Author Archives: Tom and Julie

As promised in the forecast, today was very hot from early morning onwards, but we had slept well after a sumptuous evening meal and wide-ranging conversation with our delightful hostess, Elisabeth. Much of what we were offered had been home grown or home brewed, and it was all delicious! We were again aghast at the […]

Last night’s billet was very comfortable and quiet, being a well equipped gite at one end of a farmhouse. We were given a room looking out onto the farmer’s fields and woodland beyond. Our friendly hostess, who positively welcomes pilgrims, fed us well with a delicious omelette made from their own hens’ eggs and homegrown […]

Yesterday evening’s walk to the supermarket was thankfully short, but the heat was still stifling at 6-7pm. Chateauvillain has evidently seen better days, with almost all the shops now closed down. There is a busy pharmacy and three not very busy tabacs, one doubling as a betting shop and another with a bar. The boulangeries […]

The second day in on any hiking trip is in our experience always a challenging one. Today was no exception. Despite being right out in the countryside, the Hotel de l’Abbaye where we spent the last night is located on a crossroads of two quite busy D roads and our room, right on the corner, […]

It felt wonderful to be back on the trail again today. Was it a feeling of guilt, we wondered – resting at home rather than moving on with the pilgrimage? Or was it the lovely countryside we were back enjoying? We tried to make an early start, but by the time we’d breakfasted, found a […]

It’s good to be back in Bar-sur-Aube again nearly seven weeks after we left off our walk. It’s been a tad warmer today with the temperature still around 28 degrees in late afternoon. We left St Pancras on the Eurostar at 1022, after a dreadful night’s sleep in a hotel in St Pancras right on […]

We have enjoyed several weeks of R&R at home, but the time is drawing near to get going again. Tom has enjoyed several days of fishing during the mayfly season and Julie has worked, but we’ve done very little walking. Somehow we just didn’t fancy it much! Panic set in last weekend and we had […]

We woke to bright sunshine and crisp temperature – perfect weather for walking. Last night’s billet was very comfortable, and we enjoyed supper adjacent to the millstream, within sight of several chub feeding in the backwash. Tom particularly liked the way the table napkins had been folded! It was with mixed feelings that we set […]

We had difficulty getting to sleep last night because our room was over the communal ablutions and recorded ‘musack’ started up every time someone went in there – we mainly got the benefit of the bass beat, which was especially irritating after the soothing choral music we’d heard in the church earlier! Unfortunately the owners […]

Our lodgings were very comfortable, and supper was enhanced by delicious freshly picked radishes grown in our hosts’ garden! We were relieved to learn the outcome of yesterday’s presidential elections, but disappointed to hear that with so many Ukrainians losing their lives defending democracy, 28% of the French electorate had not turned out to vote! […]