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

She calls out to the man on the street                                             He can see she’s  been crying,                                           She‘s got blisters on the soles of her feet,                                         She can’t walk but she’s trying    Phil Collins – Another Day in Paradise I limped into the village of Grand- Lemps shortly before midday. It had been raining solidly for the…

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There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow William Shakespeare – Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2 If they gave stars for accommodation standards by host families on the major pilgrim routes across France, I’m not sure Agnes would have secured even a solitary star. The two up, one down accommodation boasted a cellar…

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There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends,                                          Rough hew them how we will William Shakespeare – Hamlet Act 5, Scene 2 It was 6.30pm, I was sitting in a shelter outside a church with thunder and lightning directly overhead. I was some way from where I thought I was spending the night, my phone battery…

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Our doubts are traitors,                                       And make us lose the good          We oft might win                          By fearing the attempt. William Shakespeare – Measure for Measure Act 1 Scene IV As I headed off from the Chateau de Pelly shortly before 8am, I wasn’t entirely confident that I would reach Yenne in one piece. The weather forecast…

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In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln For all its charms, the communal gite at Charly lacked one important element for a comfortable stay – large enough windows to let sufficient air into the rooms to prevent them becoming raging infernos in…

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Making fun is serious business Charlie Chaplin Maybe it was the early (5am)  start to get the plane from Toulouse to Geneva, maybe it was the unrelenting 30C heat and humidity, maybe it was the simple fact that living high on the hog in south west France had taken its toll on my fitness levels.…

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Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,- While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; John Keats – Ode to Autumn With the harvest over in south west France, the shadows lengthening and the days shortening, it…

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Variety is the spice of life Anon As I was waiting at Cahors for my train to Montauban this morning I saw a chap with a beard and a rucksack. Apart from the fact that he was wearing a cap emblazoned with the words ‘Stihl’ he could have stepped out of ‘Lord of the Rings’.…

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The wheel is come full circle Shakespeare – King Lear 35 years ago I limped into Cahors, my feet a blistered mess. I had come nowhere near meeting my objective of walking all the way to the Pyrennees. I crossed the historic bridge, made straight for the train station and hot footed it back to…

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Sun is shinin’ in the skyThere ain’t a cloud in sightIt’s stopped rainin’, everybody’s in the playAnd don’t you knowIt’s a beautiful new day? Hey ELO – Mr.Blue Sky Eagle eyed readers of this blog may have noticed with alarm9 that for some days there has been no mention of the Chemin Urbain V from…

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