After an awful night of not sleeping because of the road noise outside the room, we packed up ready to move on to Le Puy en Velay late in the afternoon. TIP: If you ever stay at La Hostellerie de Europe with its very helpful staff, ask for a room facing the back, not the street. It seemed that the main automobile route through town passed right in front of the hotel. A tremendous amount of trucks and other traffic throughout the entire night. Extremely noisy.

In the Tourist Office yesterday, we bought a walking map detailing different Figeac historical points of interest, each point marked by a key symbol. One site, the Maison Medievale was a perfect example of stonework with ornate stone windows and gothic-style carvings. It wasn’t until the 14th century that people with money stopped building houses in a mixture of timber frame and stone and upgraded to sandstone instead.

Maison Medievale with ornate stone windows, Figeac, France
Figeac is on the River Cele, old town on one bank and La Hostellerie de Europe on the other. Walking map in hand, we made our way around looking at the buildings, as well as reading menus, trying to decide where to eat dinner. It may surprise you (as it did us) to see many lovely old hotels throughout France with the Best Western name on them. (Low rates, great value at over 4200 Best Western Hotels worldwide.). They are usually somewhat more expensive, but don’t let the name Best Western put you off when searching for a traditional, charming hotel.

other tourists following the walking map in Figeac, France 

Figeac view from the top of a hill and Hotel du Viguier, France
After looking over all the restaurants, decided to just stay at Hotel La Hostellerie de Europe as their prix fixe dinner was no more or less than any other place. Dinner at the hotel would have received a delicious rating from me if it hadn’t for our fish choice, a Merlu, type of haddock/cod, way too fishy tasting. The appetizer, a duck pate and dessert…thin almond cookie (also known as tuile) with strawberries and whipped cream were all delicious. Almost a liter (an entire bottle) of local wine ran a minimal 6 Euros (around $8).

La Hostellerie de Europe dining room, Figeac, France
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TIP: If you are ever going to arrive after 9:00 p.m. in a small town, your Hotel’s entrance will be locked. You need an ACCESS CODE! Either that or spend the night on the street. Knowing we wouldn’t arrive in Le Puy until about 9:30 pm, the very nice front desk called Le Puy Hotel Saint Jacques, explained the situation, got our room number and access code to get into the hotel. The Hotel Saint Jacques owner promised to leave the room key in the door. ex-Marine came up with this thought and a brilliant one it was!

Time to drag the suitcases down the stairs and back UP the street to the Figeac train station. There was exactly one train every day from Figeac to Le Puy and would take almost six hours with a transfer in Brossac les Mimes, heading northeast across France.

chateau seen from the train window, France
We got off the train in Brossac les Mimes, and waited for the train to Le Puy (another two-hour wait). Brossac les Mimes is a teeny-tiny town, there wasn’t one person anywhere around the train station, and this was becoming nerve-wracking. What platform? What direction was the train to Le Puy going? Fortunately, there were three other people (two Germans and one French) waiting for the same train. We waited and waited…the town completely closed down for the evening but at least the two tracks had lit signs above them that told when the next train was coming and where it was going. After a train departing at 7:21 pm came and left, a sign on the opposite platform lit up…”LE PUY” — extreme relief and happiness all around.

Le Puy train sign, France
Off the train at 9:10 pm in Le Puy en Velay and stopped in a Brasserie on the walk from the train station to Hotel Saint Jacques to make sure we were heading in the right direction. A very nice woman in there insisted on coming out and walking us three blocks in the right direction! I personally don’t want to ever hear again that the French are unhelpful.

At Hotel Saint Jacques, the next challenge was to punch in the access code to enter the hotel and…..it worked! And, would you believe, there was an elevator in this hotel making it unnecessary to drag those bags up another three or four flights of stairs. The Third Floor, a key in the door as promised and we were in Le Puy en Velay… WHAT A DAY!