My pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (3) : Rouergue, a time travel to the Middle-Age

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It was raining when I arrived at Saint-Chély d'Aubrac, and I decided to go to a hostel for pilgrims. I was surprised to find in my room a local beer and some peanuts, as the people from Aubrac have the reputation to be cheap. Worst rats in France. At least it is their reputation. The beer was good. The following day the sun was back and I ended to cross the natural park of Aubrac. In St-Côme-d'Ost, a big surprise was waiting for me. This village was looking like a medieval town, unchanged since the 13th or 14th C. Nobody had ever told me that something like this was existing. I quite fainted like a Japanese discovering Paris. I was entering the old province of Rouergue. While not a crow would try to enter Aubrac without a full basket of food, you smell the pungent odor of gold coins hidden behind the walls in Rouergue. Rouergue is incredible, it is a succession of medieval buildings like you would not dream to see. Medieval bridges, medieval houses, medieval palaces, all built long before Colombus discovered America. The reason of this richness is the Lot river which was already a water-way before the Roman empire. After Saint-Côme, the pilgrims'route goes to Espalion, which has a magnificent bridge rebuilt during the 13th C crossing the Lot river, and then goes North to Conques-en-Rouergue, where I visited the Sainte-Foy abbey and its cloister, from the 11th C. Photos : an "Aubrac" beer offered in Saint-Chély-d'Aubrac ; the pilgrims' path in the woods of the natural park of Aubrac Medieval buildings in St-Côme-d'Ost Bridge of the 13th C in Espalion ; Estaing and its castle at the top Medieval buildings in Estaing Castle and cloister in Conques-en-Rouergue