Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 34: Blessonville

Friday, May 19, 2023

Road to Home 2023 Day 34: Blessonville - Marac

Mais les vrais voyageurs sont ceux-là seuls qui partent
Pour partir; coeurs légers, semblables aux ballons,
De leur fatalité jamais ils ne s'écartent,
Et, sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!

(But the true voyagers are only those who leave
Just to be leaving; hearts light, like balloons,
They never turn aside from their fatality
And without knowing why they always say: "Let's go!")

- Charles Baudelaire, Le Voyage, in Les Fleurs du Mal

Blessonville was a real blessing, and after a restful evening at the Maison du Pèlerin, we set off with light hearts along the D102, a quiet local road. In Richebourg we found an ideal public space for a break in front of the church and the mairie: a lawn with benches, a book exchange, and even a public toilet! I have walked more than 750 kilometres in France now, and this is only the second public toilet I have encountered, so they are definitely more rare than book exchanges; but this town had both!

We continued along the D102, ignoring the turn-off to the official route of the GR145, as far as Mormant, a former abbey which, like all the others, was closed after the 1789 revolution. Some of the buildings are now abandoned, while others have been incorporated into farm buildings or houses.

A strong wind was blowing, so we sat in the shelter of one of the former abbey buildings to eat the tuna sandwiches we had made for our lunch. Then we carried on, following the directions provided by our hostess Élisabeth through the woods to the village of Marac. Élisabeth has been hosting pilgrims in her home for 15 years, and their numbers had increased to 60 guests a year before the pandemic. This year looks set to beat that record, as it is only May and we are pilgrims number 30 and 31! Number 32 will be Andrew, with whom I walked into Châlons-en-Champagne but who is now a day behind me; and number 33 will be Henry, one of the first pilgrims I met on my first day in France, now two days behind me after taking a few rest days here and there! His wife Haidee has skipped ahead to Langres by train to rest a sore knee for a few days; I hope to see her again when we get to Langres tomorrow, as we parted ways back in Bapaume, so we have a lot of catching up to do!