This “Walking The Via Francigena” series of posts follow us, David and Gail, as we continue our walk along the Via Francigena pilgrimage route between Canterbury and Rome. In the fall of 2019, we completed the first leg from London to Canterbury, known as the Chaucer Way, and onward to the small town of Tergnier, France on the Via Francigena. A pandemic got in the way but now, in 2022, our trek is underway once again, this time taking us from Tergnier to Besançon over 23 walking days and 580 or so kilometres.
Notes from today’s walk:
We started in a drenching rain but arrived at our destination, Champlitte, under warm sunny skies. Along our route, which largely followed quiet highways (it was Sunday morning and we can only assume the locals were at rest), we garnered the attention of curious cows and passed through winding streets of tiny villages with look-alike square towered churches. But, just like the weather, the French landscape changed as we left fields and forests and entered the urban environs of Champlitte. A massive chateau and its neighbor, a 11-12 C. church, appeared on a nearby hillside. The streets turned narrow, lined with tall stone buildings, many with ornate religious niches set in their façades. Below one of those niches, Vierge aux Orants from the 15 C., was the entrance to our apartment for the night. Our windows opened onto an attractive square animated with splashes of an ornamental fountain. And, just one ancient stone building down from our own, was La Bourgade restaurant, where we would indulge in back cod and Charolais beef stew as well as a light red Franche-Compté wine made not more than one village away.
We may just walk through that village tomorrow.
Walk Date: Oct 2, 2022
Distance: 29.8km
Elevation Gain: 399 m
Read on to view today’s photos captured along the route and an interactive map.
Click the images below to view a full-screen slideshow.
Today’s route.
Overview map of the route from Tergnier to Besançon.
I absolutely wish I were there with you on this leg of the trek!! Cattle Whisperers!! Those are GREAT photos! I take it the fence was not electrified! Bless you for suffering the rain with such courage!! That countryside and those churches and buildings would make great illustrations for Middlemarch, don’t you think? Gail, is that a baked apple?
Gloria
Thanks Gloria. The cows were great fun. They came charging towards us en masse as we approached. A very curious bunch. You are correct, that is a baked apple, just a bit fancier than what our mothers serves us, back when we were young!