Conques (cont'd), Cows & Corn

I am writing this as we wait to check into our gite in Livinhac-le-Haut. The unfortunate thing about walking shorter distances is that you arrive before check in time, so have to hang out somewhere and wait. This gite should be interesting, as it is owned by an Italian couple, who will be feeding us also!

Last night we had a lovely lamb dinner at a restaurant in Conques, sitting on a romantic terrace overlooking the town. We had an hour to kill before the nighttime tour of the church started, so thought we would just sit in the church and wait. We hadn't realized that there was a benediction service for pilgrims taking place, so we caught the very end of it. Everyone filed out of the church and congregated outside in front of it, where a priest then proceeded to give a "talk". It seemed that he was explaining the meaning of the bas relief on the front of the church, but that's just a guess. By the time he finished, it was 9:30 and everyone filed into the church and climbed up to the second floor where we paid the admission to gain access to the higher floor. The same priest who had given the talk started playing the huge pipe organ as people slowly walked the perimeter of the magnificent building, up VERY high! Special lighting was used to accent the detail on the pillars, and it would change colours once in awhile - meanwhile the priest was playing the most beautiful music, a mixture of "churchy" and secular pieces. The climax came when he played both "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "House of the Rising Sun"!! We couldn't believe it at first, but it was very powerful, and he certainly is talented. He sells CDs that have both of those songs on them. I'm sure he would be on YouTube also. Russ did several videos while we were there. After we had finished the "tour", we sat in the pews and just enjoyed the music and feeling in there. Two bats were flying around, way up high, so that added to the atmosphere!

There was a lot of lightning last night in the hills around Conques, and this morning it was damp and foggy. We rode by taxi to a town called Noailhac and we were soon way above the fog, in brilliant sunshine. Our plan today was to walk Highway 580, which has marvellous views, is fairly level, and with a bit of planning on Russ's part, would get us to this town without too many ups and downs. We arrived here at 1pm, just in time to get a sandwich and a couple of cold beers before the bar closed! Despite being on pavement, it turned out to be a very pleasant walk. Russ navigated with the iPhone, and I don't think we could have done it without the app that he has been using, which shows where we are, but also the GR and all the other roads, etc. We always know where we are with this app, so it has been great! Not that we have really needed it until today...the signage is so good on the GR that it's hard to get lost. (Russ adds that the app is Pocket Earth Pro and the GR 65 tracks were downloaded from www.gr-infos.com)

Stained glass in Chapelle Saint-Roch

Saw a couple of interesting things this morning that we want to share with you. In a pasture we watched a young calf with its mom, and noticed immediately that the calf looked very weak. Mom's udder was extremely swollen with milk, but the calf was not feeding. As we were passing, a truck pulled up, a man jumped out, and ran into the field where he tried to get the calf to feed. It was not cooperating at all, despite the man's efforts. We had to carry on, so don't know if the story had a happy ending, but it was interesting nonetheless.

We also got to witness corn being harvested for feed at a large farm. One huge machine was driving through the corn plants, and the chewed up mixture (silage) was spewing out of a big funnel which pointed down into a dump truck that was riding along beside it. Once one dump truck was full, another would come down to the field and be waiting to take over, smooth as silk. It reminded me of a relay race! They were harvesting in a circular shape, and it looked very efficient. Russ got some great video footage of that too, if anyone is interested when we get home - haha.

Corn harvesting

Stylish scarecrow

 

 

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