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

Water,water every where,       Nor any a drop to drink

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Simon Taylor Coleridge

Today’s challenge was to see if I could walk the best part of 30 miles in pouring rain, largely on tarmac roads without eating anything for 24 hours. Well I succeeded, but in all honesty it was a bit of a grim day when very little of note happened until I reached my destination for the evening.

I left the communal gite in Bully at 7.10am, determined to make an early start to get to Champdieu in good time. No sooner had I put my nose out the door than it began to drizzle. 

I then spent the next 30 minutes trying to find my way out of the village but only succeeded in going around in circles andcending up where I had started! Frustrating because Bully is a pretty small village and any halfwit should have been able to find the correct route. I put it down to delirium driven by lack of my usual morning caffeine fix.

According to my guidebook, Amions should have had a bakery and a restaurant. I was looking forward to a pain au chocolat but when I got there, no bakery nor restaurant was to be seen.

Pommiers-en-Forez did have a bakery, but it was closed by the time I got there. So was the priory, which was a shame. Founded in 825 AD it housed 25 Benedictine monks, survived the ravages of The 100 Years War as well as the French Revolution.

I passed a number of ponds during the afternoon. Called the ponds of the Forez, they were first created in the 13th century by local landlords to raise edible fish such as pike  Nowadays they form a 38 hectare wildlife reserve and are an important staging post for migratory birds.

During the day’s walk I had passed a number of signposts indicating the distance to the ‘Bâtie d’Urfé’. I didn’t frankly have a clue what it was. Well, midway through the afternoon I walked straight past its walls. Its the Renaissance chateau where the author Honoré d’Urfé lived in the 17th century.

To cut a long story short, it rained on and off during the day most of which was spent walking on minor roads. Visibility was limited and cafés/food stores were non existent. I was extremely glad to make it to Champdieu shortly after 5pm where, Claire, my host for the night, had kindly agreed to pick me up in her car and drive me to her palatial house.

I’m not sure how many bedrooms Claire has in her house but it must be at least 20! Her son ( whom I never got to meet) and her daughter ( whom I also never got to meet) were living in various bits of the house which had been acquired by her late husband’s family in the 1930s. Claire has another 3 children dotted around France and numerous grandchildren.

Claire had completed the Camino to Compostella some years ago and had also walked the Chemin de Cluny. Never has a 4 course meal (soup/vegetable risotto/local cheese and compote) washed down with a bottle of local wine (Côte du Forez) been so welcome!