Day 17 and 18: Laon to Craonnelle

April 30, 2019-May 1, 2019

Taping my 2nd and 3rd toes together is a complete game changer. It feels almost like regular walking again. This made me realize I wasn’t being a baby or imaging things–something really had been off. I hope I am able to continue taping the toes without causing any damage to the foot. I’m going to try to find out more about the reason behind what’s causing all of this.

It was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery. The terrain shift I felt approaching Laon continued as I walked away: hills giving way to pretty valley views.

Corbeny was actually the next stop on the Lightfoot guide, but months ago when I was planning my trip, I kept finding interesting tidbits about the Craonnelle/Craonne area (in addition to being occupied by Germans in WWI it has a road with an interesting history: Chemin des Dames), so I thought it would be worth rerouting through here. I’m so glad I did–it was a good day!

There were lots of forks in my path today. There was also a lot of rich greenery. It didn’t rain, but it had that feeling of having-just-rained.

I’ve walked through a lot charming villages so far, but today had some of my favorites.

Then I climbed further into the hills.

After I passed the Vauclair Abbey, I found myself in the midst of a group tour. In total there were well over 70 people walking in the same direction as I was. My path quickly veered and I was happy because I didn’t want to get mixed up in the chaos.

As I emerged from the forest I ran into the group again. I plowed forward into the vineyard leading down into Craonnelle as they all stopped to look at a statue of Napoleon on the Chamin des Dames. A couple men from the group called after me (I think they might have thought I was part of the group and breaking away?). I kept going, but after a bit those with light packs quickly caught up to me. Everyone was friendly and a couple women deliberately stopped me to ask a question.

I couldn’t understand everything, but I heard “Compostela” which is a more famous pilgrimage route through Spain that goes into parts of France, so I shook my head ‘no’ and took out my VF passport and said “Francigena.” One of the women had heard of it and started telling people and calling others over to meet me. Before I knew it, I was encircled with French day-walkers asking questions. Where did you start? Are you going to Rome? Are you alone? Where are you sleeping? etc. I used what little french I had and body language to communicate. After the questions died down a number of them started to clap and said “Brava” The original woman who stopped me gave my passport back, put her hand on my face and said, “Bon courage!” It was such a surreal experience. I stood there as they all walked on and then called M to tell him about it. I stood in that exact spot below.

I stayed in a repurposed tower on the winery grounds. It had 3 floors and one of the windows on the third floor had an interesting imprint on it.

A bird had clearly face-planted into the window. I hope he survived.