September 24. Sezanne to Savierres to Troyes. 18. Km

Decision made. There are “purists” who walk these Caminos who feel they must walk every step of the official route. Some of them look down upon pilgrims who skip a stage. Our view is that we need to do what is best for everyone in our group and we need to consider we still have 2 months of walking. There were three very long days of walking ahead of us, through wet fields. We decided to skip two stages and taxi to Savierres, which is the start of the stage ending in Troyes.

It was along the canal for most of the day. Bit of rain at the beginning, which is okay, plus we watched an egret who kept trying to land and would get attacked by a blue heron. I caught it on video which I’ll try to include here. Saved a few giant slugs along the way.

3 nice puppers on leads, one quiet, 3 barkies.

Will it fits???

Get outta my taxi!

Our Via Campaniensis direction sticker on the back of the signs. They are pretty random and it depends on the association looking after them. For instance, the markings were very clear around Epernay, not so good anywhere else.

Peter was ahead of us all for most of the day. He kept flushing the egret, who in turn just kept flying ahead.

Pac-Man game graffiti.

There’s a fish in there somewhere.

Old lock. No boats use this canal anymore.

Peter wants to know why we use mistletoe for Christmas when mistletoe is a tree murderer.

So many tiny plantations of poplar.

There was a creek running on the other side of the towpath ie canal on one side and creek on the other.

There are bicycle repair stations at various stops along the canal.

The old canal that we walked along all day used to cross the Seine River.

Some talented artists here.

Pilgrim sticker.

Bonsai cedar topiary.

This small building houses water depth and speed measurement equipment and they’ve painted the river heights and years when the Seine was high (and, yes, this is the Seine River which flows through Paris).

How old is this tree???

Coming into Troyes. Everyone’s a little tired, which is odd as the walk was as flat as you can get (although it was probably an imperceptible climb all day).