This piece was written on September 24, but only posted on September 25th.
After I wrote up my walking log yesterday, I went to the restaurant for dinner with my fellow occupant of the Gite. The restaurant does a special “Pilgrim’s Menu” at just €15. That included a salad starter, main course and desert. We added wine which brought the total to €18 each. I don’t know how they do it!
When we got back to the Gite, another person had arrived, so we were three in total. Gites are intended to be cheap, and the accommodation is dormitory style in this one, with no separation of men and women. Thankfully my companions did not snore. I think we were all so tired after our day’s walking that I for one would probably not have noticed anyway. The Gite is right beside the village church. The last thing I heard before going to sleep was the bells tolling for 10 PM. There was no need for an alarm clock, because the bells tolled again at 6:26 precisely this morning. And again at 6:50 in case anyone missed them the first time.
I wrote yesterday that the Gite is sub-budget accommodation, with this one costing just €15, including breakfast. What I didn’t mention is that you make your own breakfast. The stuff is all there; you just have to decide what you want, and work things out from there. You want your eggs sunny side up? No problem, just fry them that way. You want yogurt on your muesli? No problem, it’s in the fridge. And by the way, you wash your own dishes too. But there is no limit on how much you can eat at breakfast, and I loaded up on carbs for the day.
I hit the trail just after eight, and then things started to go wrong. This is where I must talk a little about the waymarking on the trail. Because it is the Way of Saint James, or Chemin de Saint Jacques in French, the trail is marked with a scallop shell design on a blue background. The trouble is that these waymarkers are not everywhere, and there are other trails in the area. Trails in general are marked with a yellow arrow on a green background. Most of the time the two coincide, so if you are at a junction and there is no scallop shell marker, then it is usually safe enough to follow the arrow marker. But not this morning. I followed the arrows for about two kilometers before I realised I was going completely in the wrong direction. I was going north-west instead of south-west. On marked trails, I don’t usually need the compass, but I took it out this morning, and used it until I got to Frangy. That should have taken me about an hour, but because of my error on the trail, it was closer to two.
Frangy is a neat little town, and the shops and cafes were open, so I stopped for a coffee and a snack before going further. I took the time to consult the guide book, and make sure that I knew what I was doing in terms of the next stages I also took a little time to visit the church in Frangy which has a stained glass window with the scallop shell design associated with the Way of Saint James. After Frangy, the trail rises to the high ground and the settlement of Champagne. No, this is not where they make the stuff, but it is very much an agricultural settlement, with an agricultural smell strong in the air. The trail goes uphill again to the settlements of Tagny and Vannecy before reaching the village of Desingy. From Desingy, the trail follows a small road through the settlements of Pelly, Moucherin, Curty and Chez Cudet. It was about five kilometers of road, with about one kilometer of forest trail. In all that distance, I saw only two cars on the road. Sunday mornings are quiet in France.
Then the trail descended from the heights through the small village of Vens to cross the river Fior. I saw a sign at the bridge for a restaurant 200 meters away, and felt like a beer, but I was out of luck: the restaurant closes on Sundays. How can they do that? The park beside the river was full of tourists enjoying the picnics in the woods and swimming in the river, but the restaurant was closed.
Anyway, I kept going, upwards again to the village of Chateaufort, and on to the village of Motz, where I had arranged to stay the night. They were just closing the restaurant there after Sunday lunch, and the bar as well, but I was just in time. The first beer meant very little; it just filled a gaping hole after thirty kilometers of walking. But I did enjoy the second one.
Motz itself is delightful little village of old Savoyard houses, with few modern structures. It nestles on the hillside with the cliffs behind. The church goes back to 1597. It has obviously been remodeled since then, but the original structure is still the basis of the current one. Like every town and village I have come through, it has a war memorial. I find these interesting, with statistics showing an insight into the horror that was World War One. The monument in Motz shows that just two people from the village were killed in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Twenty Eight were killed in World War One. Just three were killed in World War Two, so swift and overwhelming was the defeat of the French in that war. It was similar yesterday when I was in Beaumont, with 38 names on their memorial for World War One, and just three for World War Two. It seems like France lost an entire generation in the years from 1914 to 1918.
The auberge is a small hotel. I mentioned that the restaurant is closed, but I have arranged that they would bring a prepared meal to the room. It costs just €15 for the meal, and it consists of salad, a pie, dessert, and fruit. Who could ask for more! This is hearty food to put back what 43,000 steps have taken out. The accommodation costs just €50 for the night, and has the amenities (apart from the closed restaurant) of a 3-star hotel. The two people who run the place, Karine and Benjamin, are excellent hosts. I recommend this place to anyone coming to this part of the world. It has unfortunately no guest internet, so this blog post, like yesterday, will have to wait “in the freezer” for a little while.
Walkingman 