Lasserre le Haut May 5 (betzeen Condom and Eauze)

It seems like a long time since I wrote from Moissac on Saturday. It is now Wednesday night and we (Steven, Lisa and I) are in this wildly decorated gite and chambre d'hote which looks like something out of a Fellini movie -- big on style but short on amenitites although there is a laptop here I can use for internet. The only showers are in other people's bedrooms and there are 2 toilets downstairs off the laundry room 1 and a half flights dozn from the big dorm room upstairs. There has been rain ever since Saturday, and yesterday was the worst 25 km in freezing blowing rain allost nonstop. The muddy trails can be a real challenge. It was almost like skiing going down one of the hills this afternoon. I had lunch in the city of Condom, in the square by a huge cathedral with an intircate carved stone choir. We went out of our way to go to La Romieu yesterday where there was a beautiful botanical garden and a ruined cloister and church, but it was raining so hard; we saw nothing; and slept again in an unheated room. On Monday we stayed at an old farm and were the only guests. This time we were in an unheated shed lit by a flourescent light that ,ad a loud buzz, or by tiny lamps with about the power of night lights. Both toilet and shower were in another shed out in the farmyard. We were feeling quite sorry for our selves but then went into the 300 year old famhouse kitchen for supper. The couple was delightful, real hard-working farm folks with a house full of books, and a roaring fire in an ancient fireplace that heats water and other rooms in the house. We hung our wet clothes over chairs by the fire and put our boots to dry and were served what was perhaps the best meal of the trip so far; including a sausage cooked on the coals, tomato soup, lovely tiny lentils and a tasty carrot salad, all with conversations about farming. This is the day I learned of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No real news; but it sounds terrible. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow: Today the rain has been more of a drizzle. And less wind. I am now worried that we wonùt be able to go over the pass in the Pyrenees. Two weeks from today I should be done walking.