Saturday, 15 June 2002
Distance 25 km
Map 50 of the TOP100 blue series (now superseded)
Topoguide (Ref 651) Sentier de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle Le Puy/Aubrac/Conques/Figeac
![Walking in France: Walking past a field of cornflowers](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Untitled-73.jpg)
A night’s rest had wrought the usual miracle and we were ready to spring away at 7:30.
We were gradually getting the idea that an early start is the secret to success, especially in hot weather. The rule going around is: every hour of walking before noon is worth double; every hour after is worth half.
Crossing the river into the lower town, we scrambled up steeply out of the gorge, in a forest of pines.
At the top we emerged into bare open country strewn with boulders.
![Walking in France: The Beast of Gevaudan, near Sauges](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Untitled-74-500x375.jpg)
There followed several miles of easy walking, our only difficulty being the heat. We drank from a hand-operated pump in one of the hamlets on the way.
As we crossed a road and began to descend into the town of Sauges, a wooden carving of the Beast of Gevaudan dominated the view.
This commemorates the great wolf, the size of a donkey, that terrorised these treeless wastes for three years in the mid-eighteenth century.
It had a taste for human rather than sheep flesh and killed close to a hundred people, mostly women and children, before being done away with.
![Walking in France: Hot work](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Untitled-77-500x375.jpg)
Lunch in the busy street of Sauges was followed by a nap in a wood just outside the town, nursing blisters, sunburn and heat exhaustion.
When we woke from our brief nap a breeze had come up and we proceeded more comfortably.
![Walking in France: Relic of the Hundred Years' War and some fellow pilgrims resting in the shade](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Untitled-78.jpg)
In a lane we had to press into the hedge to avoid being threshed by a huge harvester going past.
Our goal was les Vernets where there was a gîte, but it was derelict so we limped on to les Chanaleilles a few hard kilometres further on, where we found our prayers were answered with a fine gîte and a café.
![Walking in France: Amazing self-supporting shorts](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2002-78.jpg)
The enjoyment was the greater for the agony of getting there.
When Keith took off his shorts to have a shower, they were so caked with dried sweat that they stood up by themselves.
![Walking in France: A very jolly dinner in the gîte at Chanaleilles](https://walkinginfrance.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Untitled-80.jpg)
Later on we had a communal meal, consisting of soup, then salad, followed by a mountain of mashed potato with sausages made from the family pig. We finished with cheeses and a crème caramel.
Wine flowed freely and the conversation amongst the travellers was lively and multilingual.
Previous day: Le Puy-en-Velay to Monistrol