Then to the neat little village of Livinhac which might have been a more pleasant stop than Decazeville. The name of the village square "14 Juin 1953" refers to the village's biggest ever party when the Minister switched on the Mains Water. Indeed at the next village Montredon some equally important civic engineering is currently taking place with the installation of major drainage.
At the next village, Guirande (14c brown murals), we fell in with a party of 13 French pilgrims. They then took a conscientious but superfluous detour but as this was a long day we stuck to the D2 road to reach St Felix quickly. This is a small place and we had a refreshing picnic on tables by the church which had an interesting primitive Adam and Eve on the tympanum.
Nearby there was also the sad memorial to the events of 12 May 1944. Nine local people including the Carrayrou family of 2 adults and 3 children (14, 12, 8), were shot for whatever the reason and 5 others deported.
But it was a matter of pressing on today and eventually after a pleasant decline we reached Figeac.Our hotel (Europe) is a great find. Professional welcome with good sized rooms and baths - even a not-very-warm-looking swimming pool. We took a stroll round the town which is full of nice little shops and young people of all ages. It is very picturesque and consequently over-run by tourists and expats. A rather self-satisfied proprietor of 'The Wine shop' caters for the latter. Memorial to famous local - Jean Francois Champollion - decryptor of the Rosetta stone.
Supper done brilliantly at the hotel with imagination and care for a very modest price.
