Date: Thursday, 1 May 2025.
Day: 4
From: Domaine du Sauvage To: Aumont-Aubrac
Start Walking: 731am End Walking: 341pm
Time: 7h11m
Distance (Planned): 28.2km Distance (Garmin): 28.7km
Progress: 93/765km
Ascent: 530m Descent: 761m
Weather: Not a cloud in the sky. A cooling breeze all day.
Stayed At: Chez Pierrot
General Comments:
• I can report that last night’s dinner was quite delicious. A hearty vegetable soup, followed by pork and potatoes, and then cheese platter to finish off. All accompanied by small mountains of bread, of course. Apparently most of the dinner was sourced from/provided by the cooperative that operates Domaine du Sauvage, so you can’t get fresher or more local.
• Naturally, we were surrounded by French people at dinner and luckily they had some English. So with their English and my broken French, we had some great conversations. We seem to be quite the novelty on this trail and we have not met any other Aussies since leaving Le Puy.
• With full bellies we slept pretty well. With all this walking, people tend to go to sleep early and all was as quiet as a mouse at 9pm! Party animals! Not!
• Today is a public holiday (Labor Day) and we were expecting nothing to be open. We did have an extra large breakfast to fuel our day and I had carried a baguette from Sauges. Day old baguette and peanut butter…hardly a gourmet French lunch, but it hit the spot.
• Luckily, we did find a bar open to get some caffeine coursing through my veins.😁
• Today was rated ‘moderate and we did start out moderately enough on wide dirt tracks through fragrant pine forests. Then we hit climbs that would have been difficult to drive up let alone walk up. Picture…steep, eroded, narrow, rocky and rooty.
• And then I look up to see two 4wd cars driving DOWN the track that we were trying to walk UP. That certainly explains all the crazy tyre tracks and erosion.
• Wherever we looked today seemed to be new faces, people walking with dogs, rosaries and crucifixes. Obviously, some French people thought a public holiday would be a perfect time to knock over another section of the Chemin. More power to ‘em.
• Aumont Aubrac was looking very good at the end of the day. The afternoons are turning hot, so getting to town, dropping our packs and kicking our shoes off is very appealing.
Top Tips:
• This path is very popular with women and lots of young women are walking together or on their own. They obviously feel safe out on the trail as, especially in these early stages, there are lots of people about.
• Apparently the number of people will start to drop off soon as many French people only have 4-5 days available to walk.
• Vegetables are not plentiful at meal time. We are craving veges and trying to supplement our diet with store-bought salad bowls. I am not sure why the French don’t eat more vegetables with their meals as they would definitely be growing them somewhere.
Bon Chemin.
Life...one big adventure 
On Labour Day we were at Caceres, in Spain. The day started quietly enough, but went mental around lunchtime. I should think an Aussie on a French camino is a bit of a rarity xx
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Yes, we are very novel and everyone has been very welcoming. No wild parties were noted here on Labor Day, but I suspect there were a lot of long lunches. X
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Sending you some virtual vegetables: 🥕🍅🍆🥒🫛🥬!
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Ta, much appreciated. Delicieux!
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Pretty scenery.
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Unbelievably pretty and just so green. It never gets this consistently green at home.
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Ah…the never ending search for veggies.
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Yep, Every. Single. Meal! What is it with Aussies and our love affair with veges?🥬🥦🌽🥕
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It looks absolutely idyllic!! Those climbs look pretty gruelling, especially on an old baguette and peanut butter 🙂
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The food of champions! 🙃🤣
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hello my friend. I have been quite busy and did not read your posts…Sorry !! and now I am going to be busier with the 2025 Gathering of pilgrim in Vancouver. It starts this afternoon and will be ending Sunday pm. Exciting to meet many people from many places ( USA, Canada, France, Australia..etc…) we stayed at the Sauvage in 2019 and you are right, we also miss to eat more vegetables.. I will speed read your posts . I do not know how you find time to write after a full day of walking.
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Good luck. I hope all your coordination goes smoothly and you get a fabulous roll up. I understand you met a friend of mine recently, @billbennett ?
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Bill and Jennifer are now on their way to Malta…they keep promoting their movie.
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I don’t know how they have kept up the pace. Obviously, they are very passionate about their project.
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yes, it was a big project and there might be another movie….
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Pleased to read you’re finding people who speak Frenglish. It’s great how we can communicate with people using whatever we can. BTW we try to take some bananas with us as our standby is baguette with peanut butter and banana. Cheers
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Another lovely dinner around a big table last night. Lots of laughter and conversation and learning from each other. It’s the best thing about a Camino.
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