The road to Rome

Hi gang

This blog is about two people walking the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome. It's an amazing journey of some 2100kms (1300 miles) across five countries (England, France, Switzerland, Italy and The Vatican).


The blog covers the history, culture and culinary delights of the walk as well as the highs and lows of our particular trip.


I'll also be linking to some of the important websites, finding stuff of interest and generally enjoying meself.


I walked it with my partner (now soon to be my wife) Pauline (aka Polly).

We're not heroes, or superhuman or loonies; just a coupla people seeking a bit of adventure away from the humdrum.

We set off from Canterbury on Monday 2 August 2010 and arrived in Rome, smelling like tramps, on Wednesday 3 November 2010.

Stay tuned, kids...it's a great adventure!







Stage 6: Langres to Gy

Langres is another one of those beautiful walled, medieval towns. We arrived, looking forward to trying the local cheese; a particular favourite of Polly's. It's magnificently gooey and stinky especially, we discovered, when left in your rucksack overnight in the middle of August.

We walked the city walls with an audio guide; the views were amazing. We marvelled at the city's defences and the age of the walls - one bit was Roman and dated to 20BC! There were also Renaissance houses galore, another lovely city.

Our last port of call was the tourist information office to get accommodation for the next leg of our walk. Then, it was an dinner in our room and an early night.

We awoke to leaden skies and I went off to buy bread for lunch. (It was good to buy bread on the day we were going to eat it, for a change.) Leaving Langres by the south gate, we were soon out of the traffic and heading for our overnight stop at Grandchamp. It was a bit off-piste but it was the only place we could find in the 40kms between Langres and Champlitte. We had lunch by the church in le Puilly and then set off down a lush, green valley towards Grandchamp.



I'm pleased to report that Polly's log records that the cows and horses were the most beautiful and healthy we'd ever seen. I think, perhaps, she wasn't taking enough water with it. 

She also records that our accommodation in Grandchamp would probably be one of the most sociable on the whole trip. She was absolutely right. There were people from all over Europe drawn to this lovely, little hotel run by a couple of Dutch women. Our meal was very special, probably the best bouef bourginone I've ever had. Our room had a sitting room as well as a bath. The next morning we had a fried egg for breakfast. It felt like the absolute lap of luxury.

As we left the village we saw some wooden figures peering out at us from every conceivable angle from a local house. We were admiring them when the owner/artist drove up, got out of the car and invited us to look at his workshop. It was astounding! It was a shame, though, that we didn't recognise the main characters from a French TV programme that had been lovingly, expertly carved.




What a fun experience! We thanked our new artist friend profusely and set off on our way to Champlitte.

The sun shone on beautiful scenery as we made our way along quiet country roads. Champlitte itself is marked by a very large chateau at the end of the walk with spectacular views across the valley. We have entered a different part of France. The earth is rich and thick, the rivers full and fast, there's lots of forest and everywhere is green and fertile.





As we were leaving town the following morning, the local charcuterie was setting up a cooked chicken battery. I was disappointed to be leaving so early, the smell was gorgeous but perhaps not the best thing for breakfast.



It was another superb walk. Our route took us through some delightful little villages, following the local bread van. Polly spotted some rogue hops in the hedgerow. A great find! We were to find them all the way to Rome. They reminded us of home and were very poignant for Polly as her mum was a hop-picker in Kent. An unexpected treat.



The day's walking in the hot sun took us over ancient bridges and along typically quiet roads.





We stopped at a convenient spot for a toilet break. It was sheltered from the road by a hedge and a large, but slightly shabby looking statue of the Virgin Mary. There was a bench too and I started to take my pack off when the loudest scream I have ever heard assaulted my ears. I turned round as quickly as I could to hear Polly screaming, "SNAKE!!!" and, before I could move, she was 20, 30, 40 yards down the road, still screaming. My eyes were attracted to the movement near the statue and I watched, fascinated as the snake slithered under it. Brilliant. I couldn't be sure, but I think it was a common adder. It was bigger than the ones I've seen in England and...hang on where's Polly? She hadn't stopped running. When I eventually caught up with her, she was still shuddering, all thoughts of a toilet break had disappeared. 

Nope...she's gone
We arrived in Dampiere a little after 3pm and it was hot, hot, hot. Our accommodation was a gorgeous old farmhouse, covered in ivy, on the outskirts of town. Our hosts were obviously expecting us as they'd put a jolly little note (in English) on the door. It read, "Back in half an hour". Unfortunately, they'd neglected to tell us half an hour from when. Hey, what the heck...we found a stone bench, settled down to stroke the cat and waited.


When our hosts returned, I optimistically asked about the possibility of there being a bar nearby. Monsieur went into overdrive...he brought us two very large, cold, cold, cold bottles of Kronenberg. We passed a fun half hour talking in Franglais to our host before adjourning to our room.

It was a great pit-stop. We met a Swiss walker at breakfast, who regaled us with stories of his mountain adventures. He was young, handsome, very able and beautifully turned out. We suddenly felt very inadequate.

Polly's boots were causing her some problems. The soles were coming away from the uppers. A good rainstorm and they'd be letting in water. We hadn't even seen shops in most places, let alone somewhere to buy walking gear. And, of course, our walk today was quite long (25k) and it started to rain... Nevertheless, we enjoyed our day. We promised ourselves an afternoon break, but the rain persisted and we decided to keep going...The clicks flew by. We soon got to Gy.

1 comment:

  1. Great story about Polly and the SNAKE....I have exactly the same reaction when encountering one! All it takes is for me to start running back along the trail and my husband knows what's up!

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