Saint-Chély-d'Aubrac to Espalion Previous | Books | Films | Index | 日本語 | Pics | Training | Via Podiensis | Next

17 September 2026 - Espalion

I slept in a bit and broke camp at 8AM. Leaving St. Chély one has another steep climb out of a valley. But, after that, most of this short 17 kilometer segment is down, down, down. In L'Estrade there was a self-service coffee and juice in an alcove where I stopped and chatted with a young man from Paris for a little while. It's mostly forest today, and I stopped at a creek for a foot washing where I met a guy from Canada. There seems to be a lot more Canadians than Americans surprisingly.

Saint-Côme-d'Olt is on the Lot river, which is called Olt in the local language of Occitan. The trail will follow the river for many days going forward. I stopped at a farmhouse restaurant above town for lunch. Down in the town proper I stopped at a bar to read through the hot afternoon hours and met Hiro again. He was traveling with a German woman, but doesn't speak a word of German. She was very happy to talk to me in German though! We said goodbye at the bridge over the Lot and it was sadly the last time I saw Hiro.

The trail the follows the Lot for a bit before climbing over an entirely unnecessary hill. Yes, there are some really cool igneous rock formations and a statue of Mary overlooking impressive views of the valley, but an historical traveler would have just continued along the river because the trail next descends to Espalion again on the Lot. Espalion is a good sized town with restaurants and shops where I had a delicious dinner, including more aligot this time with steak. After the meal I hiked a couple kilometers past town with views of a well-lit castle on the hill on the hills above. Eventually I ended up camping on field by a road, so I heard cars all night.

The castle above Espalion