First to finish yesterday’s tale. After listening to speeches about the Duck and his wonders, I visited the Château which is now a museum recounting the life of ordinary people before the 20th century. Here is a striking painting, ‘Les Foins’ by Julien Baptiste Lepage, 1878. Peasant life was not easy.
Now a recreation of a peddler of religious objects. They travelled with portable religious scenes (this is an actual historical one) and after telling a religious story would sell rosaries and medals to their listeners.
And here is a peasant table. I love the look of the wooden bowls they used, although I doubt I would want to always eat out of wooden bowls!
For the night I was in a pilgrim hostel run by the commune (a commune is more or less what we would call a township.). Very inexpensive, and quite basic. Only one other pilgrim, an Italian lady who has lived 30 years in Brussels where she worked as an interpreter (simultaneous translator, Italian/French/English/Baltic languages). She is celebrating her retirement by walking from her current home in Brussels to her childhood home near Rome. Here is Francesca at ‘our’ front door.
Francesca participates once a week in demonstrations against genocide in Brussels, and shared how surprised her Italian friends are that these are permitted in Belgium. She won’t have anything to do with booking.com or Airbnb.com because they operate in Israel. Even more difficult for a pilgrim, for the same reason, she won’t buy anything from Carrefour, which usually is the only grocery store present in small towns.
For that reason, we went out for supper and found a lovely little restaurant where for the third time this trip I had a dish resembling shepherds’ pie. Obviously a favorite in northern France!
Now, on to today. I’m carrying food for two days as Sundays and Mondays most shops close and anyway, I’m walking through a food desert again. Lots of countryside.
A roadside cross, ‘un calvaire’, or a Calvary. There are many in this region, mostly dating from the 18th or 19th centuries. They had various functions. Some indicate a topographical high point and have an altitude engraved on them. Some are to give thanks that a village was spared in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. Some are in memory of a family or a deceased relative. In this case, a sign said crosses were erected at the four entrances to the village to protect against evil spirits.
Accommodation tonight was a small overpriced room without even breakfast (and of course no WiFi and poor internet) but at least it was located where I needed a rest.
Nancy, what do you think of them there bowls? Ah, Francesca's life could have been mine if only I had been better at translating either or both of my interpreter languages (French and Spanish) into English while studying in Brussels in 1975-76.
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