April 27, 2026
Our first four days trekking on the GR65 from Le Puy, France had featured a series of steep elevation ascents and descents, taking us through numerous small villages. Along the way we explored several culturally significant churches and towers and walked through beautiful natural scenery.
As we rejoined the trail after a rest day, we would continue our trek along the Massif Central, a highland region that comprises about 15% of France. During our final six stages and 73.5 miles we would hike through a nature park, make a long descent to the Lot River, and traverse through several more idyllic medieval villages before ending our trek in Conques.
By Technob105 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4189683
A Water Shortage and Trekking through a Nature Park
We left the town of Aubrac-Aumont to tackle a 16.8-mile stage. Because of our rest day, most of the other hikers with us had moved on, and we were now with a whole new group of people. The hikers were still primarily French, but we also conversed with other Americans, Canadians, and Australians.
The first half of the day’s trail was pretty flat, resulting in some fast miles as we passed through several villages.
Up until now, we had not carried more than a liter of water each, as almost every village had a water fountain for us to refill our bottles. But during this stage we passed two villages in a row where the water fountains were not functioning. Since it was a long stage, we began to get worried about not having enough water for the rest of the day.
Eventually, we came to a cafe where we took a break to eat a warm piece of homemade cake and get our bottles refilled. We decided after this experience to carry enough water for the entire stage and not rely on the fountains.
Soon after we entered the Aubrac Regional Nature Park. It was created as the 53rd such park in 2018. We enjoyed the desolate scenery and even passed by a couple of beautiful streams.
Scenery from the regional nature park
Every so often we were rewarded with a field of nice flowers next to the route.
When we reached a stone bridge, there was an option to add some mileage to the stage and pass by a waterfall. But we were ready to end our day, so we kept moving forward.
Our stage ended in the town of Nasbinals in front of its impressive 11th-century Romanesque church. Our hotel had a fixed-price dinner option, and we enjoyed a good meal with some local red wine.
Approaching the town of Nasbinals and ending our stage at the church
Contending with an Adverse Weather Forecast and a Fall
A shorter 10.7-mile stage took us again into the nature park. However, the weather forecast called for rain and potential thunderstorms. We were a little concerned because the nature park had little tree cover. After spending some time trying to reconcile the conflicting timing of the weather forecasts on our phones, we finally set off with the hope of being back in the trees before any thunderstorms materialized.
With just a slight uphill grade to start our hike out of Nasbinals, we made good time.
We walked quickly to stay ahead of the weather. Fortunately, we ended up with just a few minutes of light rain and enjoyed our time in the wide open scenery.
Hiking in this remote area meant that there were few grocery stores and bakeries. So we needed to get creative about our meals. Our goal was to arrive in the village of Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac by 1:30 pm in time for a late lunch at our hotel before they closed for the afternoon. Otherwise, there were no other food options until dinner, and we didn’t have much to eat with us.
As we continued walking, the only annoyance was that we encountered sections of braided trail for long periods of time. And as one trail “lane” ended, we needed to climb over some grass turf to switch over to a new, clear path.
At one point I stopped paying attention to my footing when I was moving from one trail lane to another. Instead, I caught my foot on the grass turf, causing me to trip and fall. I landed sideways on my right quad and left knee. Since I fell on the grass, I was OK and just a little shaken up, but we decided to slow down a bit.
Soon we began to head down into the tree line.
Back in the forested area, we now contended with miles of steep rocky descent, as we began to make our way slowly toward the Lot River. In all, we would descend about 4,700 feet in the next day and a half.
Because my knee and quad were sore from the fall, I needed to slow down a little more to get through this section. At least the descent was broken up by a hike through the beautiful village of Aubrac.
Walking through the village of Aubrac
The rocky downhill returned after Aubrac. At this point we realized we were cutting it close to arrive for lunch before closing.
As we reached the outskirts of Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac, Darren ran ahead to get us a table. We made it with five minutes to spare. Later, we discovered that there were some reduced food options past 1:30 pm, so we would have still been able to eat. But we were happy to have completed the stage and have an entire afternoon to rest my legs after the fall.
Reaching the Lot River and Beautiful Villages
It rained hard all night, so we were anxious to see how muddy the trail was for our 15.3-mile stage. We began our hike with a short uphill section in the forest.
Uphill climb through the forest
After reaching the top, we started the final descent toward the Lot River. Luckily, the mud wasn’t too bad and there were fewer rocks to contend with than the previous day. As we walked, we passed by several other hikers and spent time talking to a young French woman from Paris.
After about 10 miles we arrived in the village of Saint-Come-d’Olt. It is located on the 300-mile long Lot River (originally known as the Olt).
Saint-Come-d’Olt was the first of the so-called Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (most beautiful villages in France) that we would hike through in the coming days. After walking through the historic center, we stopped in front of the 16th-century Eglise Saint-Côme et Saint-Damien.
Before leaving the village, we took a break at a cafe to eat lunch and buy an ice cream.
Views of Saint-Come-d’Olt and our ice cream break
After crossing over the river, the remaining five miles of our stage went quickly. We had a choice to either climb back into the hills or stay next to the Lot River. We opted for the Lot River variant, walking with a couple from Utah.
We turned inland after a few miles to visit the Chapelle de Perse, an 11th-century chapel.
Soon after, we arrived in the town of Espalion.
A settlement has been here since Roman times, and Espalion grew during the Middle Ages to feature numerous towers and a drawbridge. We were captivated by the scenic medieval buildings and bridges next to the Lot River and took many photos before checking into our hotel.
Hiking a “Bonus Mile” and a Sheep Encounter
As we left Espalion for a short 8.7-mile stage, we took a few minutes to walk through the weekly Friday market.
We took some final pictures of the beautiful town before beginning our stage in earnest.
After leaving Espalion behind, we walked along the Lot River.
Turning away from the river, we hiked a short distance to the 14th-century Eglise de Saint-Pierre-de-Bessuejouls. The altar was stunning. But what made this church unique was its high chapel, which required climbing up some large spiral rock steps.
Inside of the high chapel was a 9th-century altar and some interesting carvings.
Top: Exterior and altar of the Église de Saint-Pierre-de-Bessuéjouls; Bottom: high chapel
After leaving the church, we followed our book’s route on a paved road, only to discover that there was construction ahead. We had ignored some other GR65 signs leaving the church, and we needed to retrace our steps to follow that trail instead. That path took us straight up a hillside before joining our original route past the construction.
We were greatly annoyed with the extra “bonus mile” that we had to hike and the steep uphill alternative. But it all worked out, as we came upon a flock of sheep being led to pasture a short time later. If it hadn’t been for the time we took hiking the extra mile, we would have missed seeing that.
Near the end of the stage we walked through the picturesque village of Verrieres, complete with quaint homes, a chapel, and medieval bridge.
Walking through the picturesque village of Verrieres
We ended our day in the village of Estaing.
Also located on the Lot River, the village featured the 15th-century Château d’Estaing and Saint-Fleuret Church. The family of France’s former president has resided here for centuries.
Church and castle in Estaing
A Steep Climb and Communal Gite Dinner
We left Estaing to begin a challenging 12.4-mile stage with over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. The first 2.5 miles took us along the Lot River one last time before we began the day’s big climb.
Beginning the stage walking along the Lot River
We ascended about 1,000 feet up a hillside over the next 2.4 miles by hiking steeply up a dirt path to a paved road, walking a short distance, and repeating the process. This took us to the highest paved road in quick succession.
Once on the highest paved road, we continued climbing a little longer until the grade leveled out. The route took us through some of the most beautiful forest scenery that we had seen during the entire trek, making the tough climb worth it.
We were treated to the sounds of multiple types of birds (including the cuckoo). And we had nice views from our high vantage point.
Views from the stage as the climb leveled off
We arrived in the village of Golinhac just in time to buy some additional food at a small grocery store before it closed for the afternoon. After eating lunch we stopped at the church. It featured a beautiful wooden door and a Saint-Roch pilgrim statue inside.
Interior of the Golinhac church; Saint-Roch pilgrim statue
A late stage descent on paved roads took us to the village of Le Soulie, where we ended our day in a private cottage at a gite (hostel).
Later, a communal dinner for all the gite guests was served on an outside terrace. It consisted of courses of locally sourced meat and vegetables from the gite’s garden. Even though we were the only non-French speakers among the guests, we were able to talk with several bilingual hikers. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Communal dinner at the gite; our private cottage at sunset
The Final Short Stage to a Fairy Tale Village
Our last stage of this trek was a short one – only 9.3 miles. So we took our time leaving the cottage after breakfast. Because we left later, we had the trail almost all to ourselves.
Soon after beginning our walk we passed through the village of Espeyrac.
There were a couple more villages to explore during this stage, complete with churches. The village of Senergues even had a castle.
Walking through the village of Saint-Marcel; Interior of the church
As we hiked, we noted a change in the terrain to less trees and more mellow hills.
The shorter stage gave us time to reflect on the trek.. While we were impressed with the history and beautiful villages that we had seen along the way, we were also pleasantly surprised at the incredible natural scenery. And we appreciated the higher percentage of dirt path, which had not been the case on other trails we had hiked in Europe.
The GR65 also had great infrastructure in terms of rest areas that were available each day. These generally included picnic tables, water, and sometimes even bathrooms. Overall, we greatly enjoyed our time trekking here.
Before we knew it, we had just a mile left before reaching the village of Conques. But the path had one more surprise in store for us: a steep traverse down a rocky gully.
After reaching the end of the gully we arrived on the outskirts of Conques.
Shortly thereafter we completed our 132-mile, 10-stage trek in front of the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The church contains the relics of Sainte-Foy, a young woman martyr. Legend has it that the relics were actually stolen from another church in an effort to establish Conques as the pilgrim destination that it is today.
Exploring the inside of the church, we were struck by the nearly 100 foot high structure.
The front of the church has an intricate tympanum depicting the Last Judgment. Created in the 12th century, there are 124 carved figures showing views of salvation and damnation. We stood in front of the tympanum to follow my book’s description of the major figures, seen with the traces of the original paint visible.
The rest of the village looked like a fairy tale, with many buildings unchanged over hundreds of years. It was an amazing place to end our time trekking in this area of France.
Views of Conques
We will take a rest day here before moving on to explore a couple of other towns in the region. After a week off, we will begin our 88-mile GR3 trek through the Loire Valley and its series of historic chateaux.