Day 22: Gerde to Moulin des Baronnies

September 27, 2019 – Departed 9:45 – Arrived 17:15

The path seems to be taking me further away from the very foot of the Pyrénées, and closer to the plain. Hills are gentler, there are many villages around. I also met quite a few hikers today, including two from Whitehorse. Who would have thought? We chatted for a while before continuing in opposite directions.

I had a nice surprise today. As I was walking through a forest, I came across a chestnut tree that had blanketed the ground with its fruits. Nothing extraordinary so far, as chestnut trees are extremely common here. But every time I had tried to open the fruit until now, I could only find tiny chestnuts inside, no bigger than the last phalanx of my little finger. Not this time: they were nice and plump, so I made a good harvest and I am going to try cooking them for desert tonight.

Later on, maybe an hour from the end of the hike, I visited l’Abbaye de l’Escaladieu, which is only a short distance from the GR78. This is a Cistercian Abbey from the XIIth century, which has suffered a great deal from age, neglect, the French Revolution, and a fire. So there isn’t much left, but what remains is still very nice and quite well restored. The abbey also houses a temporary exhibit of photographs from the last 100 years about the Pyrénées, taken by a dynasty of local professional photographers. Some of the pictures were documenting everyday life, some landscapes, some the construction of hydro dams, and many were quite spectacular (see here: https://www.calameo.com/read/0059337810b7a915dc71b?authid=YPHjM2nyA4cI).

Tonight I am staying at the Moulin des Baronnies. It appears that I am the only guest, so I will have the dorm and the kitchen to myself. However there are also RV’s in the camping area, and a nice couple from there just offered me a bowl of squash soup. Dinner time!