Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

C’est dans les utopies d’aujourd’hui que sont les solutions de demain

Pierre Rabhi

When I peeked out of the window at 6am, things looked pretty gloomy. Michael, whom I’d met in Cluny, and Renaud, had both warned me that the weather was due to deteriorate during the week.

When I voiced these concerns to Michel over breakfast, he smiled wistfully and confidently predicted that the clouds would lift by midday.

Over breakfast I chatted with Michel about Brexit and the problems facing the UK with cross Channel immigration.

Michel asked me why the UK was such a magnet for migrants and whether, post Brexit, all was well in the UK. This was a weighty topic to discuss over a bowl of coffee and fig jam on toast, but as I attempted to explain Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda immigrant deterrence policy, and the fact that it would cost the UK more to send a single illegal immigrant to Rwanda than for a pupil to attend Eton College for a year, Michel’s eyes glazed over in incomprehension. I am sure it was my far from fluent French!

Shortly after leaving Michel and Jacqueline’s, I came across a couple of pilgrims. They were pulling what looked like a cart, and proceeding very slowly in front of me.

Their names were Helmut and Brigitte from Frankfurt and they were walking to Compostella. It would take them six years they told me, but there was no great hurry – they were taking it 2 weeks at a time each year.

Frustrated that the lack of use of German during the last 44 years meant I couldn’t crack a ribald riposte ( ich bin wahnsinnige Englischer auf dem weg nach Avignon?) I bade them bon camino and hastened on my way to Saint- Romain-La-Motte.

At 10am, precisely as Michel had predicted, the clouds lifted and the birds began to sing. Cuckoos had constantly choraled my walk since leaving Cluny, but for the first time I heard a golden oriole in full voice. Magical.

Jacqueline had suggested I take a look around Saint-Haon-le-Châtel, a fourteenth century citadel fortified by the dukes of Burgundy. Tempting though it was to take the recommended 30 minute village tour, time was of the essence, and I opted for the direct route through the village via the impressive clock gateway.

Jacqueline had kindly given me a packed lunch – a round of lical cheese, bread, a madelaine and a couple of squares of chocolate. The shops in France are always closed on a Monday she reminded me with a twinkle in her eye!

Thankfully there was a supermarket open in Renaison and I was able to resupply in the knowledge that I would be spending the night in the communal gite in Bully.

After lunch ( perhaps fortified by 1.5l of diet coke and Jacqueline’s packed lunch) I made good progress, polishing off the 5km between Saint-Alban-les-Eaux and Lentigny in 50 mins.

Shortly after Lentigny I passed a chateau that was undergoing repairs.

As I paused to take a photo, a distinguished silver haired man in his 80s appeared at a second floor window and inquired where I was headed. I told him I was a pilgrim heading to Bully and asked him whether he was the owner. Yes, it transpired, although he spent half the year in Aix-en-Provence. You had better get a move on he advised, the storm is about to break, but at least you should be able to get a decent meal in the restaurant at Saint-Jean-le-Puy, 2km down the road.

St-Maurice-sur-Loire, five minutes beyond Saint-Jean-le-Puy was a magical village perched on an escarpment overlooking the Loire. Replete with a castle keep overlooking the river, it was an irretrievably romantic spot.

En route to Bully, my destination for the day, the heavens finally opened. For ten minutes it tipped down incessantly. Thankfully I made it safely to the communal gite at 6.30pm despite being soaked to the skin (my lightweight ‘waterproof’ jacket bought at great expense from Cotswold Outdoor in Salisbury in 2021 has the impermeability qualities of a wide mesh sieve!).

Ensconced safely out of the rain I was eternally thankful for being able to access the communal gite at Bully, dry my clothes and tuck into a bottle of wine and some cheese. A long day with a welcome ending!