Looks like you’ve been to Conques and if you took the riverside route, you’d have passed chez nous. This morning we walked along the Lot’s south bank to the next vilage but it was cool and shady in the forest route.
Were you staying at Capdenac Gare again?
No, home for tonight is Maurs.
A very pleasant municipal site within walking distance of the town. The town centre has seen busier times with many empty houses and closed hotels, a sign of the times.
Enjoyed an hour this morning people watching while enjoying the cheapest grand creme of our current trip, 4.80 euros for 2.
Oh Conques, I remember visiting there a few years ago and going over what seemed like a very narrow little bridge on a very large motorbike avec passenger and lots of luggage, and did feel a tad exposed! Lovely village.
We were there on Thursday for the lively weekly market - it’s the only time Maurs is worth a visit. Although the mediaeval church has some very fine carving, I believe by the same artisans who did the similarly rude misericords in Rodez Cathedral.
Supposedly locally infamous for having an unusually small gene pool…
On your way back north, do feel free to pop in!!
Meant to ask earlier, there doesn’t seem to be any shade and it’ll be August, so will it be cool(ish) on account of the altitude, or do you plan to start at dawn?
I think you are doing a disservice to the town. Its isn’t Figeac for sure but not being packed with tourists makes it a real french town and as for its alleged gene pool that is not unlike many towns and villages around France, take a look at pages Jaune.
On market day every town is bustling and takes on different aire and I have little doubt that the vast majority of stall holders are the same ones that turn up on Saturday in Figeac hoping to sell produce they didn’t sell a Maurs on Thursday!
I didn’t notice the church beyond it telling me it was 11am as we sat drinking our morning coffee but a walk around the town did reveal many visions of its architectural heritage and sad that many wonderful buildings were empty and gathering dust.
A town with 2 well appointed rugby pitches and an impressive spectators stand must support a formidable rugby team!
Personally I would enjoy visiting the town any day of the week but perhaps not in mid winter when everywhere seems to be closed!
Very sweet of you to invite us.
Another time certainly but a busy week beckons.
Having waved off our youngest son, partner and granddaughter before taking to the road we now have 3 days to prepare for the next wave of arrivals on Friday when our 2 daughters, a partner and 3 grandchildren arrive. Sheets to wash beds to make, garden to rescue after 8 days of neglect and more!
Actually that’s not the case; the reality’s far more complex and nuanced as each of our local markets has a different character and the producteurs’ economic and geographic situations vary considerably.
Without boring you with too much detail, there’s actually only two stallholders who do both these markets, a poulterer from Les Albres (above Capdenac) and Delclaux’s superb everything you can make from ducks stall (you’d have passed their sign as you drove along the Lot). By contrast the principal Maurs fromagier, Malerei et fils who’s between Maurs and Figeac at Bagnac-sur-Cele,doesn’t do the latter, but instead is at the large Rodez market every Saturday. Meanwhile, the small producteurs from the Aveyron stretch of the Lot Valley, do Capdenac Gare on a Saturday rather than Figeac or Rodez, which have their own local producteurs.
We seldom go to Maurs these days, and usually buy everything at Decazeville; it’s not a pretty town, but has the best market in terms of variety quality and prices. We go to Figeac most Saturday mornings for the ambiance and to meet friends. And once a month we go to Rodez for yirgacheffe coffee beans and exotic leaves on the market. But Rodez is probably the most expensive in the area
So now you know all about our local markets!
A good point - there’s actually quite alot of cover on the way up, but once up past the tree line it’s totally open as you can see, but the temperature is significantly lower, so that is actually more comfortable, so wont be hiking at crazy early hours. The key point is making sure you also have good cold weather gear, especially sleeping bag, as can get very cold at night, but also sunscreen as you can be lulled into a false sense of security with cooler weather but strong sun! Another consideration is storms, as they can appear quickly. ‘Normally’, August is the ideal from a weather point of view as can start getting very cold at night high up in September, but it does vary year on year. I’ve been high up in other areas of the Pyrenees in September and woken in the morning with ice.
What a lovely topic! Happy hiker here as well 
Walking the chemin de Compostelle from Le-Puy-en-Velay to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port was what ignited the wish to move to France in me. I had turned 40 and decided to take the whole GR65 (a week a year) and last year I reached the Pyrénées.
Conques was for me the highlight of the whole GR65. And the way out of Conques remains as the most challenging 
I took the Célé variante from Figeac to Cahors a few years ago, and in September I will go back to walk the traditional route passing through Carjac.
In my bucket list are both GR78 and GR10 (one day!)
Here, a very tired and happy 41-year-old me in Conques 
Well done! We’re on the north bank of the Lot just downstream from Livinhac-le-Haut where you possibly recovered from that brutal climb out of Conques. We’re at the junction of the Aveyron, Cantal and Lot, so there’s plenty of very different walks fairly close to us.
Glad you’re enjoying the thread and hope to see more of your posts.
How about a pair of these - what could possibly go wrong?
My posts have been sparse of late because on account of the heat we’ve just been doing our Lot river route to Bouillac and back, which I’ve posted many pics of in the past. Last week we were joined by several generations of Dutch people with varying levels of fitness, so the group got strung out over a kilometre or so and I think a few snuck back because when we arrived at the auberge in the next village we were fewer than when we set out.
Looking for the laggards -
One of the pleasures of walking at this time of year is the amount of fruit one can eat straight off the tree, On this walk there are lots of plums and blackberries (and in a few weeks there’ll be figs). We offered some to two Dutch teenager visitors, who looked slightly anxious and told us they only ate fruit from the supermarket…
I remember spending the days eating fruit from the trees on the GR 651 (Célé variante) between Figeac and Cahors. There was absolutely nowhere to buy anything from between towns, and I was saved from starving by the September harvest 
One month till I’ll be walking the traditional GR65 path (Figeac-Cahors) this time.
I have a friend like this, a grown up woman mother of 3. I have chickens and sometimes there are so many eggs we give them away. But this friend will never take any - she says, she prefers to buy stamped eggs in the supermarket.
The Cele Valley downstream from Figeac certainly has some very beautiful stretches, but I’d never considered it from a foraging standpoint. Also beautiful villages, but now many without an épicerie. For the best Rocamadour encounter I think one needs to first glimpse it from below, it’s much less dramatic viewed from from the top (of course you have to go to the top any way to see the amazing chapel). If you’re interested in that sort of thing, it’s possible that the famous Black Madonna of Rocamadour was originally a statue of Isis with her son Horus.
If it’s not too much trouble, I think it would be a nice idea to have a separate thread for your September GR65 walk. I’m sure there’d be quite a few people on SF who’d enjoy following your daily progress .
Definitely not too much trouble, it’ll be a pleasure sharing mon chemin with you all. 
i.infoterre, for iPad, not desktop, has very good maps but it is not very user friendly. On the iPad you can load a geological map, and click on an area to find out the geology.
Thanks for that, but I didn’t express myself sufficiently clearly - it’s not so much the geology ie. rock type that I want to know more about, but rather the geomorphology or geological history of local landscapes - the underlying factors have shaped the topography particularly south of the Massif Central.
Is this the sort of thing you’re after ?
It talks about the various eras that have shaped the area.
Thanks for taking the trouble to find that. Much more the sort of thing I was after. Now I need to find a larger scale map and info on the reach of glaciation.
By the way, that’s not a hint, you’ve been so thoughtful already!
