Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 4: Licques- Tournehem-sur-le-Hem

Choisis bien ton chemin!

- on the first page of the children's book I took from the little free library in Tournehem-sur-le-Hem

Slept very well in my caravan and woke up just as the sun was rising over the wash-house roof. Breakfasted on oatmeal, reconstituted dried peaches from my own tree back home, and instant coffee - a complete meal prepared entirely using a kettle!

Upon emerging from my tiny home I met Mick from Newcastle, who is walking from Calais to Istanbul! Now that's a long walk! Mick had set up his tent on the other side of the hedge the evening before and then disappeared before I had a chance to speak to him. I thought he was sleeping, but in the morning he told me he had gone into the town for dinner. I invited him to take advantage of the kettle and the warmth in my cabin as I was vacating the premises. Then I walked along the road past the old mill to rejoin the Via Francigena in Cahen. The path crossed a few fields before heading uphill on a paved road, then down the other side of the ridge to the village of Yeuse.

There was supposed to be a strawberry vending machine at West Yeuse and I was looking forward immensely to putting a euro into a machine and getting a punnet of strawberries, but the machine was empty! My disappointment grew as the sky clouded over, the wind rose and the temperature seemed to drop by several degrees.

I stopped briefly to rest by the chapel of Saint-Martin à Yeuse and then pressed on, uphill again. At the top of the ridge the sun emerged from the clouds, and the view over the fields of young grain extended as far as the lighthouse of Calais and the white cliffs of Dover, glowing white in the misty distance!

But the highlight of today's stage was definitely the ruined and roofless chapel of Saint-Louis, standing high on the hill above the village of Guemy.

Chapelle de Saint-Louis

The chapel was built in the late 15th century at the command of Antoine de Bourgogne (1421 – 5 May 1504), known to his contemporaries as Le grand bâtard ("the Great Bastard"), the natural son of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, and Jeanne de Presle, one of his many mistresses. It fell into ruin and was reconstructed only partially in 1930, intentionally left as a ruin. The site is a very special one with a long history: Gaulish druids practiced their rites there, and in the third century, Septimus Severus camped on the spot with his army, on their way to conquer Great Britain. So Le grand bâtard actually rebuilt a chapel on what had already been considered a holy site since ancient times.

Tournehem-sur-le-Hem

After sitting by the chapel for some time snacking on crackers and trail mix, I carried on down the hill toward the village of Guemy, surprising a herd of white cows who followed me along the lane, on their side of the fence.

Further along the lane I caught up with my new Australian friend Fiona, who had taken the shorter route along the road through the valley. We agreed to share a room for the night and walked into Tournehem-sur-le-Hem together, arriving to find the village deserted, all the shops and the one café in town shut. We sat down on a bench in the main square watching what little life there was go by and writing these words until our Canadian friends caught up.

While we were waiting, the librarian opened the library, right behind our bench, so we went inside to keep warm, use the toilets and ask for a stamp for our pilgrim credentials - we ended up getting two! When the librarian had already stamped them with the library stamp, the owner of the Café de la Mairie, just across the square, struck up a conversation, apologised that the café was closed on Wednesdays, and went across to get the official stamp of the French association of the Via Francigena, which she keeps in her café. The café owner confirmed that the village bakery and grocery store were both closed - permanently. There are no shops in the village any more, she said. But there are many more pilgrims than before, she also said. Perhaps one day abandoned French villages like this one will see the kind of reawakening that has taken place along the Camino de Santiago in Spain!

As our hotel's opening time of 4 pm approached, we moved off toward the Hotel Bal, across from a seemingly abandoned adventure park. The hotel has its own restaurant, and seeing as this is the only place in town to get food on a Wednesday, it was definitely a good choice! The hotel dinner and breakfast should be enough to sustain us until we get to the convent in Wisques tomorrow night, at which point we hope the nuns will feed us!