A (very) long and (very) tiring day in the sun, with a lot of it walking on hard surfaces, at times on roads with some, but not heavy, traffic. A total of 35km and only 500m in elevation. So at least it was flat. Todays destination was 66m above the start.
Temperatures hit 33C from a clear blue sky, most of the walk was on asphalt and much through open areas, with no shadows to hide from the sun. Even five applications of sun blocking seems to have had no effect.
Whilst the Via Garonne is on paths away from cars, so far it has also tended to bypass the small villages dotted along the Garonne. However, today I passed through 3 small towns each with a covered market area and each with a massive and dominating church.
As I was staying outside Carbonne, I found an alternative route to get back onto the official route. This entailed a longer stretch along the Route de Rieux, a fairly busy road with morning traffic. The first town today was the picturesque town of Rieux-Volvestre, surrounded on three sides by the river Aize – a small feeder river to La Garonne.
The town has a dominating 14th century Cathedral, Saint-Mary, with its octagonal tower. Across the road is a nice house where bishops used to live.
Back on the official path, there was a steady climb and steeper descent towards Saint-Julien-sur-Garonne, passing a Gaulois village.
There are a number of canals running parallel to the Garonne, and I followed one of these in a straight line for 3-4 kms, before reaching Cazères.
I stopped off at an Intermarche and bought some fruit, bread and water, before climbing up to the 14th century Church of Notre Dame of the Assumption, on the main square. The church is built with “small brick”, has two six-sided towers and is beautifully decorated inside.
Leaving the town there were some older buildings, before I passed yet another hydro-electric plant.
I followed another canal, this time 5m higher up than the path I was walking, so there was nothing to see except for a 5m high bank on my right and bushes on my left. The canal are used to generate electricity and there are a number of turbines along them.
The path left the canal and followed a path and then a road into Matres-Tolosane. I managed to get a shower on the way, thanks to a field of corn being watered.
The ancient centre of the village of Matres-Tolosane has a dominating Church of Saint-Vidian and a small group of houses, surrounded by a circular tree-lined boulevard, which I walked around. I also read that the towns name comes from the words “martyrs toulousains” (martyrs from Toulouse) due to a battle between the Saracens (who terrorised France in the middle ages) and the Christians, where the leader of the Christians, Vidian, was killed. He was later cannonised, giving the church its name.
Following a road and a path parallel to the A64 motorway, I made the last 6kms to Boussens by 4.45pm, fairly exhausted after three long days and the heat.
I am staying at the Hotel du Lac, a nice hotel overlooking the Garonne. I am sitting on my balcony, watching the river pass by, and wrote this after a great dinner. An excellent place to stay.
After walking 100km in the 3 first days, the next stages are 27, 22 and 21kms, and the heat is supposed to fall just below 30C for a couple of days.