Le Puy Camino – via Podiensis: Conques to Vivioles

April 13 and 14, 2023

Conques is a medieval town renowned for its preserved Romanesque architecture and art. The town is built on a steep hill and most of the streets are paved in cobblestones. The wet weather made walking in town more treacherous than the trail, in my humble opinion, as the cobblestones were very slippery when wet! Once I entered the town, I made my way to our accommodations for the night VERY gingerly! I was amazed at how others were walking along normally as if the streets were dry. Was there a trick to walking on this pavement that I was unaware of??

Our lodging – the Chambre d’hôtes Au Castellou – was located at the base of the hilly town on a paved road. I arrived at the door to find a note indicating that the check-in time was not for another couple of hours. There was a little overhang above the door and a chair – so I sat down out of the rain to ponder what I would do for a couple of hours. My raingear was dripping with water and my boots were drenched although my body and feet were dry!

As I was sitting there resting, the door to the lodging opened. My hosts had noticed me sitting outside looking rather damp and invited me in early! The Chambre d’hôtes Au Castellou has 5 chambers and provides an intimate, charming atmosphere. It was truly one of my favorite accommodations!

The town is nestled among the hills within the valley formed by the Dourdou de Conques – a river that eventually flows to the Lot.

Once settled in my room, the owners invited me downstairs and warmed me up with a nice hot cup of tea! Manu and Florence are new owners of the establishment and could not have been nicer.

We paid a tad more for this accommodation but it was so totally worth every euro! It was 83.50 euros each for the room, dinner and breakfast. Plus, they made us a beautiful picnic lunch the next morning. It was a miserably rainy evening so we did not make it to the pilgrim mass at the Abbatiale Sainte-Foy de Conques but chose to stay warm and cozy indoors for the evening. Our dinner was fresh-caught trout from the river and Manu kindly showed us the proper way to de-bone the fish as it is served as a whole fish on the plate! This instruction served us well for future meals. We had a nice surprise when one other guest showed up for the night and it was our friend Thomas who we have encountered numerous times on the trail.

Since it had rained much of the night, we opted to avoid the slippery climb up the mountain the next day and hired a taxi to drop us off at the top of the hill. That meant we only had to walk 8.5 km that day. Nice break! While we waited for the taxi, we had time to wander around town and spent time in the Abbatiale Sainte-Foy de Conques.

The church is named for the martyr, Sainte Foy, who as a young girl, adopted the Christian faith at a time when the Roman empire occupied France in the 2nd century. She refused to worship pagan gods and was condemned to die. In 866, the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy obtained the remains of the martyr Sainte Foy and, as a result, Conques gained notoriety as a stop along the pilgrim route The Way of St. James. The interior of the church was magnificent and I focused on photographing some details that I found beautiful.

After wandering around the inside of the church, there was a break in the rain and we strolled through the back courtyard of the abbey and the cemetery.

We continued on into the town and eventually found a nice little cafe for a cup of coffee and a pastry.

After touring the town in the morning, it was time to catch our taxi and we headed out of town. It was a very drippy, soaking rain most of the day. We got dropped off and parted ways for the day. I did not take many photographs as it was just too wet to pull out the camera! But, here are a few to give you an idea of the conditions:

Our accommodation for the night was the Ecogîte Le Mineur Payson. It is housed in an old building and is equipped with a kitchen and small grocery store where we could buy provisions to cook our own meal. No demi-pension here!! We were the only guests scheduled to stay overnight and had the whole place to ourselves. Our double room was nice and the common area had great over-sized chairs and furniture for lounging and resting. There was a terrace off the second floor common room but it was too wet and chilly to enjoy.

We chose not to buy a full meal. We had our picnic lunch from the morning to eat. It cost us 32 euros for the night and breakfast. While the accommodation was adequate, I had one major issue with the stay. After a cool, damp, rainy day, I was ready for a nice, hot shower. Much to my surprise, there was no hot water for a shower. Grrrrr….the host was not readily available and we never did really find out what the situation was with the water.

The skies started to clear in the early evening and it promised to be a much better day for walking tomorrow.

I know it’s been awhile since I have posted about my Camino journey. I got side-tracked with other things happening in my immediate life. But, I am focusing on continuing to recount my Camino walk in France in the spring of 2023 and intend to finish the memorable journey this Fall. I am starting to plan the second leg of my Camino walk – using the Camino Portugués route. My hope is that by finishing the written account of my first walk I will gather the inspiration and excitement to plan my next adventure along the Way! Here we go!