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• day 13
• Saturday, 8 September 2018
• Laon to Cormichy
• 262 km to yesterday
•   39 km today
• 301 km on Via Francigena to date

Breakfast has been set out early for me and I am away a short while after daybreak.

Yesterday I got some background about Chemin des Dames: in WWI the enemy held the high ground to the south with French forces on the lower ground surrounding Laon.  A French plan was prepared to dislodge their enemy.  The timing was for late April 1917 (remember the Kiwi tunnellers at Arras and the Canadians at nearby Vimy).

As I set off, through the medieval gate and down to low ground, I can see the ridge along which Chemin des Dames runs from west to east.

My only target today is to make progress and meet whatever I encounter along the way.  I also note the "official" Via Francigena route is to the east before turning south to Reims.  I will touch on it at only one point, and that is accidental.

By mid morning I have achieved the largish town with the equally large name of Bruyères-et-Montbérault.  And it is a village market day: time for some fruit.  And across the road is the parish church and it is open.  And the seating is arranged intimately with the booklets telling of a wedding later that day.  Curiosity satisfied I continue on.

An hour along the road, at the village of Monthenault, I can see a very modern church a little of to one side and, joy of joys, it also is open.  I learn it was built in the 1930s and is a joy to behold, both inside and out.  Several years later I read the building is suspect in some way.  But a mention of that is not made in its Wikipedia (FR) page.

A few more km and I have coffee in an upmarket beside a lake.  And it costs.

I escape quickly and ascend up to the ridge to Cerny-en-Laonnois on Chemin des Dames.  Here I encounter, not for the first time, a very large Nécropole nationale.  More interestingly there is a German military cemetery along side and a few metres along a British Memorial Column.  And, in the mix a chapel for the use of those visiting these places.

I do not take stock of time elapsed or distance travelled since setting out and press on, east along Chemin des Dames.  I pass the Dragon's Cavern (a former quarry used for shelter by both sides in WWI - but at different times).  Then I encounter a memorial to the wars of 1814 (that also has a related link to 1916). And then a monument to the Basque Division that fought here in WWI.  I feel a call back to the Basque region that occupies parts of France and Spain and proudly hosts several camino to Santiago.

I now read my map for the town ahead and see they have a gite: in fact I haven't read properly or with any intelligence (blame my tiredness).  Yes, there is a gite in nearby Craonnelle.  But a gite is not a gite d'etape: the first is typically an upmarket motel or BnB, the second is a hostel for backpackers.  Gite typically will not accept backpackers and the clientele for gite would not be seen dead in a gite d'etape.  I walk into the village but the gite staff don't want to talk.  So I walk out.

So far today I've walked about 23 km.  And it is warm.

Over a hour later I reach Pontavert and the hotel Relais de Fleurette.  They have a room, but it is very pricey.  I decide to continue.  I cross the Aisne river and the related canal.  While I don't notice till now, I have moved through the Aisne Region into the Marne Region of France.  The British forces 100 years ago only talked of the Somme (where I was just a few days ago).  For the French Aisne and Marne are the rivers and regions of note.

Dusk is approaching as I enter the next town, Cormichy.  I do a circuit, looking for somewhere to set up my little campsite.  First east a few hundred metres then circle south around the parish church heading west.  Here I see a sign for pizza.  That solves dinner.  I enter and a chap with English talks with me.  When he understands I am walking to Rome is asks me to come past the counter and show me a photo on the fridge.  It is of him, with his pack, in S Peter's Plaza, Rome.  The pizza is free and the bottle of wine 2 Euro.  And he point me in the direction of a run down orchard on the road towards Reims.  I will sleep well.

And so to bed.