A Nice Day for a Walk

Tuesday, September 22 – Day 17

I woke up this morning to gray skies which promised more rain. It seems lately it’s either been full sun or rain, nothing in between. I’m glad my first week was so nice.

I got a real picture of Danielle and Christine.

As I walked up the hill to leave the village, I noticed something was a little off. I had coughed a few times yesterday, and thought that was rather odd. I don’t usually cough. As I walked up the hill, I had a bit of a burning sensation in my throat and left lung. Usually when I get sick, it’s all head congestion, but I could tell this was different. I’m getting some kind of respiratory thing, and that can’t be good for walking.

The walk itself was another unremarkable day, which was good, because I spent the whole day in my head anyway.

“I don’t want to go to the doctor. I’m going to have to go to the doctor. Do I need insurance? I bought travel insurance, but they won’t cover anything until my other insurance has rejected it. I didn’t bring my regular insurance information with me. What if I end up in the hospital? What if I don’t get to finish walking and have to go home? I still have 1200k to go, and at the rate I’m going I will need the whole time. I’ve only come 400k in 3 weeks! *cough cough* Ow, that hurt.” Etc.

It sprinkled off and on, but finally started raining for real about 11 am. I’m also walking through more modern France.  I don’t know if the quaint village days are entirely behind me.  I hope not.  I will miss them.

I’m not actually on the GR 65 at the moment, and it isn’t the GR 651 either. The path markings are the same for all the variants. I’m either on the 36 or the 46, but I don’t know. I followed the river for a good part of the day, so luckily it was pretty flat. I got to a point where I could choose a path. I had originally decided to go south, but after looking at the map, and with the rain, I thought taking the North route would be faster.

I got into Cahors at about 12:30. I didn’t know what time my chambre would be available, so I went to look at the Cathedral.

After coming out, I saw Danielle and Christine sitting outside. It was nice to see them one last time. Christine said if I ever come to Lyon, I can stay at her house. So nice!

I decided since it was lunch time, I should eat some food before going to try to check in. It was decent. Not the best ever, but it was good. I really, really like duck. It was a chef’s salad, then duck confit, then for desert I ordered profiteroles. I’ve heard the name before, but I didn’t know what it was. It was better than I could have hoped for! Google says profiteroles are cream puffs, but this one came with ice cream in it! Which probably isn’t good for the lung thing, but I ate it anyway.

I went to the address in the book, and it was a big scary door next to an empty shop that used to be a butcher. I pushed a call button next to a name that was the same as in the book, and I asked, “Chambre d’hôtes Libération?” and the man said, “oh, yes, I’ll be right down.” Turns out my chambre is a room in a family’s apartment, which I was not expecting. Cyril and Emma, and they have a toddler and a cat. I asked if the room was available tomorrow night as well, because if I was getting sick I would like to go to a doctor, since I’m in a big city. But I was also worried, because I didn’t know it was in their home, and if I was getting sick, I wouldn’t want to be around their child. They said it was ok, and I could stay tomorrow as well.

This is the view from my window.

I went to the store and bought some juice and cookies and a sandwich, because I didn’t particularly feel like going out for dinner.

I don’t like the idea of being sick, and I don’t usually go to the doctor this early, but if I really do have some kind of infection, I don’t want to keep walking away from a big city.

We will see what tomorrow brings.