Lovers of Vézelay will be interested to know that there a big restoration project going on of the first four bays of the nave. So you enter through the south aisle door, but go through quite a tunnel before you emerge in the church.

(This a boring para for musicians, liturgists and theologians – please feel free to skip it!) Services are led by the Community of Jerusalem. Lots of chant, solo, two part and four part as well. Very atmospheric, all the community in voluminous white albs (priests) and long white cloaks (nuns), all ad orientem spaced out in front of the high altar. The chant felt very conciliar, and Gelineauesque, all in French, and I found myself longing for either Gregorian or Anglican forms. The other things I noticed about the liturgy were; a dodgy Gloria which demoted the Holy Spirit from inclusion in the glorification, and left us with ‘par l’Esprit qui demeure dans nos cœurs’ – whaaaat!? I’ve no objection to that somewhere down the line of your pneumatology, but not in a doxology that is meant to focus our worship on the Holy Trinity. I could feel Athanasius freaking out. Also, Scripture readings did not include the Hebrew Scriptures, just epistle and gospel at Vespers and Lauds respectively. The other reading was from patristic texts. I’m all for that, but only in addition, not in place of.

Enough of that. At the end of Lauds, those of us starting our Camino were invited to come forward for a blessing. It was beautifully done, and we were each given a prayer card and a medal of Mary Magdalene. I was very touched by the care taken. I went off to breakfast happy.

By the time I had finished breakfast the mist had come down. I left at 08:15. By 08:35 I was merrily striding down a steep hill when I thought I had better check route. I had missed the turn. I didn’t feel like retracing steps and climbing the steep hill, so I worked out an alternative. This took me through a lot of forest paths. There were deer, and other things I could hear but not see (wild boar?); there were cuckoos and woodpeckers.. the forest was largely beech trees, so the light was backed by brilliant green.

The air was incredibly humid, and there had been storms and torrential rain, so going underfoot was very slow and very muddy. I found my way back to the main route, but on through the forest we went for a total of 12k! Then the walk was through farmland with prairie- sized fiels.

I went through five villages today. There was no shop or bar open anywhere. I ran out of water, so asked a kind woman at Savigny if she could refill my bottle, and she gave me a whole 1.5ltr bottle of drinking water.

I’m staying tonight in a tiny hamlet, La Grange Teillard. Just five dwellings in the middle of nowhere. The French talk about ‘La France profonde’, or as we might, deepest France. This is it. Today I learnt that John Bunyan’s pilgrim song (Who would true valour see’) is the perfect pilgrim song because it gets you walking just fast enough.

There will be no pics for a bit. My phone has all but run out of juice, and I currently charge nothing. I’m writing on the iPad, but that will be low soon. I need to sort this tomorrow, but if I go silent you’ll know why.

Good night all. I have been praying as I go, and thanked God for those whose comments I had seen. I will remember more before sleep.