A Farmstay, A Heatwave, Two Million Steps & A Chateau
/Day 56 – Besançon – Fontenelay
We’ve deviated a bit from the official Via Francigena path. There is no ‘one’ path. Pilgrims came from all over Europe and traveled the most direct and expeditious path they could find. Sometimes we follow the guidebooks and sometime we find our own path. As long as we get there and we walk every step, we’ve accomplished our goal.
Lovelocks on the bridge leaving Besançon
We left Besançon very early to get in most of our walking in the cool. The river view was beautiful this morning. As we crossed the bridge out of town, we noted it was a bridge of (love) locks.
Wheat, corn, hay … wheat, corn, hay … it could have been Iowa.
Despite leaving early, this was a long, hot, humid, dusty day. We walked on sidewalks, bike paths, frontage roads and cart roads. We climbed up hills and down hills, then up and down again and again. We passed through corn fields and wheat fields … it could have easily been Iowa or Nebraska except for the hills.
French army guys … where did they come from?
There was nothing remarkable about the day or the terrain except the temperature and the armed French army guys who appeared out of nowhere walking in front of us … and the tank parked up on the hill. No clue as to what they were doing or why the tank was there, but we didn’t ask questions and we didn’t dawdle. We were pretty sure we weren’t at war with France and they didn’t shoot us.
We didn’t question; we didn’t dawdle; they didn’t shoot us.
We’ve noticed that many of the church steeples in this area are tiled in colorful mosaic patterns. We haven’t figured out why nor found any information about it other than it was probably a church architect in the area that convinced the clergy in every little village that this was the way to go.
We arrived at Domaine de Fontenelay in mid-afternoon … hot, sweaty and tired. The name of the place sounds pretty classy, don’t you think? From a distance, it looked pretty grand. Actually, there weren’t many options for accommodations in this area, so we took what we could get … a farm stay, sort of. The ‘Domaine’ was comprised of one large 17th-18th century house and several out-buildings, all in rather poor condition. Farm fowl … ducks, geese and lots of chickens … wandered around freely, each making their unique fowl noises.
Domaine de Fontenelay looked grand … from a distance.
The house was a warren of rooms and corridors, confusing to these guests. Our room was down a long hall … very basic with a lumpy double bed. The ‘shared bath’ was up a steep flight of stairs on the second floor. It never seemed to cool down, even with the windows wide open which, of course, invited in the flies which drove us crazy throughout the night. Window screens do not seem to be commonplace in France. Definitely not our favorite stay, but it beat sleeping in the chicken coop (I think).
Day 56 – Besançon – Fontenelay
14.45 miles walked / 33,608 steps
Leg distance: 14 miles / 502 miles to Canterbury
Day 57 – Fontenelay – Beaujeu-Saint Vallier et Pierrejeux
We awoke to the crowing of a rooster outside our bedroom door. Not outside the house, but inside the house and directly outside our bedroom door. I opened our door to make my morning dash to the shared bathroom upstairs and there he was crowing proudly and loudly. I almost tripped on him. This was a very odd household indeed.
Early morning pastoral scene
We were on the path by 0700. Early in the day, it was cool and comfortable. But by midday, the temp hit 96F (35.5C), 102F (39C) with the heat index and it was miserable, nearly unbearable, walking. We carry 4L of water with us and had to stop twice for water refills at bars and once at the local ‘mairie’ (town hall) in Angirey. We actually got a ‘timbre’ for our passports at the mairie as well, by a most obliging woman.
We walked through the town of Gy past its classic chateau, but we were just too hot and tired to explore. We noted, however, that part of the chateau roof sported the same colorful tiles as the local churches.
A highlight of this day … we saw a fox!
The insects didn’t seem to mind the heat at all. They flitted and fluttered around as if they had energy to spare while we dragged along sapped of any energy we’d started out with in the morning.
We trudged the last few miles in the baking heat before we arrived at our night’s lodging, La Maison d’Odile, advertised on Booking.com as ‘house with single bedroom’. Evidently, there were some translation problems since we ended up with ‘a single bedroom in a house’, a bit disappointing. It was an upstairs room, nice enough, but with a tiny shower and toilet, no A/C, no fan and screenless windows. Yet another night of heat, humidity and flies.
La Maison d’Odile … pleasant, but hot
You’d think with a town named Beaujeu-Saint Vallier et Pierrejeux, there’d be something here, but it was a tiny, little village … not a restaurant to be found or even a bar for our ‘end of day’ celebratory cold beer. We did find a small supermarket about ½ mile away that allowed us to have a cold beer from the cooler right there in the store and then made us a turkey sandwich to go. The sandwich and a bag of chips ended up being dinner. We trudged back the ½ mile to our ‘room’ and sweated through the night. We’re exhausted.
Two million steps as of today!
Day 57 – Fontenelay – Beaujeu-Saint Vallier et Pierrejeux
18.48 miles walked / 42,971 steps
Leg distance: 16 miles / 486 miles to Canterbury
Day 58 – Beaujeu-Saint Vallier et Pierrejeux – Champlitte
The French use duvets instead of sheets and blankets. Most of the time, this is a fine thing. In fact, we have a duvet on our bed in Las Vegas for part of the year. When it’s hot, however, a light sheet is what’s in order. Even when it’s really hot, sometimes you need a sheet to be comfortable around 0300, the coolest part of the night. Instead, we had a heavy duvet with two options: sweaty or chilly. Add to that a neighborhood dog that barked all night long and the guy who intermittently yelled at the barking dog all night long. Not much sleep.
Another scorcher of a day
Our hosts left out breakfast us and we were on the road by 0530. It was still 80F (27C) when we left, but we enjoyed the coolest part of the day. It was another scorcher. The path led us along backroads, farm roads and forest paths. We yearned for shady patches to cool down a bit. Our clothes were soaked through with sweat. We found a shady little park in Anoulet with a bench, a fresh water spigot and swans with cygnets in the river. What a reprieve.
We stopped in one shady spot later, spread our plastic tarp and just laid down to rest and cool down. We’ve also taken to stopping at churches during the day… when they’re open. They’re always cool and quiet and very inviting when we’re so hot.
Hotel Henri IV … quirky, but adequate
We finally made our 16 miles to Champlitte and checked into a quirky little hotel, Hotel Henri IV. Once a 16th century wine-making property, it’s an unusual place. We climbed a steep, spiral, stone staircase to our little cell, I mean room, and after our end of walk beer at a small bar nearby, we pretty much stayed in place for the rest of day, foregoing dinner … we were that tired.
Day 58 – Beaujeu – Champlitte
16.98 miles walked / 39,494 steps
Leg distance: 16 miles / 470 miles to Canterbury
Day 59 – Champlitte – Villeguesin du Lac
We were on the road early once again at 0530 to take advantage of the cool, but without breakfast. When we’re in Las Vegas, we must drink 10 cups of coffee a day and always eat some breakfast. Here, if we get coffee, it’s one or two cups max. Today, we had none and though it might have been nice, we were okay with nothing.
Hot walking on asphalt roads that seemed to go on forever
It was another hot day, but thankfully, not as intense. It was a day of cart roads and backroads and blessed, shady forest paths. There was a light breeze blowing and it was heavenly. The terrain was hilly, like a roller coaster.
Blessed shade walking along a forest road
We’d made a reservation for the night with AirBnB to stay at a ‘chateau’. La dee dah! The address was Rue d’Église, 18. We located it on Google Maps and headed straight for it. We were tired and hot, but finally arrived. It was definitely not a chateau, but we were well aware of how marketing hype and translations differ from the real thing. We were told someone would be there, but no one was home so we offloaded our packs and sat at the patio table in front of house.
A pleasant little home, yes, but this was NOT a chateau.
Five minutes later, our host arrived. He looked confused. I introduced ourselves and asked if it was okay to leave our packs there. ‘Do you want to stay here?’, he asked. ‘Well, yes, we have a reservation.’ Well, the long and short of it, we were at the wrong Rue d’Église, 18. Poor guy, we were sitting on his front porch ready to move in. There was another Rue d’Église, 18 two miles away. He laughed; we laughed. We apologized profusely. He gave us a bottle of cold, fresh water and we headed on our way to find the correct Rue d’Église, 18 … an actual chateau which was absolutely lovely. Richard and Laurence, our hosts, were the best.
Au Chateau … this is my kind of place.
Unfortunately, our room, as always, was two flights up, non-air conditioned (to be expected), but with no fan, a small, screen-less window and a heavy duvet. Another hot night.
Day 59 – Champlitte – Villeguesin du Lac
16.43 miles walked / 38,205 steps
Leg distance: 14 miles / 456 miles to Canterbury
What’s next? We’ll wait out the heatwave in lovely Langres and once we’ve recouped and the temperature has simmered down, we continue our trek through France. Join us and send a little cool our way, would you?