Part Deux – Well we don’t know where we’re going, and we don’t know where we’ve been…

This is regrettably true, as my guide book is now residing in a motorway lay-by somewhere in the evocatively named Ham. Having discarded half of my kit, I am losing the remainder at an astonishing rate. I am navigating south using the knowledge that satellite dishes always point south until Bescanson where the second guide book starts. It is a good job Austin did not come, I think the lack of order would have terrified him.

I am in Vitry-de-François, which is quite charming really, having come just short of 500kms. I’m in good order, putting in a solid 30kms a day and seeing some of the great variety which hallmarks French scenery. The Champaigne is really rather beautiful, and better still I have found a canal to walk beside which takes the pressure of the hill climbing muscles for a few days. Lockes and canal boats are starting to become quite interesting to me – a worrisome portent of middle age. 

Must dash as have to traipse over hill and dale before it rains, but my favorite thing so far has to be the sign at the bus stop in Chalons-en-Champaigne: Dogs in handbags go free, dogs on leads pay full fare, British bulldogs banned. How very French. Thanks for the good luck messages, and I really will write this properly when I manage to sleep somewhere which isn’t a cemetary… Tx