Rest day in Conques

Why would anybody want to live in Conques (pop.300)? Some might move here as though to a pretty Cotswold village but how unreal is that? If you were born here you could possibly drift into the family business as hotelier or postcard shop owner (although, probably, not monk) rather like being born in a circus.

Leisurely breakfast - this is definitely a rest day - in the cafe of the hotel with the Sunday Times (5E). "Blair criticized by anti-sleaze watchdog", "Potential of new regime under Brown". Good to keep in touch.

We visited the two 'Treasuries' at the abbey. The first is a remarkable collection of 7c-13c religious artifacts almost pagan in their primitive symbolism. Nobody could look at these things and remain unmoved by what they say of earlier Christian epochs. The second museum rather celebrates the non-religious side of Conques' life and the early romanticized - in France just as much as elsewhere - 19c prints are worth seeing. In fact reading the guidebooks it would seem that a rather elaborate historical version of Conques has been reconstructed to fit the remaining facts. Shortly after the abbey was built it started to go into decline. In 1568 it was effectively destroyed "by Protestants" and it was only heavily rebuilt and restored in 19c. At least the items in the Treasury were spared the destruction of the post-revolutionary period. Even if the sacred bones of Ste Foy, stolen from elsewhere by an enterprising monk of entrepreneurial instinct, may well be those of a local girl of unclear date.

Only 20k tomorrow (v.good). But according to Des who has just "gone up to have a look" it starts steeply uphill (v.v.bad).