Friendly Frenchmen & the Final Countdown Begins
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Wheat and wind are farmed here
Day 77 – Versigny – Mézières-sur-Oise
We’re in farm country now and the path took us along several farm paths and country roads. It seems the main crops farmed are wheat, beets and wind. There are several wind farms in the area.
Thanks for the coffee, Luc!
This was a particularly interesting day for meeting friendly Frenchmen. First, there was Luc. We passed by his farm and he was standing in his driveway, a huge combine parked behind him. He said hello and asked where we were going. When we told him we’d walked from Rome and were heading to Canterbury, he invited us in for coffee.
Luc’s ancestral farm was pretty impressive.
We chatted amiably in his country kitchen while he prepared coffee, served us juice and offered bread and cake. I asked how long he’d owned and worked the farm. “I was born here,” he said, “like my father, my grandfather and his father before him.” We did find out a rather interesting tidbit from Luc. For days, we’d passed fields with an odiferous plant we couldn’t identify and thus called ‘the smelly plant’. It was a foul, cooked cabbage smell which Luc told us was none other than canola, a member of the cruciferous (cabbage) family.
Christopher and Catherine shouted us a beer!
We walked further but we were taking our time. It was a short day and we couldn’t check into our hotel until mid-afternoon. As we were passing through the village of Séry-lès-Mézières close to our final destination, but still too early, we noticed a bar with a closed sign in the window, but with an open door and several people drinking beer. What better way to while away a few minutes than to have our end of walk beer a little early. We joined the folks at the bar, ordered our beers and fell into conversation with a couple next to us, Christopher and Catherine. After hearing our Via Francigena escapades, Christopher insisted on buying our beer and Catherine is now a Facebook friend. How cool is that?
Le Robinson … where Rita treated us like family!
We continued on to Le Robinson, our evening lodging. A family-owned business for generations, Le Robinson was a venue for events as well as a private park. The room was gorgeous with every amenity offered that you could imagine. There were no restaurants in the area and Rita, our hostess, gave us a menu for a pizzeria in the next town, ordered for us and picked up a pizza for our dinner. She also offered to wash our clothes (was that a hint?), an offer we gladly accepted.
An awesome day of friendly Frenchmen!
Day 77 – Versigny – Mézières-sur-Oise
11.86 miles walked / 27,580 steps
Leg distance: 12 miles / 218 miles to Canterbury
Day 78 - Mézières-sur-Oise – Maissemy
There’s always something to keep us amused. If it’s not boars, it’s a gaggle of geese on the wrong side of the fence.
Perhaps we are becoming jaded with all of our travel, but today was just an unremarkable day on the path … until I started thinking about it. It was a long day, 16+ miles, with lots of asphalt under our feet. We walked through several small villages and then through the city of St. Quentin, where we purchased sandwich supplies at a local supermarket and sat on a park bench to eat our lunch.
We passed over the bridge in St.Quentin, the very same path Napoleon took in 1810.
There was a farmer’s market on a cordoned off street and we walked through. Roaster chickens and a few fresh veggies and fruits were on offer, but mostly clothes and yard sale items … nothing that these walkers were interested in adding to our already too heavy backpacks.
Fresh, ripe, luscious blackberries!
Towards the end of the walk, there were farm paths and a shady forest path. We spread our our plastic sheet under a grove of trees to relax and found big, luscious blackberries, ripe for the picking as a snack. What a energy booster!
A hot stretch between wheat and beets!
The last stretch was hot and up hill to our night’s lodging, a gite (jeet), Château de Vadancourt. It was a lovely big old château with a beautiful interior, lovely rooms and extensive acreage. After a rest and an end-of-walk beer on the terrace, we took a stroll around the grounds, said hello to Milton & Becky, the resident donkeys and explored the 18th century stone bridges and small lake. The mozzies chased us back to our room.
Château de Vadancourt
David did some calculating and announced that after today, we had only 10 walking days left to Canterbury and only eight left in France. Hard to believe that our walk is nearing its end.
Day 78 - Mézières-sur-Oise – Maissemy
16.44 miles walked / 38,235 steps
Leg distance: 16 miles /10 walking days to Canterbury *
*The original VF mileage from Rome to Canterbury was a guesttimate; now with only 10 legs left, we can calculate more easily by walking days left.
Day 79 – Maissemy – Nurlu
We took an early breakfast at the château and were on the path by 0630 in anticipation of a hot day forecast (mid-upper 80sF / 30C). The path took us mostly on farm roads and through several small villages.
Église Saint-Martin - nice on the outside, a wreck on the inside
We stopped at a boulangerie for a croissant in the larger village of Roisel and sat on a park bench in front of Église Saint-Martin to eat it. We took a quick look inside the church. What a disaster! Mold and mildew covered the walls and nearly choked us. We exited quickly. We would be surprised if any Masses are celebrated there, the parishioners would all get sick. The Maire (town hall) across the street provided us with a stamp for our pilgrim’s passport and we were on our way.
Chambre d'hôte Coquelicot … gated and locked up tight
Of all the places we’ve stayed over the past months, we’ve always noted to our hosts in advance that we were walking the VF and therefore requested early check-in, if possible. Chambre d'hôte Coquelicot, however, said absolutely no check-in before 4pm. What to do? We’d left Maissemy early to avoid walking in the hot afternoon sun and it was blazing by the time we arrived in Nurlu at 1:30. We walked to Coquelicot on the outside chance they’d let us in, but the gate was locked and apparently no one was around.
Notre-Dame of the Nativity provided shade and cool … and mites
There was not the tiniest bit of shade in the entire village. The town park was open and unshaded with nary a park bench. We finally retreated to the local town church, Notre-Dame of the Nativity, which, lucky for us, was open … and cool. We offloaded our packs and sat in pews at the back of church for over two hours. We checked out the church and its statues and stained glass windows … several times. We read, we chatted, we dozed. It was a very, very long two+ hours. We noticed we were scratching a bit, but didn’t realize until we were leaving and in the light of day that we had mites all over us.
We finally packed up and headed back to the Coquelicot. The gate was still chained and locked. We rang the bell and after a few minutes, our host appeared. He’d been there all along, it seems. Our room was upstairs in a loft, nicely appointed, but quite hot and stuffy. There was, however, a fan which helped matters considerably. Our host somewhat redeemed himself when he offered two cold beers which we enjoyed outside in a shady spot. It was an odd place … a peacock strutted around, followed by a pea hen and a pea-chick. Roosters crowed and exotic looking chickens scratched the ground, clucked and eyed us as we drank our beers.
There was only one restaurant in town and it was closed this day. We made do with a leftover baguette and some peanuts, content to cool down and relax till tomorrow.
Day 79 – Maissemy – Nurlu
14.34 miles walked / 33,350 steps
Leg distance: 14 miles / 9 walking days to Canterbury
Day 80 – Nurlu – Bapaume
We were up and out by 0530 this morning. The roosters were crowing, the sun was just rising and the moon had yet to set. Nurlu village was still asleep. Wind turbines dotted the horizon, turning and churning.
A real scorcher was forecast and we wanted to get our 13 miles walked before the hottest part of the day. Our hotel for tonight had already confirmed we could check in as soon as we arrived and it was air-conditioned. Hallelujah!
There’s a village church steeple any direction you look … and wind turbines.
This is still agricultural land … wheat, beets and now potatoes. It’s a hilly terrain and we noted that in any direction we turned, a village church steeple was in view. Many of the churches here are in bad condition … broken windows, foundations cracked, birds nesting in the steeple.
It has been hot, hot, hot. It was 63F (17C) when we left this morning and the forecast is for a high of 97F (36C) by mid-afternoon. We tramped over farm roads, through fields, up and down hills and we were plenty tuckered out by the time we reached Bapaume just after Noon. Our room was waiting for us and we soaked up the cool for a few minutes before heading downstairs for lunch and a beer.
We ventured out in the heat only long enough to walk a few blocks to the tourist info office for a passport stamp and the local grocery for dinner supplies. We basked in the A/C and took it easy. The canicule (heatwave) was predicted to continue.
We ventured out of our hotel room in Bapaume only long enough lo get a passport stamp and gather some supplies for dinner.
Day 80 – Nurlu – Bapaume
13.42 miles walked/ 31,208 steps
Leg distance: 13 miles / 8 walking days to Canterbury
Next time … We weather an extreme heatwave and spend some time in the city of Arras. Join us!