La Chambre d’hôtes le Couloumé is one kilometre beyond Montreal and a little “off” the Chemin, but we were back on it within twenty minutes without backtracking this morning. The trail followed a beautiful, wooded river corridor. Because of the abundance of trees, there was an abundance of birds singing – always a joy.

Then we heard a gunshot off in the distance. Last night’s host told us that he had shot a wild boar earlier that day. Wild boar have been approaching houses out of hunger and thirst as hot weather continues in southern France. They cause auto accidents and do significant agricultural damage.

We definitely are in wine country now and the route even went through vineyards. We’d like to know how they pick the grapes. The stems are still on the vines minus the grapes. We would have thought bunches of grapes would have been cut off the vines manually. Maybe there’s a machine that shakes the grapes off the vines?! If we had noticed that the stems were still on the vines yesterday, we could have asked our host how they do it. He grows grapes on his 30 acres and rents the vineyards out to farmers who do all the work. BTW the white wine he makes was excellent!

We hadn’t seen the Pyrenees since we were in Lectoure several days ago. We saw them again today and they are getting closer. Exciting!

The last eight kilometres was along a flat, paved, tree-lined trail that followed an old railway line. There were signs of autumn with fallen leaves and acorns crunching under foot. You would expect signs of autumn on October 1st but not the skyrocketing temperatures that are continuing. We were most grateful for today’s shade!

We are in Eauze now, the capital of Armagnac and are staying at the lovely Gîte et chambre d’hôtes Chez Nadine. There is a swimming pool and bathing suits are available. Should we or shouldn’t we? It is 32C after all! 🥵

BTW we found out later that there is a machine that shakes the grapes off the vines. 😮