To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for travelling souls.
- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road (1856)
Our schoolroom was a bit chilly last night, especially as we were sleeping on canvas camp cots without mattresses, so the chill came in from underneath. I woke up at 4:30 and put on a light sweater, which remedied the situation enough to allow me to sleep until 7:30. Then we got the coffee machine going, ate some bread and some rather stale pastries I had discovered in the top pocket of my backpack, and prepared to depart.
Today's route started out once again on that dead straight Roman road, of which I will spare you any more pictures! But it became more interesting as we passed through a series of pretty little farming villages featuring homes of wattle and daub construction and pale stone churches.
The church in Donnemont was undergoing renovation and preservation work, but nothing was happening on the construction site today so we sat on the steps to eat a snack. We stopped again on a bench with a view of the church in Braux, and then continued on to Rosnay-le-Hospital, where there was a café - the first we had seen in three days! We were celebrating this return to civilisation with a beer when in came Ingrid, a Dutch walker Elaine had already met. She joined us and the three of us set off to walk the rest of the way to Brienne-le-Château together.
We were not following the official Via Francigena route today, or even the historic variant, but a shorter route recommended to us by the volunteer at our hostel last night; we straightened out a few remaining kinks in this route by walking straight through the Napolean Lakes, a carp fishing reserve consisting of a series of bright blue fishing ponds. But we ended up on the wrong side of a fence, which made for some scrambling through the woods looking for a gap in the fence to get back onto the road! And to crown our adventures for the day, along came a hailstorm! We raced along the road for the final hour or so into Brienne-le-Château, where we were lodged on Rue de l'École Militaire, named after the military school where the young Napoleon studied military strategy between 1779 and 1784.
Here we found our hostel and were warmly welcomed by the volunteer on duty, who assigned us our rooms and put all our wet clothes through the washing machine!
Today's accommodations: Maison Fraternelle du Pèlerin, Brienne-le-Château
Corbeil - Brienne-le-Château 27 km
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