Puy de Sancy

Yesterday was a day with a lot of impressions. When we left the raclette place, the weather was gray and it was extremely humid. As we started to climb uphill towards 1400m, the mist was blowing forcefully in batches in front of us. The landscape and weather reminded us of that in Scotland even if we've never been there (thank you TV).

I finally made use of my mountain shoes which had lost quite a bit of credibility after having caused blisters and sore heels and toes in the beginning of the walk. It had to take 36 years to understand that mountain shoes are only useful if you are walking in difficult terrain. Walking down here has been like walking in a garden so far. But, yesterday we climbed the highest mountain in mid-France, puy de Sancy.

Before we started the climb, we were looking at the map down in the town Mont Dore, which is at the bottom of the mountain. A woman asked if we needed advise, and we told her that we were okay, showing her where we were going. She looked shocked, and said it was impossible to climb it, which would normally have made us feel real macho, except this time the woman was probably 80 years old, which took away some of the effect.

We have to admit the climb was really easy. But the view was wonderful. On all sides, as far as the eye could see, there was flat land, which made you feel on top of the world. The sky had gotten completely blue during the day, and the wind was blowing strongly, making the impressions even more intense. In the faint distance, we could see the contours of Plomb de Cantal, which is where the main figure in the perfume spent 7 years.

We climbed down the lush mountains on the other side, down to Chareire. The food was really as good as we had been told. You really enjoy it when you have been walking the whole day.

We've just finished breakfast. Ole commented that the french had a strange way of calling the waiters attention. It turned out they were calling for the dog.

We're now going to Egliseneuve d'Entraigues and then on towards Condat.