Well, it wasn’t really Delettes, but Upen d’Aval which is several kilometres north of Delettes, but we only realised this once we’d got to Delettes and had to tramp back up the hill into the face of a wet and bitterly cold northeaster. Nevertheless our chambre d’hote was very comfortable and our hosts most welcoming. We enjoyed a convivial meal with the hosts and two other guests from England who were touring the WW 1 sites.
During the night the weather turned bad. We were woken in the early hours by a loud clap of thunder and by morning there was a good four inches of lying snow. Was this a bad April fools joke?
In view of the snow and likely difficulty of route finding on footpaths and tracks, we decided to take the tar road directly east to Therouanne, where we could pick up provisions before turning south. Fortunately the roads had been cleared early in the morning by snowploughs.
Before leaving Upen d’Aval we stopped at the church of Notre Dame de l’Assomption. Not really very much to say about it other than that it was open and in a fairly poor state of repair. The reconstruction work started in the early 1990s seemed to have come to a halt some while ago.
We pressed on into a piercingly cold headwind, head down, focussed on putting one foot in front of another, and trying to ignore the developing blizzard. Definitely a bad April Fools joke.
As we neared Therouanne the blizzard eased off and we took comfort from the relative shelter provided by the buildings.
The original church on the site of L’Eglise du St Martin had the status of a cathedral with an associated bishopric from 500 to 1553. In 1553 it was destroyed by the soldiers of the Emperor Charles Quint following the siege of Therouanne. It was rebuilt in 1617-23, but it was not until 2019 that a bishopric was reinstated here. The nearby monastery of St Augustine founded in 1156 was destroyed in the French Revolution.
The site has been one of religious significance since Gallo-Roman times when there was a temple to the god Mars.
We took the opportunity to stock up on provisions at the Carrefour Contact on our way out of town, before pressing on south. The wind rose and the sleet intensified on our left flank. It was miserable! Heads down and hoods up again, we soldiered on south.
The village of Estree Blanche, set down in a shallow valley, promised some respite from the bitter northeasterly wind. Sadly the church was locked so we searched for a sheltered place to sit and chew our sandwiches. We found it in the coach’s hideaway at the village football stadium!
Just beyond Les Vieux Coronas we picked up the route of the Via Francigena again. Tom was intrigued by the name of the place on the bus stop sign – Transvaal! We later learned that miners from this place had gone to the Transvaal in South Africa in search of work and had brought the name home with them on their return. Having done the same after university, Tom felt a connection with them.
From here our path took us through a landscape of abandoned coal mining activity, with prominent waste dumps (terrils en Francais) and derelict land, left to revert to nature. Despite the acidic pH of the waste, nature seemed to be doing a pretty good job without significant human intervention in the form of active restoration work.
From here we picked up a former railway line, conveniently running along the valley bottom, so out of the wind.
Not long later a man walking his dog along the line approached. We stopped to exchange greetings. It turned out that he’d lived in Sydney where his wife had worked for P&O Ports, hence the coat he was wearing. He was unaware of the recent problems with the P&O channel ferries.
At Ligny les Aire the church was closed, despite a churchyard packed with richly adorned sepultres.
From Ligny our route took us back up onto the exposed plateau through Auchy au Bois and onwards to Amettes.
Finally the village of Amettes came into view, tucked down in the shallow valley of La Nave.
Shortly after, we found our lodging for the night at La Ferme de Deux Tilleuls, and a warm welcome by Colette and their lovely little dog Lulu.
Highlights of the day? L’Eglise du St Martin, for sure. We won’t mention the low lights!
The weather can only get better , keep ankling ! Love Tim and Jo and all . Knackered after an open day with 6 lambs and a calf born and about 300 visitors .