Walking the Via Francigena

This part of the country produces 80% of the world’s linen. The plants bloom a dark blue flower that is just starting to appear

This used to be coal country and some of the mining residue is piled in mounds that litter the landscape

We’ve been walking along this path covered with white puff balls from some sort of puff ball tree that we haven’t been able to Identify but I want our driveway paved with it

Bruay le B is the first urban setting in a week want to get back to the country

Week 1 Summary – Observations by Paula

Each day is its’ own accomplishment and gift.  Think Hanukkah, not Christmas.

It has been a full week on the Via Francigena and the classic question would be: has it been what you would hope for? Who thinks to walk from Canterbury to Rome?   —  So, Yes!

Although I have been a bit surprised by public reaction when we have been asked about our journey. In England several people casually asked the reason for our visit. When we replied we are walking from Canterbury to Rome the reaction was a nonchalant acceptance: “Oh, nice”.  However, if you casually asked a stranger about their holiday and they replied “Pulling out my toenails with pliers” you may not advance that conversation either, In other words it is a conversation stopper.

We have encountered at least 3 miracles:

1. In Dover the ferry lines prohibit pedestrians but allow bicycle traffic.  When confiding with John, the hotel manager, of our plight he produced 2 bicycles from his basement. Intrigued by our caper to load our luggage on the bikes, board the ferry, arrive in Calais, dump the bikes, he then engineered an elaborate platform on the back fenders of the bikes using bedframe parts and duct tape.  The only problem was the bicycles no longer had seats.  It worked, we arrived in Calais
2. Literally in the middle of nowhere a fresh strawberry dispensary appeared.  Insert Euro, push button, open door, take out the most perfect container of strawberries
3. A few of our hotels have had hair dryers, obviously important for drying laundry.

It has been an incredible week of exhilarating adventure. We have met two other Pilgrims, an angry English lady and a lovely Italian man. The long paths have been empty, just the two of us. Often I feel a bit guilty –  Edward has meticulously organized the incredible number of details of our trip, you’ve seen the spreadsheet, and now constantly checking our path and coordinates, leaving me the luxury to engage in random thoughts as I walk along. Just today I found myself —

• Debating if the couch would be better facing the window or the fireplace
• Musing if I should wear my hair straight like Chris Jenner’s  at the Met Ball
• And wondering why am I continually humming the Marseilles?

Thank you for following us.

June 1, 2022

Wisques to Therouanne – 16km

We started our walk by visiting the Abby of Notre Dame in Wisques, briefly listening to the Kyrie Eleison de Angelis sung by the cloistered nuns of the Benedictine order.   Cloistered nuns isolate from the outside world, apparently only using their voices when they sing, so we could not see them. 

Our walk continued to Therouanne a small burg that at one time boated the largest Cathedral in Europe.  It was destroyed by Charles V, who is also credited with the sack of Rome in 1527, when he ordered the town leveled, the Cathedral destroyed and the surrounding farms salted.  Can’t figure how he merits the title “Holy Roman Emperor”

May 31, 2022

Tournehem sur la Hem to Visques – 20km

We think of ideal hiking adventures as walking in pristine nature. We yearn
for a sense of exploration, discovery, and perhaps even mystical union with
mother earth. Remote canyons, virgin forests, ground never touched by human
footprint. This is not that. Every inch of land is curated by human hand, not
an inch is left unattended. Even the old Roman path we walk on, built by Caesar’s
legions as they marched to conquer Britain, is carefully maintained to serve thru
walkers, as we are called.  But in these vast fields of wheat and corn, grape seed and sorghum each stalk and stem are barely a month old, seen by only a handful of walkers and an occasional rabbit.  Individually unique, in the aggregate shape a
pristine landscape.

But then there is this and our walk continues.

May 30, 2022

Guines to Tournehem sur le Hem – 30.4 km

Tranquil day strolling across the French countryside through some downpours under spectacular cloud formations.  By mile 15 we were giddy and then ran into this

We were delusionally revived so we ate a basket of freshly picked Strawberries.

May 29        

Wissant to Guines – 29 km

We left the broad beach of Wissant and the white cliffs of Dover behind to begin the walk across of the French countryside to the Jure and the Alps.

The leg to Guines is the 2^nd of 47 in France.  We walked against the wind through rain and shine with only a brief stop for lunch; a ham and cheese baguette never tasted so good.  We kept watch on the weather as it rolled across the plain, granting us time to put on our rain gear, which protected us spectacularly well.  Some frantic cyclists but no thru walkers until we reached our hotel in Guines, a single English woman walking the whole way to Rome, but she lives in Italy and thinks Cinque Terre is too touristy.  We may have to keep our distance.

May 28

Dover to Calais to Wissant

Today we had 7 goals:

1. Buy used bicycles because no foot traffic is allowed on the Dover-Calais ferry
2. Engineer structural modifications to the bikes to accommodate luggage, eg eliminate one seat, build wooden platforms, secure with straps and duck tape
3. Make the channel crossing on the ferry as cyclist without ever riding the bicycles
4. Travel from Calais to Wissant (from where Caesar crossed to invade England and Sigeric actually started his trek across France)
5. Secure the Pilgrim Stamp in Wissant
6. Identify the route out of town.
7. Have a good meal

Missions accomplished!

May 27

Because we look like hikers people will ask “Where are you going”.   When we answer “Rome”, the reactions have been consistent: the doubtful “Wow, that is a walk”, the hopeful “Well good luck” or the more absent minded “That’s nice”.  Today we asked an elderly gentleman for directions to the Via Francigena path, “Where are you going?” he asked. “To Rome” we replied. His eyes lit up and he doubled over in laughter.  That seems like an appropriate reaction.

May 24, 2022

After 2 years planning, we are on our way. It is unexpectedly emotional to be addressed as “Pilgrims”. As we approached the counter to buy tickets to enter the Cathedral and to get the first stamp on our Via Francigena passport, the docent asked “Are you walking from Canterbury to Rome?” At that moment I felt induced into the community of wanderers along the Francigena, a subculture of thru-walkers, known and recognized along the way. “Pilgrims enter for free” he said as he stamped our passport, “Have an uplifting journey.”

This evening we attended Evensong at the Cathedral. As the girls choir sublimely sang, accompanied by the reverberating sound of the organ, their voices wafted up up the massive columns to the soaring transept where it seemed to linger in harmonious repose. I don’t know if this is part of an uplifting journey, but it made for a very good day.