Celia Walks

 Lots of cows outside here, and several different kinds. Apparently over 50 different breeds of cows are found in France. The inside cows were noisily waiting for their supper (probably more accurately, their dessert as they had been outside all day) at the farm where I stayed, and the white cows so far have been the most common. Here is a lovely little castle 13th to 15th century, at Olhain.  Seen through a fence. The only other eventful happening today was getting lost in a forest holiday camping and sports centre - no signage at all for the Via Francigena, and the centre was enormous.   No photos because I was too distracted trying to find my way out! Fall colours are starting to appear. Very muted compared to what we have at home. One last photo from yesterday. This is the house where Saint Benoît-Joseph Labré (1748- 1783), patron saint of pilgrims and of the homeless, grew up. (Saint Roch is the Italian patron saint of pilgrims). The eldest of 15 children, at 21 he l...

 I’m now in a landscape of bricks. Here is the farmyard of the house I stayed in last night - the milk truck had to take two runs to back in to the yard. Fancy brickwork quite typical of houses in this region. The Via Francigena today ran through a wood, which would have been pleasant except there were hunters in a nearby field, a sign which said there were ‘pièges’ (traps) around, and the following sign at the entrance to the woods. When the path split up without any signage in the woods, I braved the brambles and made an undignified exit onto a road. Then Google Maps surpassed itself, as I followed it for half a day, routing me on quiet roads and pedestrian paths to my destination. A rich vein of coal ran through this area, and coal mining went on for three centuries; the last load of coal was hauled up in 1990.  Mining left conical waste piles called “terrils”, and information signs wax quite lyrical over their benefits: plants can grow free of agricultural chemicals on the...

 Today’s walk started off with more huge fields.  It is sugar beet harvest time, and the landscape is dotted with these long piles of sugar beets waiting to be trucked off. They really are an unattractive vegetable. When I came to a chalk quarry I wondered if this would be the day’s highlight. But then, one of the delights of this type of “slow tourism”.  Who knew that the village of Liettres (population 240) was the birthplace of cricket??  In 1478 there was an official record of a dispute during a cricket match here, which Liettres claims is the first mention of the sport. Anyway, an “international cricket tournament” was taking place. When I arrived, a team from Brussels was playing a team from this region.  All the players seemed to be communicating in English.  Talking to one of them, he explained that nearly everyone on both teams was from India or Pakistan - hence the English! To further entertain the (not very numerous) spectators, there were flame ...

Last night in Wisques I stayed at the local hotel which has a great reputation for its cooking. My first course was endives prepared two ways, a dish I will definitely practice at home! Leaving Wisques this morning I walked by a huge 19th c Benedictine convent, with just a handful of resident nuns these days. The path went through a nice beech tree wood before returning to huge fields, enlivened by wind turbines.  Great truckloads of potatoes being carted off. My destination, Thérouanne, had a rough time in 1552.  It had been a very prosperous city, boasting the largest cathedral in France, so medieval pilgrims would have been anxious to visit. However, the holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, after a bad defeat at Metz, besieged Thérouanne, defeated it, completely destroyed all the buildings, and had the fields ploughed with salt. Today the town is small and not very attractive. It does however have a big grocery store, perfect for food supplies for this evening and the next few da...

Today again, farm tracks and quiet countryside roads through huge fields of sugar beets, rutabagas, corn, mustard and hay. Very industrial farming with a couple of what I call animal concentration camps - hens and pigs.  A couple of Dutch-style old windmills in the distance reminded me of how close I am to the Netherlands and Belgium. The one “tourist” highlight was about 500 metres on the Via Leulene. As the sign says, this road went from Rome to Dover and was the route Julius Caesar used to get his Roman legions to Britain in 54 BC.  As you can see from the second photo, this was a truly impressive sight - different from anything else (!) Only 500 metres until it ended in a field. So let me chatter for a bit about generalities. The Via Francigena was designed by the Council of Europe to follow the route medieval pilgrims would take to get to Rome, and then on beyond by sea to Jerusalem.  In France, at least so far, nothing remains of the medieval period to see.  So...

 Another good walking day - no rain, but windy and cool enough to need a light jacket most of the day.  Yesterday’s woodland paths were replaced with quiet country roads. Here is the first outhouse I have seen in my hundreds of kilometres walking on the Via Francigena!  Actually, an ecologically minded group sponsored this rest area  because several long-distance walking trails crisscross at this point. In my experience, most shops and bars close on Mondays in France. Not here -Wednesday is the day.  So I ended up with only my granola bars and water for breakfast and lunch.  There are vending machines now in the villages - I passed one for foods to heat, one for pizzas, and one beside a large farm proposing strawberries. But this is where I desperately need a walking partner. Not only can I not figure out induction stoves in the Airbnbs, and only about a quarter of tvs, now I can’t figure out vending machines.  How pathetic is that… Passed a small road...

 Today’s walk was largely on paths through woods.  Lots of mud, a bit of rain, but really lovely walking. The one monument the Via Francigena roadmap told walkers to find today, was a column commemorating the first crossing of the Channel by airship in 1785. My sincere apologies - I know this will disappoint anyone reading this blog - I couldn’t find it. Instead here is a picture of a beech tree.  Somewhere near where the column should be. There were larger beech trees in the forest, and my Plant App informed me that most of the other trees were Hornbeams. After the woods, acres and acres of rutabagas, easily recognizable because their leaves smell strongly. Although we usually think of Flanders as the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, this area of France also calls itself Flanders and used to have quite a number of Flemish (a form of Dutch) speakers.  So here are a few poppies. And mud. Lots of it. Nearly every day it rains on and off. Arriving in Liques. The big bu...

 One other visit yesterday in Calais to write about. Nestled in one of the city’s parks is the longest German bunker in Europe. Built in 1941, this 94 metre long building served as a marine command centre, wasn’t a target of allied bombing, and survived intact. Calais was an early German target because it was a landing spot for British troops. For four days in May 1940 British soldiers, hunkered behind the seventeenth-century walls of Calais, held out. Defeat was inevitable, and soon all of France fell to the Germans.   All along the coast the Germans built defenses to protect from an invasion across the channel but also, later in the war, to house guns that could fire on Dover. I’ve seen many remains of these bunkers further south, but won’t be walking along the coast this trip. The liberation of Calais on September 30, 1944, was largely the work of Canadian troops, especially the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the francophone Chaudière regiment, well recognized in this museum. He...