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29.05.08
Thursday. Chateau de Rocher to Fougeres.
Set off from the Gite d’etape that has not been open since 2000. The owner let us use it and only charged us 10 euros for the night with gas stove, hot water showers and beds that were only a bit musty. Picture of us departing in the morning - note Gite d’etape sign of tree above door. These Gites d’etape are found on the main GR walks, they are usually in a small village or other obvious place on or close to the line of the route and are a cut above a good Scottish Bothy and a step down fron a Youth Hostel. Beds and cooking facilities plus a shower, ? hot are the level. We were also given a litre of fresh milk probably straight from the cow. Audette, the lady who came summoned by her son to look us over and approve our ad hoc visit, lamented the closure of “her” Gite in 2000, as “ in the 80s it was the best in the area” and still attracts occasional stopovers like ourselves.
The walk today was uneventful and rapid progress was made down the route marked by the Pilgrims de Compostelle , following a disused railway line rather than the GR34 which wandered around the countryside a bit. We arrived in Fougeres at 13:30 and had just put up tents when the thunderstorm broke. Not too bad, we could have been walking.
We then spent a second downpour in the supermarche buying a paper map and stocking up food for 2-3 days as we may not see a significant town for that long.
We plan to follow the pilgrim route almost to Vitre as it seems generally superior to the GR in direction and condition of paths and then a GRP to Laval (3-4 days).
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