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Up at 07:00, washed and at the breakfast buffet at 07:40, including time for phone faffage too. I went totally crazy at the breakfast buffet yesterday, eating enough for three people in an attempt to quell my anxieties. I didn’t need much for the rest of the day!
08:10: Packing. I spent €15.53 on groceries yesterday at Netto, the supermarket close to the hotel. (Water, butter, cheese, honey, walnuts, raisins, tomatoes, biscuits, chocolate, onions, and bread.) At the Carrefour City in town, I bought eggs, yoghurt and kettle chips: €6.34.
08:56: Bag on, leaving the hotel. I’ll buy some greens in the Netto supermarket.
09:08: Shopping done, packed and hanging off my backpack in the Decathlon day pack. About to put the bag on and hit the road. I have less than 15km to walk today, I think.
09:23: Crépy-en-Valois town limit. This is a fast road, so earplugs in. It’s a clear, cold day. Long climb out of the town.
09:35: About half the traffic on this road is articulated trucks.
10:02: Crossed the junction with the main road. The traffic volume has dropped by 80%. The number of articulated trucks has dropped to zero.
10:27: Entering Ormoy le Davien.
10:37: Leaving Ormoy le Davien.
11:16: Entering Cuvergnon.
11:20: Stopping at a conveniently located picnic table in the village to have some elevenses. Honey on multi-grain bread, I think, and a nice slurp of water. I’m only about 10km from my final destination for the day, Autheuil-en-Valois. When I booked the AirBnB, it claimed to be in Varinfroy, which is a good 10km further, so tomorrow is going to be a long day — not least because I’ll have to retrace my steps from Autheuil-en-Valois to Thury-en-Valois, a distance of 5km — so I might have a long 30km or more ahead of me tomorrow. It doesn’t matter, because I know where I’ll be sleeping tonight and today I’ll have time to plan a night or two ahead of that as well, to keep me ahead of the game and the last-minute booking drama of AirBnB.
11:45: Moving on. I caned a good length of my multi-grain baguette. The thermometer on my bag registers 11 degrees.
11:53: Leaving Cuvergnon.
12:25: Thury-en-Valois. Here’s where I make the turn for today’s destination.
12:35: Leaving Thury-en-Valois.
12:54: Had to stop and take the bag off for a rest. Looking at my pack, I can see I carried 2kgs of water here unnecessarily. The wind is strong and cold. I’m looking forward to getting inside again. The wind hasn’t been this strong since the early days out of Cherbourg.
13:21: Entering Autheuil-en-Valois.
15:02: Just finished a very delicious home-made late lunch in the caravan in which I’m staying on my host’s property. I made a lamb’s leaf lettuce salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes, giant scallions, walnuts, cucumber, ginger and lime juice. I washed it down with several cups of Barry’s brewed in a cafetière (with a teacloth around it for insulation) and the rest of the multi-grain baguette, lavishly buttered. I wish I could eat like this all the time, but veg like tomato and cucumber is massively heavy in proportion to its calorific value. However with a short walk today I thought it made sense to load up on vegetables. I’m delighted to discover that eggs can survive at least a half-day walk in the Decathlon day pack hanging from my bag.
It’s really nice to do a half-day walk (though ask me again tomorrow evening) because I can relax in comfort in the afternoon and research the next few days’ travel and accomodation options. So, less randomness, more planning. I’d mentioned before that planning made me anxious, but no planning at all leaves me entirely in the hands of fate, which is even more anxiety-inducing, in peaks. I think it’s clear that it’s just plain silly to rock up in a town after six o’clock and expect friendly strangers to find me the best-value local accomodation. It makes far more sense to arrange things so I get to speak to the specialists, the folks in the tourist office. I have a telephone. I have a map which indicates which towns have tourist offices. Simple.
This morning’s purchases:
| item | price |
|---|---|
| baguette aux cereale | €0.90 |
| comcombre | €0.69 |
| pomme braeburn | €0.32 |
| gingembre | €0.14 |
| tomate | €0.27 |
| mache (lamb’s lettuce) | €1.01 |
| total | €3.33 |
16:33: Planning my route onto the next map and picking accomodation options. 
