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10:39: I got up at nine, my brain exploding. I’d lain wide awake for a longish spell during the night, my mind on fire. I washed and dressed and asked Xavier if I should join the family for breakfast. The family were just settling down to breakfast too. “Normally breakfast isn’t included”, said Xavier, “but for pilgrims we’ll make an exception.” I gathered my honey, bread, butter and cheese and brought them into the house. I have a huge appetite from walking so a traditional French breakfast doesn’t cut it.
Xavier is a firefighter and he and Delphine moved to this part of the country last year “for the kids” and have been doing AirBnB since February.
They have other guests arriving tomorrow so three nights here is out of the question. I need to get the AirBnB app working on my phone. I’ll do that this aftenoon. At 11:30, Xavier will give me a lift to Chaumont-en-Vexin so I can buy supplies for dinner, breakfast and lunch. I need to arrange accommodation in Méru, my next port of call and the town I’d like to use as a jumping-off point for a mission into Paris to buy maps and replacement gear.
13:45: Xavier knocked on the door of my chalet at 11:20 and dropped me off at a large out-of-town supernarket where I did my shopping. He picked ne up at midday. I’ve glued the broken pole but I’m not convinced. In any case, the pole won’t shorten anymore so it reduces my basha setup possibilities. Xavier tells me there’s a Decathlon in Gisors, where he and the family are going swimming this afternoon. He’s going to drop me there and then I can make my way to the town centre to sit in a café reading or transcribing my notes. So this removed my need to find a Decathlon in Paris and instead all I need to do in Paris apart from sightseeing is to visit the map shop.
It struck me forcefully today that to limit my mode of transport to foot only is a kind of voluntary disability. Cars compress distance with an extraordinary efficiency. I’m sure I’ve said it before here, but I’ll say it again: a day’s walk for me is a half hour journey by car. That’s a day filled with nothing else except hoofing along with my thoughts and occasional stops to eat or drink or add or remove layers of clothing. It’s time in which I can do nothing else of practical value.
In about half an hour Xavier will knock on the door and we’ll drive to Gisors. I need to have my poles and gas canister with me to make sure I get compatible, equivalent or better kit. Getting this done today is a relief. It’s just a pity I cannot stay an extra night. I’d love the rest time.
I’ve bought three new pairs of socks. Let’s see how they go tomorrow.
Lunch was a length of quinoa baguette buttered and stuffed to the gills with the rest of last night’s spinach and decorated with sliced tomato and some cheese. I followed that up with a shorter length of baguette de campagne smeared with butter and layered with quality chunky marmalade like cake topping. I’m sitting down to a cereal bowl of Barry’s tea with powdered milk — surprisingly successful — while listening to Melvyn Bragg’s “In Our Time” podcast. Today it’s Wolfgang Pauli and his exclusion principle.
If there’s a Decathlon in Gisors, there might also be a bookshop good enough to sell IGN TOP 100 maps. Let’s find out.
15:31: There’s bookshop alright, but it’s tiny and sells no maps. Not to worry, I got new walking poles and a new gas canister from Decathlon. It was a pleasant one or two kilometre walk in to the old town centre which is the funkiest I’ve been in since I passed through Ste-Barbe-sur-Gaillon, though it’s bigger. It has a railway line, a canal, an attractive main square and plenty of half-timbered wartime survivors. I’m sitting in a café opposite the bookshop having a black tea. I’m looking out at the 12th Century cathedral over the canal. I need to let the family know where I am!
16:13: More than twenty minutes of fiddling around with my telephone trying to get it registered on a mobile network that’ll accept and relay a text message for me. Still no success. Thankfully we have a provisional plan that I’ll be in the vicinity of the bookshop.
21:22: All good. Xavier and Delphine and the kids found me standing in the main square after Xavier phoned to say they were coming to get me. I mentioned I was in the bookshop to get maps so Xavier very kindly swung by Gisors’ branch of E.Leclerc, a department store styled on an out-of-town supermarket. We found several of the maps in the series I’m using, but none of the maps I actually need.
When we got back to Loconville, I spent about an hour on Telegram chatting to Aisling. She volunteered to find me a new AirBnB at Méru or nearer to Paris. She’s contacted several hosts and I’m expecting her to get back to me this evening.
I’ve assembled the Decathlon poles. They’re not the top-of-the-range poles I saw in Caen, but they’re about the same quality and weight as the ones I have — perhaps a little better. We’ll see how they hold up to some punishment.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Gas canister (230g) | €6.00 |
| Poles | €30.00 |
| Tips | €4.00 |
| Baskets | €3.00 |
| Decent platic cutlery | €2.00 |
| Total | €45.00 |
I went a bit apeshit: €40.32
…of which:
…leaving €27 for consumables, of which the single most expensive item was 1.5kgs of mandarins for €4.20.
Dinner was a delicious lentil soup with added spinach.
