An early trip to the boulangerie for croissants and a baguette for lunch, and then with Fabienne we packed up and set off. Today’s walking looked like it was going to be relatively easy. Though there had been rain overnight, it seemed to have cleared away, and the morning was cool and fresh.

One of the startling things about  France is the accessibility of good 4G or even 5G coverage absolutely everywhere. It is a much bigger country than the UK, and its forested areas are enormous by British standards, yet there you can almost always get 4G coverage strong enough to permit video calls on WhatsApp.

I think this is the reason. These boxes are installed on lamp posts or telegraph poles all over the place. This example was in the middle of a forested area. After ten days walking past them absolutely everywhere, I can only conclude they are some kind of a signal boosting system. Please tell me if my assumptions are wide of the mark – I make no pretensions to any technical knowledge in this field! There are almost no big masts in evidence. I wish the UK could sort out our hopelessly patchy coverage, which relies far too much on large masts. This simple method produces real results!

Today was a blissfully peaceful day of walking through woods and forests. Mostly good underfoot, with one really horribly muddy kilometre. Sunny, but not hot – great walking weather. We stopped at Saint-Géry for lunch, but there was nowhere to sit, let alone get anything to eat or drink. A very woman filled up my water bottle, and then made us coffee and gave us each a pancake to go with it. Such kindness!

Suddenly clouds were upon us and the heavens opened. The rain was heavy, but did not last long. I took refuge in a barn, to get my coat on and my raincover over my rucksack. I found these three little goats sheltering in the same place.

We passed a wayside shrine

A few kilometres later we got to Fraisse, and found that the Mairie had provided pilgrims with this delightful shelter. Shelter from rain or sun, a place to sit down, and ready access to clean water. Pilgrims don’t need much, but appreciate it when it is provided.

Unfortunately, we had overshot our destination! So after carefully reviewing the situation, Fabienne and I retrod our steps to the tune of three kilometres. That might not seem much, but after eighteen kilometres it was a bit taxing, especially as we worked out today’s distance to make this a lighter days walk!

Anyway, back we went, and after knocking at various doors, found the place at the end of a lane, with three dogs that barked incessantly. But, after showers and a good meal, and the dogs stopping barking, we reflected on a day of exceptionally peaceful walking. Even given that we had walked a good bit on tarmac, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that you could count the numbers of vehicles that had passed us on the fingers of two hands. And the woods and forests were a delight.

Tomorrow I have one more walk before I turn for home. But, if all goes well I will have walked more than 220 kilometres on this leg of the journey, and am now solidly past the French halfway mark