Author: Jonathan Dutton
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Day 27: Septvaux to Laon (30 km) From the ridiculous to the sublime
All good things come to those who wait. English Proverb The day got off to a bad start. The owner of the Ferme de Brellemont was charming, but she obviously hadn’t heard on the bush telegraph that I hadn’t eaten for the best part of 24 hours. Breakfast was extremely…
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Day 28: Laon to Pontavert (33 km) The Way through the Woods
They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know. The Way through the Woods – Rudyard Kipling Mme Tordeux-Bremard gave me the perfect send off this morning – three blasts on her boar hunting horn which hung in her…
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Day 29: Pontavert to Saint-Thierry (23 km) Champagne country
Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.’ Winston Churchill Today was a bit of a red letter day. I’ve now been walking for a month, have chalked up nearly 800km/500 miles and I’ve reached champagne country. I’d love to break open some bubbly at this point,…
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Day 30: Rest day. The Smile of Reims.
Champagne is the wine of civilisation and the oil of government. Winston Churchill Its not everyday that you get to sit outside the front of Reims Cathedral writing your blog! This wasn’t part of my original plan but what I hadn’t reckoned on, was that France shuts down on Mondays…
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Day 31: Saint-Thierry to Trépail (32 km) Beware the Primrose Path of Dalliance!
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,And recks not his own rede. Hamlet Act 1 Scene 3 – William Shakespeare Somebody on social media asked me on Sunday if I…
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Day 32: Trépail to Châlons en Champagne (33 km) Wanderlust
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky. So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my…
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Day 33: Rest Day. ‘La Venise Pétillante’
But when dear Sebastian speaks it is like a little sphere of soap-suds drifting off the end of an old clay pipe, anywhere, full of rainbow light for a moment and then—phut—vanished, with nothing left at all, nothing. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh Every two seconds on average a bottle…
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Day 34: Châlons en Champagne to Saint-Amand-sur -Fion (32 km) Tale of the Unexpected
Anyone who has not built a house, not grown son, not dug a well, and planted a tree, lived a life in vain. Moldovan Proverb Mme Elisabeth Lesoeur had presented me with something of a dilemma. When I had told her the previous day of my plan to walk the…
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Day 35: St-Amand-sur-Fion to St Remy en Bouzement (34 km) Pilgrims find a way.
Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head. As You Like It – William Shakespeare It isn’t every day that you have breakfast in a water mill dating back to Roman times! I couldn’t help staring at…
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Day 36: Saint-Remy-en-Bouzement to Rosnay l’Hôpital (37 km) The Sound of Music
If music be the food of love, play on That surfeiting the appetite may sicken and so die. William Shakespeare – Twelfth Night I’ve never been a great fan of techno music with its mind numbing repetitive beat. So when I woke up in the middle of the night to the…
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Day 37: Rosnay L’Hôpital to Brienne le Chateau (21 km). Boney was a warrior.
An army marches on it’s stomach Napoleon Bonaparte I was amazed that more pilgrims hadn’t stayed with Jean-Philippe and Blandine Mignot over the last few years. Their hospitality was most generous and the church was well worth a visit. Ah well, their loss was my gain. Jean-Philippe had suggested that…
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Day 38: Brienne le Chateau to Bar sur Aube (55 km) The route of Ouches!
When troubles come, they come not single spies but in battalions Hamlet Act IV Scene V- William Shakespeare Sometimes in life things go pear shaped. Today was one of those days. I should have been alerted when I passed a street sign saying ‘ Ruelle des Grandes Ouches’. It turned…
Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 