Off we set at an early hour from our central Reims billet with Rhyd in tow.
Actually he was bounding ahead, in search of somewhere to buy bananas. Eventually he found somewhere to buy not just bananas but enough additional supplies to keep a Welsh platoon on the march. So we followed him on with bananas dangling from his sack, past the Basilique de St Remy, where we should have turned off until we realised our mistake. We then decided to stop talking and focus on navigation.
After finding our way to the south bank of the Canal de l’Aisne a la Marne we then settled down to walk in the right direction. A delightful towpath, albeit tarmac, seemed to be well used by walkers and cyclists out enjoying the unusually good holiday weekend weather. Thus, in dappled sunshine and a light headwind we knocked off the first seven or eight kilometres of the day.
Just after we joined the tow path we passed the Jardin Intergenerationnel, which is a Reims city initiative set up in 2012 to encourage ‘seniors’ to share their knowledge of and respect for the natural environment with school children. Sadly, though it was Easter Saturday, no one appeared to be using or working in the gardens, but perhaps they are busier during the school term. Let’s hope. It’s great idea.
Every few kilometres there was a water fountain worked by an Archimedes screw handily placed beside the tow path for all those walkers and runners who might otherwise dehydrate. We made use of them to keep our bottles topped up.
Lunchtime found us at a lock which takes the canal over the La Vesle river near Sillery where there happened to be a convenient bench to sit and eat our rations in the warm spring sunshine watching the ducks go by.
At Sillery we left the tow path and headed east towards the valley side and the slopes covered in champagne vineyards. On the outskirts of the village we passed another French national necropole (WW1 cemetery) but couldn’t readily find our way into it so we paid our respects from a distance. This cemetery was built in 1923 and contains the bodies of 11,259 soldiers who had been temporarily buried behind the front lines during the Great War. We had thought we were now south of the wartime trenches, but in fact we have moved from the British and Commonwealth sector to the French sector of the Allied front line. The level of slaughter here was just as shocking as we have come across further north.
Recrossing the north/south motorway that we used to whizz along, we were quickly in amongst the vines and began to recognise some well known names. In between the large patches demarcated by recognisable names we could identify other small sections, presumably owned by individual growers. Some areas had been sprayed to kill off weeds, whilst others were marked as ‘biologique’ and had grass and dandelions growing amongst the vines. Strange that the ‘biologique’ (organic) should be growing immediately alongside that which isn’t.
An intriguing windmill on top of the hill turned out to be the home of the Mumm champagne family, with glorious views in every direction. Hmmm!
The ‘engins agricoles’ used in the vineyards to grub the soil/weeds along rows of vines, with the chassis sitting high enough to pass over the vines and the wheel span just right to work two rows at a time are quite extraordinary.
From Moet et Chandon and Mumm at Verzenay, we took a lovely track through the beech woods to contour around the hillside to the next village of Verzy, which should have been our destination for the day, but for lack of available accommodation.
On the way out of Verzy, Julie spotted a plaque outside a house explaining that it had been set up in December 1927 for the care of ‘les mutiles’ (presumably war wounded) and was later used as a children’s home. With the overwhelming numbers of war dead it is easy to forget that there were also huge numbers of men who survived but with significant physical and mental scars of war.
Just before we arrived in Villers Marmery to find our accommodation we noticed what looked like a blocked up entrance into tne hillside with a notice about anti-phylloxera, a disease caused by an aphid imported from north America in the 1850s which decimated French vineyards. We asked our hosts about it later and they said that someone had lived there……..which didn’t quite make sense to us, but we’ve been unable to find out more.
A former hotel in Villers Marmary had closed so we found ourselves staying at a winery Le Clos Adnet where the family has set up a couple of very comfortable rooms to provide chambres d’hotes. When asking if they could provide walking pilgrims with supper too we were offered a ‘degustation’ with platters of cold meats and cheeses. The degustation involved trying the family’s brut champagne, followed by the rose, and concluding with the extra fin, by which time we were quite happy with eating an interesting variety of cold meats and cheeses, and with the world in general! Excellent champagne and a wonderful spread of food.
The highlight of today was the opportunity to spend time with Rhyd catching up on his and family news, and sharing this adventure with him.