Espalion – on the French road to Santiago

The marvellous town of Espalion on the Lot River, France

Walking into Espalion is one of things that makes you feel that you have accomplished something.

I don’t know why, but that’s how it can be some days. We had just come down from the Aubrac Massif (in the south-west region of France), where although the weather had been kind to us, we were still in an exposed area, pliable to all the vagaries of nature.

Arrving at Espalion, we had made it to the Lot River and a superb medieval town, complete with its own medieval bridge. We had made good progress on the GR 65 the route from Le Puy all the way to St Jean-Pied-de-Port at the foot hills of the Pyrenees.

France has a mesh of walking trails known as Grand Randonee (GR). This makes walking in France easier to navigate, although you still need a map and compass because you can get off the track if you don’t pay attention.

We had a fulfilling French dinner at the Hotel Moderne and an early night as we wanted to get up early to get a picture of the medieval bridge in the morning mist.

So, up early in the dark, clambering out through a ground floor window, because we hadn’t realised that we had the front door key on a key chain, we made our way to the bridge and waited for sunrise.

The sun rose, but there was no mysterious mist and my camera didn’t have enough ISO grunt at those light levels.

We returned to the hotel and enjoyed breakfast instead, and planned the day’s walk which lay ahead of us.

Click here to get a free PDF of this post