“Life gives you plenty of time to do whatever you want to do if you stay in the present moment” - Deepak Chopra
Yesterday saw 33km of walking from Lac Liez to Lefford, with most of the distance covered in the trails along the lake!
Before going to sleep, I had looked online to estimate 6 hours along a country road for the trip to Leffond, 8 hours outside Champlittle. When I woke up, the sun shining, a good breakfast, and a nice conversation with the new owner of the hotel, I decided to reroute.
“Oh, today would be lovely to walk the trail along the lake!” she said.
So that’s what I did!
As the trip goes on, I find I’m taking more and more of what I’ve learned from each place and person I encounter with me.
In Chateauvillian, the home of a historic site related to Simone De Beavouir, I was inspired to read about her 12 hour treks alone through the alps in espadrilles. In Langres, The friend from Germany said that she listens to the birds and the wind when she walks instead of playing music, which I thought was so beautiful! And this morning, taking a point in a good direction from the young owner of the hotel instead of using google maps gave me a chance to philosophize and listen on a lovely trail as I felt inspired.
What I found was magic.
And a new bit of confidence, I was getting on just fine finding and reading the trail markings. When I woke up from this dream around 4pm, despite attacking the hotel breakfast with an appetite the size of my backpack that morning, I was famished.
I found myself, grumpily, in a town with only a post office and shuttered boulangerie. I asked the post office for a stamp and to refill my water bottle for a tiny boost before hiking west 2 km to the grocery store in the next town.
After finding food, the drive to make it to my place for the night set in. I felt anxiety about walking west to this new town just for the grocery store, about spending the daylight and my energy on the indirect but beautiful trail. But louder than this was the voice that said, just keep walking, keep trying, it will all work out.
So I asked for directions. The woman who helped me gave good ones, I only needed to find one road and take it “Tout droix, tout droix, tout droix”, an arm churning forward, 15km.
This I could do.
Before leaving town I found one open place- a bar- to refill my water bottle, got some wrong directions, but quickly realized and found my road.
It was taking forever, but I was on my way. My 42k to Langres emboldened me that I could make a very long distance if needed. I trusted the pilgrim host would not turn me away if I took all the daylight of the long summer day to make it to their door. I was, however, running out of water.
I asked the only person on the street, a painter unpacking his tools for the day, for help finding a place to refill my bottle. Instead, he gave me all he had left from his lunchbox, a fresh liter of Perrier, a cookie, a bag of walnuts and hot chocolate and sent me on my way, arms loaded with treats.
It was so kind. I felt in my mouth I had started to become dehydrated and in that moment I would have taken a liter of Perrier over a million dollars.
The mental boost of this unexpected blessing would have taken me the remaining 8 or 10 km. Instead, at the edge of the town, a smartly dressed woman about my mother’s age pulled her little hatchback to the side of the road, climbed out, and offered me a ride to Leffond, my stop for the night! She lived in Paris and was from Leffond, she knew the owners of the place I was staying and the way, and dropped me there in 10 minutes, though we both knew it would have been 10pm by foot.
I can’t a place more wonderful or welcoming to find after a long day than Le Moulin de la Paperterie. I could smell the fire cooking dinner and they had already made a place for me! What’s more, I learned my hosts literally wrote the guidebook for the Via Francigena in France!
I was on the last page of the book I have lived by since Reims, it ends here, in Champlittle. They gave me the new one to take me to Besançon.