Category Archives: Uncategorized

What a marvelous way to start the day.  Our hostess made just about everything on the table. The bread, the apple juice, the 4 apple tarts including the crust, the raspberry rhubarb fig and plum jams, the yoghurt. The evening before the house smelled deliciously of the apples she was processing. Oh, and all theContinue reading “September 21. Montmort-Lucy to Oyes. 9 barking puppers today. 20.21 km.”

1 loose excited happy dog, 1 quiet dog, 3 barkers. Quote of the day from Ken to me:  You are indefatigable. Too bad you are also a little fatigable, as he patted my stomach. You can visit Ken in the village cemetiere. These people are obviously very worried about their security, given their locked doorContinue reading “September 20. Epernay to Montmort-Lucy. 19.75 km.”

We left our farm gite, tiptoeing past the sleeping goats, and loved the fact that it was a downhill start. Not that it lasted but you learn to appreciate the small things. And just as awesome (not!) is listening to the two little boys squabbling over who knows what.  “Mom, Ken called me a…” “Terry,Continue reading “September 19. Germaine to Epernay.  17. 5 km up and down, through forests and towns. Dogs: 8 barkers and one quiet pug for a total of 9.”

Peter has stayed behind to give his feet a break as we knew today had some long climbs over the “mountains of Reims”. With a park, a grocery and McDonald’s across the street, he’s well set up.  I’ll be going back to pick him up by train on the 19th. Off we go. The ViaContinue reading “September 18. The Via Campaniensis begins! Reims to Germaine. 16.5 km”

We have sentimental feelings towards Reims and even to the Hotel Campanile Reims Sud – Bezannes. This is where our Via Francigena ended in 2022 when I fell off my bike and badly injured my foot. We had to go home.  I blame it all on Ken and his insistence on going to McDonald’s.  TwoContinue reading “September 17. Tourist  day in Reims.”

Up at 6:30 am (waaaah!) for our taxi to Folkestone and the chunnel train (LeShuttle) to Calais, not regretting canceling the ferry one little iota.  It is quite the process taking the train, very much like catching a ferry, except you go through British customs and then French border control for your passport stamp.  YouContinue reading “September 16. Travel day. Goodbye, Britain. Salut, France.”

We’d decided the night before that perhaps we would not walk because of the storm but we woke up to blue skies and what seemed to be only mild winds (more fools us!) Peter stayed behind to give his blisters some healing time and he visited the various game stores in town, finally finding aContinue reading “September 15.  Shepherdswell to Dover. 15 minutes train back to Shep. Then 16.9 km walking through howling wind.”

The next stage was supposed to be 32 km, from Canterbury to Dover, which is too far for us. So the plan was to book two nights in Dover (no where to stay in Shepherdswell), walk to Shepherdswell, train to Dover  then go back to Shepherdswell by train and do the walk back to DoverContinue reading “September 14. Canterbury to Sheperdswell. 20 km.”

We all love rest days – which are often also laundry days as we don’t carry many clothes. Maybe I don’t love them that much! Grateful that our house had a washing machine. Off we go to do some exploring  first with a stop at the Cathedral to get our pilgrim stamp and to seekContinue reading “September 13. Rest day in Canterbury”

Packs are on, Peter’s back with the team, and off we go. Many of the places we’ve stayed at offered hot chocolate or chocolate bombs, and rubber duckies in the bathrooms. We had to start with a bit of road walking to get out of town. Peter calls walking on roads “the grinder” and weContinue reading “September 12. New Flying Horse in Wye to Canterbury. 17 km.”