Plomb du Cantal

After Sully sur Loire, the next mentioned geographic place in the perfume is Plomb du Cantal. The main figure in the perfume stayed in a cave here for seven years. We're staying just enough time to eat a sandwich. The book also describes it as the most deserted place in France.

Not so any more. Several ski lifts, including a telepherique can bring you within 200 meters from the top. Then, wooden stairs lead you on the last part to the summit. Also, ironically, it's the place where we've met the most people on the tour, and where the GSM signals have been the best.

But, the view is nice, and it feels good to finally be here after having seen the peak in the horizon for seven days, not to talk about the three weeks where I didn't see it.

A couple of things have happened lately. First of all, we realized yesterday that the dotted lines we have tried to follow from time to time, are not tracks, but rather marks the border between two communities. This explains why we've had problems finding these (nonexisting) tracks in the terrain.

Secondly, my 10€ inflateable mattress from Carrefour has started to leak air at a rate, just slow enough so it is impossible to locate the hole, but sufficiently fast requiring me to inflate it at least once during the night. So, I was happy when we slept in a gite with proper beds tonight. A joy shared only partly by Ole, who banged his head in the overhead bed during the night, after having been to the loo, with his face being covered in blood as the result. Luckily, the bleeding stopped quickly, and sewing seems unnecessary. We think women are impressed by scars, but he will have to come up with another story.

We're now descending to Pierrefort, a place also mentioned in the book. We should be there by dinner time.