April 21, 2019
I got up about 7am (I slept really well), and took my time getting everything ready. My muscles have seemed to adjust fine. I’m not even sore much anymore, but my feet are still giving me trouble. Delphine had everything to make coffee and tea in the kitchen attached to my room, so I had some strong coffee and tried to tend to my feet as much as possible.
I went next door a little before 10 to say goodbye and thank you to Delphine. Meeting her and her family were one of the highlights in the trip so far. It was sad to leave but it was cheering to have her and her son see me off.
Around the corner and down the road, the town’s catholic church splits the path. I went left and was off for the day’s journey.
The day was an assortment of villages and country tracks.
Amettes is another proud pilgrim village. They have a number of landmarks, signs and monuments dedicated to the route. It’s a little bit different feel than the first part of the route in France.
Saint Benedict Labre was a well-known pilgrim who was born in Amettes in the mid 1700s. If I understood correctly, Delphine (from Auchy) had a painting of his birth home in the kitchen of where I stayed. The statue below, in the Amettes church grounds, is of Saint Benedict Labre.
Because it was Easter Sunday there was a calm and lighthearted energy in a lot of the villages I walked through: lots of music playing, smells of food cooking, gatherings in backyards, church bells, etc. A number of families were out walking together. Though not much was open, it didn’t feel lonely.
I arrived in Houdain at a cute gîte run by an elderly couple named Bernard and Chantal. As I was checking in I found out that they didn’t take cards and was really worried for a second, but then Bernard asked if I had a Paypal account. I do, so he was able to send me a bill and I paid it right then. It was then I learned that they’d had a pretty nasty experience with a previous pilgrim.
Apparently the person was really rude and complained about a lot of the aspects of the accommodations. Also, B & C ask that pilgrims leave their shoes and bags outside, but I was already doing that where I stayed because I’m probably walking through 8 different kinds of animal excrement everyday, not to mention mud, and plants, and road dirt. I wouldn’t want anyone tracking that stuff into my house. Their property is gated, so it was perfectly safe, and I took anything of value in with me. You can tell that the dissatisfied guest really hurt their feelings. They are clearly proud of their property (as well they should be). I was really comfortable and had everything I needed.
When Bernard heard I was leaving at 7, he begged me to sleep in. He insisted that he’s too old to wake up that early and I needed rest. I should sleep in to 10 and he’d drive me to Arras :). I explained that, sadly, it didn’t work that way, so we compromised and set the departure time at 9:30.
Canterbury to Rome 