Camino Stage 1: Day 2 la Grange Teillard to Chasnay 21 kms

On By Jeremy PembertonIn Church of England

 I slept like a log. The day dawned grey, damp and cool – like an English Bank Holiday. Excellent breakfast by my host. She was a theatrical scenery painter in Paris, but fled to the country with her musician partner some decades ago. She had a successful business making Hopi ear candles (for an avid Swiss market) until retirement. She told me that good internet everywhere has meant that while this part of Burgundy looks super-rural, there is a very active network of artists, musicians, photographers and other creatives.

I set off at 08.30. Less muddy than yesterday, and less forest. Instead, some very lovely green lanes to walk along as well as stony byways. I saw a hare and a jay.
Today has been a challenge to my pride and my competitiveness. Yesterday was a lot of miles for me and was near my limit. Feet are 100%, I’m pleased to say, and my legs and back are fine. But I agreed with Laurence, when planning this, that I would not overdo it. And I realised this morning that another walk of 30+kms would be overdoing it. Doing the pilgrimage as a whole is more important to me than having to walk every mile, so, though I would love to be able to say I have done that, I am still finding my feet and testing limits, and therefore I decided that a bus ride in the middle of the day would be sensible.
The church at Varzy
I walked the nine kilometers to Varzy and found a bar in the square overlooking the church. There I was at last able to plug in my phone and my ipad. And while waiting for them to charge, I had coffee, lunch, and beer, and went to the bank for cash.
Here are the lads who ran an excellent café-bar
Conversation with the locals revealed that there are no buses of any kind to anywhere in Varzy. So it was walk, or ‘le stop’. 
Conquering my innate tendency to do the former, I did the latter, and set myself up on the straight
road out of town towards Chateauneuf Val De Bargis.
I can’t have hitchhiked for nearly fifty years, and I was ready for a long wait. But it only took fifteen minutes before a woman in her thirties stopped for me and took 16 kms out of the day’s total. We chatted amiably, and she dropped me off. I sat by the road for a bit, on a verge full of wildflowers. The clouds had lifted and it was warm. Very lovely walking weather – thunderstorms predicted for later. I walked the last 6kms to my lodging for tonight.

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