La cite des Chats – La Romieu

Lectoure-La Romieu 19km Total:64km/490km

Unfortunately my back is causing me trouble again and I need to rest again. Today I took a taxi and arrived in La Romieu at 8:30 in the morning.  Gord is walking the route and we will meet up for lunch. At this point I have no idea whether or not I will be able to walk in a few days, but we have lots of options. The worst case scenario is not bad at all.  We are still in France.  I still love cheese and wine (oh yes and Gord too).  We could even enroll in a French course for a bit.  It’s funny, before we left I was really freaked out that my back might be bad, and now that it is I am much more relaxed about accepting whatever comes my way.  Well at least at this particular moment, sitting in a cafe looking at a church with a UNESCO heritage designation,  I am living in the moment.

La Romieu has a wonderful history concerning cats.  During the Middle Ages when the plague hit there was a huge famine.  Eventually the town survived by eating the local pussy cats.  A little girl in the town had two cats that she did not want made into “le cassolet de chat,” so she kept them hidden away.  Once all the cats in the rest of the village had been consumed the town was completely overrun by rats. Fortunately the little girl’s cats had a litter and these cats rid the town of all the rats.  In gratitude the town has celebrated cats ever since. Now it is one of their tourism claims and people have put stone cats all over the town.