Sun Sept 28. Brouay-la-Buissière. 24.7km.

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 them and parks can be built around them!

In Brouay-la-Buissière an 1856 company housing complex for miners and their families has been turned into a pleasant arts centre.

Later examples of housing for the miners - still very much lived in.

Our suburbs of rows of identical houses aren’t a new invention.

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September 5

I landed at Heathrow this morning at 6 am, a very inconvenient time to get a room and rest! But my student residence accommodation includes a common room with handy couches for a short snooze. The neighbourhood abuts on Regent’s Park, complete with gorgeous flowerbeds. The Queen Mary’s rose garden in Regent’s Park. My neighbourhood wandering took me to the Wallace House which used to be one of the homes of the marquesses of Hertford. The Hertfords were fabulously rich, mainly from extensive land holdings, and in the 18th and 19th centuries avid art collectors. They obviously had Trumpian home decorating tastes. Here are two of their many clocks, all of which need frequent ‘fine tuning’, it appears. I particularly liked two 18th c British paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds in their collection: Mrs Carnac and the hauntingly strange Strawberry Girl.

Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place). All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train. I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London. On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935. So many similarities to ...

Fri Oct 3. Lille.

I had a lovely day in Lille. In fact, all my days on this trip have been lovely! In the morning I went to the very large Palais des Beaux-Arts. This museum holds the largest collection of works of art of any French institution outside Paris. The collection started at the time of the French Revolution as the works of art of the nobility and of the church were confiscated, and continued on apace due to various enthusiastic municipal governments. By 1892 the collection was so large and important that the Palais, its current house, was constructed in the centre of town. The first fun aspect was the recent work of the Swiss artist Felice Varini who used the museum’s interior as his canvas. The oldest works of art are in the ‘basement’, beautifully displayed. Look at the marvellous three dimensionality of this (flat) marble plaque sculpted by Donatello (c 1435) showing Salomé dancing for the head of John the Baptist. And modern technology brings statues alive by giving them back t...

Celia Walks

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