etc. As I gave a 90 degrees turn to the right. I founded a tall umbrella, and under it, a table with two wood boxes full of cantaloupes, a big kitchen knife, and a box for donations. I said, yes! I peeled one and ate it. It was sweet like a “sugar mama” watermelon from NC.
The sun was hitting me strong today, but there are villages that care for the well being of the pelerins. They plant trees close to the path, to make it shaded. You know what villages care, good trees, good signs. There are others that have been in decay, there fore the signs too.
I found a beautiful church, because of its simplicity. An altar, a chair, a cross, and a Christ in wood. The Holy water stone was dried. I just pour my bottle of water on it, and blessed. There are other more thirsty for Christ, I thought.
Now I am approaching the medieval city of Lauzerte. It was magestic from the distance at the top of the hill. It is unique, but for travelers, imagine Toledo in Spain or Siena in Italy. Wow! At the base of the hill, I did groceries for lunch and dinner, and shopping at the pharmacy for good feet tape. It was time to enter the city, the Camino way, and it was. A rocky path straight up to the city. I think I am become an expert on this matters, haha! As I entered the main plaza, it attracted me one corner of the plaza, was changed by an artist, and looked like the plaza was going on the air. I looked around, took pictures, and… No way the Austrian man of early in the morning was sitting having a beer in a local there. Again, I just kept walking. To descend, I had to go to the southwest side of the city. There was a nice area to eat my lunch. There was a local young man cleaning the area, but he was fine that I ate my lunch there. I descended by the concrete stairs. What a beautiful city to live! From there it was 12 more kms to Durfort-Lacapelette, a very hot small village. I spent the night here.
Tomorrow, I will reach Moissac, just 20 kms.