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7 September 2026 - Bourg-Argental

After the night's rains, the rainfly of my tent was nice and wet to pack up. I was on the road from the orchard by 7AM, and stopped in Le Buisson to eat a yogurt from my back for breakfast. There were several towns after that in the rolling hills, but it seems none of them had water. As the sun got higher and hotter in the sky and my supply of water from last night started to get low I started to worry a bit. Then there was the climb up the hill to the Croix de Saint-Blandine where, to my surprise, the gîte had an outside spigot they advertised on the path as eau potable. Then came the long descent to Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette, which is a sizable town and the end of the segment I completed today. I had planned to have lunch, but sadly all the restaurants were closed because it was Monday. Bourg-Argental, the next town over another hill, would at least have a Carrefour and the municipal pool was also open according to Google. I took a break to read and snack on the hill overlooking Saint-Julien. Arriving in Bourg-Argental an hour later I learned that sadly the pool closed at the end of August. This was harsh reminder just how terrible the information on Google Maps is in rural France. But at least there was the Carrefour and a nice park by a creek. After some afternoon reading I started the steep climb up the hill from Bourg-Argental. The name really sounds more Deutsch than français. In the forest high above the town I found a flat place and set up camp for the night. There were many animal sounds in the night, including pigs which got rather close to my tent and the distant howling of dogs.