05.14 Friday
After dinner salad nicoise sort of, we finish the 5l cubi of Herault rouge ( not bad really 7people 2nights) and wander round LePuy in occassional drizzle and crawl off to bed. The forcast for tomorrow is not great but we set off in lowish cloud without rain. Up out of LePuy , soon we are above the level of the puys and out on very well signed footpaths. There are a good number of information boards in English as well as French, the GR65 here may well be the most walked in France by many nationalities and even on a Friday in May there are a good number of people on the route. We are traversing the largest basaltic plateau in France and the soil after the rocks are removed supports fields of green lentils with their own AOC status. Most of the rocks are in the walls and a few make shepperd huts called chibouts. Unfortunately none of these are large enough for 7 people and lunch is in intermittant rain in the doubtfull shelter of a tumble down wall. In more clement conditions the views over the plateau would be great. In worse it could well become a nightmare. Along the route are many stone crosses and shortly before our destination in Montbonnet we come across a great little chapel dedicated to St Roque our saint for the journey patron of pilgrims and plague victims.
The intermittent rain continues borne on a cold north wind but by 1400 we arive at our Gite for the night at the Bar St Jaques. This is a stunning barn converstion which at 32euro for evening meal breakfast and bed is a pretty good bargain, tomorrow we shall be in tents again.