Day 6: Stage 4: Pamiers, ⛅️💨🌤️, 19°

Local Knowledge!

Mirepoix has such a beautiful historical city centre. Beautifully preserved and functional. My host told me that there are too many restaurants and that the tourists really arrive and remain from June to the end of September. I’m nicely on the cusp of the season, and it was very quiet last evening.

I visited the cathedral before a late dinner last night and pretty much had the space to myself. There was lovely vespers type music playing, and I sat listening for a while. It was pretty special.

Again there were beautiful rose windows high on the side walls. I must admit to not having seen this design before, so perhaps it’s a regional thing?

The buildings are hundreds of years old.

I did promise that if dinner was really good that I would post a picture. In fact, it was fabulous, and I was so hungry! I enjoyed one of AM’s favourite meals because I needed a real blast of protein. When I sent a picture, AM approved this meal!😅

I was up early this morning just before 6:30 and dressed ready to go.  My host told me that the route through the hills had experienced a lot of rain yesterday and last night. This morning he recommended that I follow the bicycle route down the valley because he said it’s a long stage and that I’d really go slow through the mud. The full stage is just about 36 km, and when I was sorting out the route at home, I had actually decided that I would walk a good part of the hills and then exit the route to find my way into town on the various country roads. I’ve walked a lot of GR routes, and they sometimes seem to wander endlessly. Often like yesterday they are great, but other times I wonder why.

Anyway, I have learned to listen to locals when they provide advice about trail and weather conditions. It’s just wise to do so, and usually it pays off. Decision made, I went in search of a bakery and breakfast.

I found the pastry shop that my host had told me would be open early, but it was closed. That was unfortunate. because it had tables and I’d hoped to have a beautiful cup of hot tea together with pastries. However, I found another pastry shop open just a few blocks away and it had the most delicious pastries! They even had my favourite pan aux raison with a nice little twist to it. But no tea😢

After again looking around the old town core, which is absolutely brilliant, I set out to the west in search of the bike route.

I eventually located it, and started into my first pastry!

My host had told me that I would see more of the local culture and villages if I stayed away from the hills. I’m always up for that, and a big reason why I love these walks. This also meant beautiful flowers in people’s yards. Caitlin, can you figure out what this is?

As a sidenote, I’m now at my destination having just had lunch. I had to do a fair bit of navigating today, so my phone battery was fairly low. This is the first time I’ve brought a power pack with me, and it’s recharging my phone beautifully. Good decision to carry the minor extra weight, both for functional and safety reasons.

I pretty much had the trail to myself with the occasional cyclist heading into town for work and a few people out walking dogs. The route was very quiet because everyone was mostly at work.

Things were going really well until I came across a barrier with a nasty looking sign on it. I tried to decipher it, and was able to figure out that the route was closed until sometime in June and the trespassers were not permitted. Clearly they didn’t want me there!

This forced me to detour out onto the roads which started my navigation process. Last year particularly I had to do a lot of this sort of navigation on the fly, and it became pretty straightforward.

At one point, I spotted some sort of hawk above me, and I had fun trying to get a photograph of it

On a more modern note, I walked by a huge solar panel farm which had almost 114,000 large solar panels! According to the signage, it can generate 11.5 million kWh. I wonder if that could light up a decent size town?

By chance, I actually found the GR 78 and happily turned south towards Pamiers with just 6 1/2 km to the cathedral.

It’s a fairly long way to walk into town. You reach the edge of town in about 2 to 3 km from this point, but it’s almost 4 km into the cathedral. I wasn’t any rush because I had left early this morning. I couldn’t get into my accommodation until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. So I decided to walk all the way to the cathedral.

However, along the way I found the central plaza and a decent restaurant. It’s where I’m sitting right now having just completed a tasty plate du jour! A pork chop with a lovely sauce on it plus an amazing supply of potatoes. It also came with a nice salad and a whole bunch of liquid to rehydrate myself with. The water in the villages has been almost polluted with a very high level of chlorine which I’m not used to and I’ve not experienced to this level before. It’s reduced the amount of water I’m drinking while walking. I’ll have to figure out a way around this, but the water supply in this city is excellent.

Now I’m going to pay my bill and then go find a cathedral to hopefully get a stamp in my credential. From there, I’m going to walk over to the grocery store to pick up food for tonight and the morning. I’m staying an Airbnb where I have cooking facilities. It’s hard to find pilgrim accommodation in this city. I have an early departure tomorrow with a long day so having my own place to stay, makes it easier getting away in the morning.

I picked up my stamp at tourist information which is always a good fall back option.

This is the view from the nice alcove deck in my second floor apartment. A great place to dry clothes. It’s now about 6 pm and with a simple dinner shortly I’ll have time to sew up the crotch in my walking shorts! Go figure. It blew out and I needed a serviette at the restaurant because I was wearing bright blue underwear today!🤣

Tomorrow there are three decent climbs and a long stage. Weather looks good with sun and 24° forecast. Great walking conditions! It’s supposed to get up to 30° later in the week. Early mornings!

Bon chemin!

Geoff🍻😎