Celia Walks

This morning started with a visit to the tourist office for information about the canal.  Construction started last year and will finish in 2030 at a cost of 5.3 billion euros (8.5 billion Canadian dollars).  The 107 km long canal will link this area to the Dunkirk canal to enable transportation of goods to and from the ocean port.  In fact, there are 20,000 navigable kilometres of rivers and canals across Northern Europe, and the main goal of this new one will be to get trucks off the roads. Apparently the big river boats can carry the load of 220 trucks. Wow! Here is what the canal looks like at present in Peronne. And here from a pamphlet is the biggest of the construction projects, a canal bridge, over a kilometre long, which will take boats over a valley. Here it is shown over a highway - imagine driving along with a boat passing over your car!  Péronne has a castle, built in the early thirteenth century by the French King Philippe Auguste to mark and defend the...

 The second of my ‘easy’ walking days was somewhat spoiled by the realisation that my phone charger wasn’t working. And previous experience has shown that phone chargers can be hard to find.  A phone is absolutely vital because it accesses an interactive map of the trail, and actual signage is not always reliable, in fact is often missing. Anyway, first things first, I laced up my boots differently which has helped the toe problem.  The rest of my aches are simply the body getting used to the routine - yesterday’s hip pain is today’s knee pain… in a couple more days everything should be worked out. I’m now nearing the Somme river and the landscape is starting to roll.  Here are some pretty anemones in a woods.  I actually only took two photos today - not much of note en route, and trying to save the bit of battery juice left.  This was interesting - probably an old mill, but I wondered why the river was contained by cement banks.   Doing a bit of readi...

A slightly shorter walk today, thank goodness!  My toes are still the problem - now they hurt on both feet.  There is nothing wrong with them, but the pain isn’t all in my head either! Over the 16 km of country roads and agricultural paths today there were six different military cemeteries.  Two of them were just separated by one big field.  The warmongers of this world should be forced to walk through these cemeteries - or work as orderlies in a Sudanese or Lebanese or Cuban hospital…. Too easy to find justifications for war, but looking back in history most wars seem to have accomplished nothing durable. Enough sermonising.  Although one can complain about technology too, it is neat to be sitting in my Airbnb bed watching Avi Lewis’ speech at the Winnipeg convention!  And waiting for a zoom call with Canadian friends this evening. I think this cheerful field is mustard, but my plant app opts for rutabaga.  I’ll investigate more tomorrow. I had to car...

 The Via Francigena app alarmed me stating that today’s walk was 30 km.  I decided to risk it anyway, despite this being my first day and despite my not having walked much over the winter.  It actually clocked in at 23.7 km, although my feet feel like it was 100 km and it took me seven hours! It was market day in Arras, and one of their two big downtown squares was full of vendors as I left. Lots of interesting brick (and tile) work to look at in the streets. People must have fun coming up with patterns! Once out of the city, the countryside is flattish, all industrial-sized fields with silos and grain storage units clustered in large agro-industrial parks.  Fields have been plowed and wheat (I think) is coming up green. Every now and again there is a beautifully kept Commonwealth war cemetery, low walls, neat rows, well-tended flower beds.  In these smallish country cemeteries some German graves mingle with the others, with the same grave stones and the same fl...

 A fast train got me back to Arras, a town near where I left off on my walk on the Via Francigena last fall.  The large Canadian cemetery and memorial of Vimy is 12 kilometres or so from here.  Last fall I approached Vimy from the north, and now I am just to the south of it. To treat myself, I had booked a hotel from Canada for April 27 in Arras.  Keen proofreading eyes anyone?  They were very gracious to change the date when I got here. And to essentially give me a free lunch of leftover breakfast croissants - I must have looked rather needy.  Here is my hotel - it is as nice inside as out. According to the hotel write-up, it is the oldest building in Arras, dating from1467. Its stepped gable is typical of Flemish architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries.  All through this area brick is the most usual material - a striking change from the stone of Paris. Arras has seen a lot of war and destruction. Here is a very incomplete list of regime changes, ...

 If anyone is looking at these blogs with a proofreader’s keen eye, they will have noticed that this is the second “Thursday” entry. That is because time really is only a human construct that doesn’t matter much unless you are a farmer, and even then one doesn’t need to be precise about it.   Anyway, this is now the correct date and the day was lovely despite chilly weather with occasional rain.  After a lazy sociable morning, we took our constitutional walk.  Paris city streets are surprisingly calm and quiet. Even close to downtown walking was peaceful today. We decided to be religious pluralists and visit the Synagogue de la Victoire.   This nineteenth-century building (photo below) was well guarded by armed soldiers, but a marriage was taking place and visits were cancelled.   So instead we went to the nearby Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, a church built in 1645, completely destroyed in 1796 during the French Revolution (which was as negative about the church a...

 Today was a walk to a ‘must do’: Notre Dame Cathedral.  Here it is gleaming against a dark sky. The inside now is so luminous. The oil paintings have been cleaned after centuries of light exposure. The stained glass windows (all of which, incredibly, survived the fire) have been taken down, cleaned and restored, and are now easy to see.  Beautiful modern art has been added.   Here is a side chapel with a tapestry woven at the ancient Gobelin workshop in Paris from a cartoon by Georges Braque.  I think it harmonizes well with a 19th century stained glass window in the ‘grisaille’ style.  Several such windows are in side chapels, all commissioned by Violet-le-Duc, a nineteenth century architect who led the restoration (or rebuilding) of ancient castles and churches in a thoroughly romantic style, often criticised today. A huge controversy blew up when the restoration team of Notre Dame declared these 19th century windows would be replaced by modern stained g...

A warm and sunny welcome to Paris!  This is the street where my friend Dominique lives, La Butte aux Cailles. And here is a lineup.  A new phenomenon in Paris:  very popular hole-in-the-wall kitchens, most of whom seem to be selling chicken. And similar signs to this popped up across Paris yesterday.  Can you guess what event is being prepared? Celine Dion is coming to Paris for a series of concerts!  The posters went up a couple of days before the secret was revealed on the media this evening.  I gather, lots of excitement!

A bracing snow storm outside brings thoughts of springtime France. The constant stream of disturbing world news stirs memories of quiet pilgrim footsteps.  And joy bubbles up at the recognition of good health, loving support from Alice and from many friends, and the wide open invitation our planet offers to wander its myriad ways. So… this is a test blog to see if I remember how to do one.  A first travel blog should appear sometime after March 23rd.