First Hike - Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges - 🇫🇷 🇪🇸🇨🇭Six weeks in Europe🇦🇹🇩🇪🇳🇱

June 1, 2023

First Hike - Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

We drove off to the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges about 35km away from where we are staying. Our proprietors recommended an easy first day which is why we went there. However, after discussing things with the information people in the village we changed our minds and did something else, more on that later. First we visited the Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges Cathedral which was started in the 12th century. St Bertrand’s tomb is in the church and the photos explain a little more.

Now for the hike. It was described as a rolling, easy hike through the forest with not too many steep climbs. There was some climbing but it could have been worse from that perspective. However, it did rain last night so parts of the trail were very, very muddy. We all managed to stay upright but our shoes have seen better days. The walk was billed at 9.5 km but after a bit of WAA time (wandering around aimlessly) we managed to hike 11km and take 4hrs to do it since we had to pick our way through some very muddy sections. We rewarded ourselves with a galette and beer after we finished.

Tomorrow I plan to cycle, weather permitting. For the second time flying a bike with disc brakes I had to have the hydraulic brake line bled and re-filled. The first time the brakes were mushy this time they bound the discs. Fortunately there are several bikes shops in town so all is well now.

Derek and Linda in the car park as we set out to climb up to St Bertrand.

We saw red kites flying over head in St Bertrand.

The trail is part of the route of Santiago Compostela in France so we saw lots of shells making the way.

The former cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. * The Romanesque part of the 12th century.* The Gothic part of the 14th century commissioned by Bertrand de Goth.* And the Renaissance part as well as the organ from the 16th century.

The trail makers that we followed. The red and white marks were for the route of Santiago Compostela in France which followed for a while but eventually we followed the yellow slashes back to the start.

We heard these bells all day and came across this small herd being moved to another pasture.

Just one example of the mud we had to navigate

This little guy was outside one of the shops in the village.

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