Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 47: Ouhans

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Road to Home 2023 Day 47: Ouhans - Pontarlier

En marchant sur le pas des premiers pèlerins et de ceux que, en suite, ont fait le chemin, nous aimerions poursuivre la route aujourd'hui avec la même confiance pour éclairer nos nuits.

- Prière à Nôtre-Dame de la Libération de Besançon

Today was a relatively easy day, only sixteen and a half kilometres. But it began with a climb from an altitude of 650 metres to over one thousand metres, which had us all sweating despite the cool air and refreshing breeze. Most of today's stage was on minor paved roads, but there was also a part on a forest path, where two deer frightened by our passage ran right across the path in front of us, so close we could hear their hoofs pounding on the ground. I have seen plenty of deer before, but I have never seen them run by so close, or so fast!

We came out of the forest and the pastures of this high plateau and into the farming village of Vuillecin, where we took a break in the cool of the village church. Our next stop was the long-awaited Decathlon store on the outskirts of Pontarlier, where we stocked up on energy bars, electrolyte tablets, new insoles for our shoes, new rubber tips for hiking poles, etc. The young woman at the customer service counter looked after our backpacks in the meantime, and was quite tickled when we asked for a Decathlon stamp on our pilgrim passports! 😄

We did not follow the Via Francigena route to see the church in Doubs but continued straight ahead toward the centre of Pontarlier, where the three of us had booked a flat through airbnb. Our cosy flat has everything we need, including a washing machine, and so we immediately stripped off and threw in all our clothes. We showered in the meantime, did a little bit of research into accommodations for the first few stages in Switzerland, and then ventured out to explore the town; our attempt at exploration was quickly aborted due to a thunderclap and the arrival of big black clouds heralding a thunderstorm. We did our grocery shopping at the little supermarket conveniently located across the street, returned to the flat to prepare our dinner, and spent the rest of the evening around the table with a bottle of wine and some very nice food!