Un carrefour n’est pas seulement la croisée des chemins, deux ou trois directions différentes, il impose aussi un choix d’existence, une volonté de chance. Emprunter une route, c’est négliger toutes les autres. Mais toujours il existe une nostalgie pour celles délaissées dont on ne sait où elles auraient mené.
-David le Breton, Marcher la vie : Un art tranquille du bonheur
At Châlons-en-Champagne the Via Francigena splits into two possible routes. The historic route, based on the Archbishop Sigeric's route in the year 990, is the shorter of the two, but it passes through a series of villages such as Coole and Donnemont where there are no hotels or bed and breakfast places, no restaurants and no shops to buy food. As you can't go sending people walking down roads where there is no food and no accommodation, the modern Via Francigena / GR145 has been rerouted further east to pass through towns where more amenities are available.
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| Historic route in orange, modern route in red |
It is, however, still possible to walk the more direct original route, shown in orange in the map above, thanks to a network of volunteers who provide food and shelter along the path, either in their own homes or in a municipal facility. Doing so saves 37 kilometres - a day and a half of walking - and allows you to walk the route of an ancient Roman road. Sounds good on both counts!
So that is what I set out to do today and tomorrow, having arranged my accommodations, stocked up on groceries and downloaded gps tracks of the route which my friend in Arras, Dider Morel, had uploaded to Wikiloc. Thank you Didier!
I shared a room at the hostel last night with Elaine, and this morning she was still unsure which route to take. I asked my hostess for tonight whether I could bring a friend with me, and she said that would not be a problem, so we set off together, walking out of Châlons along the Marne River on a path shared with the Chemin de Compostelle.
After following the meanders of the river for some time, we came to the village of Sogny-aux-Moulins, where we sat on a bench under a shelter for an early lunch. Food is heavy to carry, so better in than out! The sun was shining and the temperature much warmer than on the previous days, and during our next rest break I zipped off the bottoms of my trousers. Walking in shorts and T-shirt for the first time this year!
The last section of today's walk was on a gravel road following the route of an ancient Roman road. It stretched forth as far as the eye could see, absolutely dead straight for ten kilometres!
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| Asparagus field - already picked, with a few stragglers |
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| Potato fields |
The monotony of a straight road through the fields was soon broken when Mother Nature sent along some interesting weather to liven things up a bit. Clouds began to gather on the horizon, gradually coming closer and closer, turning blacker and blacker! We were in the midst of a vast wind farm, with absolutely no shelter anywhere! Wondering what happens when lightning strikes a wind vane, I speed-walked in the direction of what appeared to be a large barn, but there was no openable door on the structure. Giving up on the possibility of finding shelter of any kind, Elaine and I donned on our rain ponchos and hurried along, hoping to beat the storm. At one point things were looking pretty grim, but then the storm seemed to break up and the clouds began to drift away; where we were, there was only a sprinkle of rain.
Soon we were in Fontaine-sur-Coole, looking for the address of our hostess's home. It's rather odd when you're staying in someone's home: all you have is a name and an address, and other than that you know nothing about the person, other than the fact that they volunteer to host pilgrims - definitely a point in their favour! You go up and ring the doorbell of a complete stranger, expecting to be let in and offered food, a shower and a bed, whatever state you may be in - dripping wet, covered with mud, exhausted, whatever!
Our hostess Nicole let us strip off our wet ponchos and muddy boots, then led us into her kitchen and served us apple juice pressed from her own apples and a plate of biscuits. Her husband René joined us and we went through the usual formalities of where are you from, where did you start walking and when, etc. Then we were taken upstairs to our rooms - Elaine has a double bed while I have the children's room with two singles and lots of comic books! We showered, hung up our things to dry and are resting until dinner time at 7:30.
Today's accommodations: Famille Pelouard
Châlons-en-Champagne - Fontaine-sur-Coole 22.5 km
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