July 2 : Arudy — Oloron-Sainte-Marie

We awoke in Arudy with two nice surprises.  First, the cafe across the square from our hotel was open early and second, it was market day and so the square was filled with interesting stalls to peruse.  After getting our Camino passports stamped, we fired up our Citroen and set the GPS for Oloron-Ste Marie.  The sky was grey as a curtain of clouds hid the Pyrenees and most of its foothills.  We found our next hotel, unloaded our bags and then hit the streets in search of our trail markers. After an hour of meandering along streets and rivers trying to avoid hills, we headed up, up, up, and out of town.

The reward was immediate, as we found ourselves along a country lane shared only by joggers and friendly dogs. We stopped at Pont du Diablo for some water and a snack, then reversed course and headed back to town.  Our hike covered 15 kms and we were hungry when we passed a Falafel truck so we stopped and had a late lunch before siesta back at our Hotel de France.

Our evening walk was a flat 8 km canal route that started in the tiny village of Moumour and proceeded through irrigated fields of corn, tobacco, canola, peppers, wheat, and some  kind of berries.  At one point we passed a large animal trap beside the canal.  It was baited with a cob of corn and Laurel figured that it was trying to catch coypus, the water rodents that she photographed in Carcassonne.

Back at the Hotel de France, we tucked ourselves in and watched États-Unis defeat l'Angleterre in Women’s World Cup Soccer before drifting off to sleep.  As I wrote this post I realized that just like Louis Barthou, whose likeness was plastered all over Oloron-Ste Marie, we were here!