Day 70 a real rest day in Espalion

There’s something about pilgrim life that changes you. For example sleeping in seems to be non existent. Even when you want to sleep in a bit the body starts getting restless at 5:30, 6:00 am. That’s what happened this morning on our rest day.

We spent the morning repacking and finding items that we could send back home, mostly gifts that we bought. Then head to the post office where we crossed the bridge over the Lot River and noticed it was even higher than yesterday.

Coming back from the post office we found the official camino route goes right by the river and it is closed due to flooding. So we asked a local and when getting our stamp from the Mairie asked again about how to travel tomorrow. Then upon getting back to our lodging we began to plot our route, well Noël did. We think we have it figured out.

We also finally found an open gite. It’s 25 kms away, which could mean more. Our intention was to go to the pilgrim mass at 9 am but reflecting on it we decided that was too late to start with the distance and the climbs we have. So we headed back to the cathedral and went into the chapel of St Jacques and read the pilgrim blessing to each other and lit a few candles.