Stage 5 : Reims to Chalons en Champagne.

We'd had lovely weather throughout our stay in Reims, but the day we were setting off again was cooler and cloudier. It was good to get our packs back on and to set off again deep into the French countryside. The first part of the walk was along the canal towpath for 10.5k. It was a gentle reintroduction to walking again after our lazy days in Reims. We shared the towpath with fellow walkers, runners and cyclists doing their Sunday constitutionals. The temperature picked up a bit. I was walking in a t-shirt and light trousers.
It was all very pleasant.

And then the dark clouds stared to gather. We could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. We marched on a bit quicker, hoping the rain would keep off. The thunder rumbled nearer, the wind got fresher. Instinctively, we stopped and put our wet weather gear on. Within three or four minutes the rain began...a few drops at first then, as the lightning cracked around us, faster and more furiously. I was a bit spooked to tell the truth. The canal was lined with trees and I was a bit scared. The lightning was followed almost immediately by thunder, a sure sign we were in the eye of the storm. But, it was over just as quickly as it had started. We were soon to turn off the canal and, as the clouds cleared and the sun came out, we were amongst the champagne vineyards. Magical.

We ate our lunch by a very famous champagne house amongst mile after mile of vines. It was a glorious sight. We walked along the road, markers every few yards announcing the name of the house to whom the vines belonged. It was a curious mixture of names, from the famous, to the familiar, to the obscure. All told of a rich and vibrant heritage we were delighted to be walking through.

Our accommodation was in a b&b run by an ex-pat Englishman who had previously been in the wine trade. We were still keen to drink the local bubbly. We asked him if he could recommend a good half bottle of champagne. To our astonishment he told us that the stuff he'd got was not particularly good, so he wouldn't sell it to us. We couldn't buy any from anywhere else because, he told us, everyone was on holiday. I could scarcely believe my ears. There we were in the centre of the world's champagne industry and we couldn't get any for love nor money. We went to bed early, after a supper of our hostel-cooked food, washed down with a nice glass of ... apple juice.

The next day saw us walking through miles and miles of vineyards, first going steeply uphill then sharp downhill along winding roads. The scenery was gorgeous, it was a great day's walking. We went through champagne village after champagne village; Verzenay, Verzy and Villiers-Marmery. The views across the vines were amazing, but, as was becoming the norm, we saw no-one.

Towards lunchtime, we set off on the lo-ong uphill climb to Trepail. We had lunch on a park bench, the wind by now cool and fierce whipping around us. After lunch we marched rather quickly, to keep ourselves warm, through Ampernay, a lovely little place, surrounded by vineyards.

It had been a memorable day's walking but the weather was deteriorating as we reached our destination. There was a sign on the hotel door which said, "Back at 15:00". We checked the time. It was 15:10.  The rain fell in sharp needles. Our hotelier arrived at 15:30 on the dot. She was about 4 feet nothing in her high heels. She was a human dynamo. She ran the hotel, the bar, cooked the meals and doled out free advice to the locals.

The next morning, on her advice, we set off along the canal towpath. It wasn't the route specified in our guidebook but our hostess assured it would be quicker.

As soon as we set off we had a great debate about which way along the canal we should go. Neither seemed to be the right direction. Eventually, after consulting with a local passer-by, we set off in bright, warm sunshine. It was a beautiful walk. We were making great progress. A canal towpath is a great place to put in lots of clicks quickly. Boats passed us on the canal, we passed them at lock after lock. It was idyllic. But I began to feel a bit of trepidation about the route we were taking. The sun was in the wrong place. We were supposed to be heading south-east but the sun was directly in front of us. We checked the compass. We were heading east. We carried on walking along the canal towpath, but a bit more circumspectly. I started to see, on the locks, place names we'd seen yesterday. I was really worried now. We stopped and took out our OS map. We looked at it in disbelief. Polly was the first to speak. "We've come along the wrong canal!" Neither of us wanted to believe it. But evidently, there were two canals in Conde sur Marne and we were heading east-north-east along the wrong canal.

A few rude words were exchanged. We plotted how we could get back on track. We had to go to Isse, 5kms back down the canal and our destination was still 16k from there. We thought we were only going to walk 18k in the day. I was worried because it was perhaps the hottest day of the walk so far and we probably would run out of water unless we could find a shop or a bar.

By the time we got to Juvigny our water had run out. The sun was scorching in a cloudless, blue sky. As usual, we saw no-one...and there were no shops or bars anywhere. Dispiritedly we looked around the churchyard. And we were just about to move on when Polly saw the door to a courtyard was open across the road. Well, well, well...there was a tap on the wall. Polly turned it on. Cold, cold water gushed out. We filled our bottles and were incredibly grateful for another fabulous pilgrim moment.

We were still some way from our destination, however. We walked into the hot afternoon along a newly built by-pass. We were on our last legs when we reached St Martin. We stopped at a bar to get a drink. The owner was just closing up. She was gracious enough to give us a glass of cold water with our fizzy pop.  I noticed that sweat was pouring off me. We must have smelled like pilgrims. We were on our last legs. I don't know if we could have gone on much further. Unbelievably, wonderfully, beautifully, our host offered to drive us to our destination. It was only about 4k but, at this stage of the day, it would have taken us well over an hour to walk. We were no mood to turn down such generosity. And we will never forget our pilgrim angel. She was a life-saver.

We'd walked about 30k on a hot summer's day. Our dinner that evening was pasta followed by steaks. We felt we deserved it. But we had crucially walked down the wrong section of a canal. We'd have to get smarter from here on.

Distance from Canterbury: 471k

Distance to Rome:                1612k