Tapp's Travels

Our time in the deep South is coming to an end.  But not quite!

We had poor memories of Fumel.  Poor in two ways.  First, that the town was unimpressive from a visitor’s perspective.  And second, our memories are less than perfect.  So, it’s time to check.  But on the way, as we passed Duravel, we saw a restaurant that we had visited in the past.  Restaurant D’Family & Co..  Right next to the Mairie.  With a convenient car park.  But it’s a bit early for lunch, so we had coffees, reserved a table for later and went for a walk down to the river.  This proved our memories were a little adrift.  It’s over four kilometres to the river.  So we didn’t quite make it!  In fact we didn’t even get as far as the Duravel campsite which we have visited before, but not stayed at.

The menu of the day with “The Family” includes a buffet starter and a cheese board.  Either of which could easily make a meal on it’s own!

At the table next to us, there were two English couples.  They are staying on the Duravel campsite – the one we didn’t quite walk to earlier!  In chatting, we mentioned a few local restaurants that they might like to try.

And, yes, Fumel has got a large out of town commercial centre, but the old town is disappointing.   The main drag is completely closed to traffic as the road surface is improved.  No doubt with all sorts of “calming” measures.  Every other shop is closed, for sale or for rent.  Although, to be fair, the town still has its fair share of opticians!  There are MUCH better places in which to spend time around here.  Our memories on that score were not misplaced!

A couple of days later, we found the two English couples from Duravel dining at Chez Jeanne when we visited with Angelique and Ingrid.  We are now nearly on first name terms.  Let’s call them Mr & Mrs A and Mr & Mrs B.

A few days later again we heading to Montauban about 50 kms south of camp.  After about 25 km, we paused at Montcuq for a coffee.  And who was on the next table?  Yep.  Two As and two Bs.  (Why does that make me think of Waterloo?!)

We’ve just checked the car for their tracking device – and removed it!!

I know this was getting boring last time, but we now find ourselves back on the Camino trail once again!

But this time we are doing it properly.  Not only do we have a photo of the route marker, we have also found one of the tampons!

And we have collected our first official stamp!

Proper pilgrims must travel a minimum of 100 km to Santiago de Compostela, and they must receive stamps on their “Credencial” at least once a day, or twice a day if only travelling 100 km.

We discovered that stamps are provided by almost every institution along the way.  This includes hotels, auberges, churches, town halls, post offices, and even some bars and restaurants. These stamps are a badge of honour for some pilgrims, who try to get as many as possible.  We have just the one – collected at the café.  But from now on we will be much more alert!

With all the faffing about with tampons and coffees, as one does, we never actually made it to Montauban.  We settled for Cassaudes instead.  Here we met Alice at La Table d’Alice.

After lunch on the shady terrace, we headed out for a walk along the river.  Well, first find the perishing river!  Following “instructions”, we ended up at the railway station.  We took the underpass to the down line.  Struggled across the shunting tracks and ended up at a locked gate.  Anyway it’s too hot for this outdoors malarkey.  Where’s the coolest place in town?  The church, obviously.

(And, refreshingly, we have found most of them hereabouts unlocked!)

That, and a quick walk around the town centre, a purchase of some strawberries and we were off for a last swim in Angelique and Ingrid’s pool.

Last minute panic.  Someone has stolen Erik’s Internet and telephone!  No service, no can pay for our stay by card.  Need cash.  However, at the 11th hour, normal phone and internet connections were restored.  Trip to the ATM cancelled.  It transpired that some thieving b******s had nicked the cables running under the Castelfranc bridge.  Copper is getting to be too pricey to be left unguarded in this part of France!  It’s €5.50 le kg today.  Mind you, 50 m of wire at about 0.4 kg per metre would be an awkward load to carry and would only generate about €140 on the official market.  Hardly worth two crooks getting out of bed for!  Maybe there were lots of wires under the bridge, it was certainly closed for at least a day while reparations were made!

The last morning on the banks of the Lot dawned misty-moisty.

And, by 09.30 (early for us!) we were off on a six hour trip northwards…

(PS   ABBA Waterloo?)