Ten years on it feels as if this felt very much the start of the “real” pélerinage as I was heading off into the countryside, the whole day in France. I think it felt pretty much like that back then too. So here’s the map.
Zooming into that brings back something I had forgotten and I think it speaks to something about my memory: the first stretch took me past the Calais migrant camp and all the heavy police presence probably mostly of the grimmest layer of French policing. They watched me rather haughtily of course and the high fences, razor wire and no go zones were serious barriers. It was a very sobering start and I am a ashamed to recognise that I'd wiped that.
Less surprising perhaps is that I'd forgotten the rather dogs-hind-leg route though that comes back to me as does my main stop in Le Wast, the site of that glorious arch in the church in the little village and, today, of my first success attaching a way marker to my map! I guess this was my first bit of non-UK sightseeing, or gawping admiringly.
Le Wast [minimal entry in English wikipedia and much more in French wikipedia] is a tiny village and that header image is from the heart of the village by the church which has this fascinating west door. (Images, as usual, clickable to get the full image.)
As this information board says, one historian argues that the tympanum has arabic influences and argues that it is similar to one in Cairo. Apparently others are less specific and simply point out that in the 12th Century, when the church was build, attached to Cluny abbey a fair way to the South and East of Le Wast there was a lot of exchange between Western Europe and Byzantine and more Eastern places. I liked the image from a church in Ganagobie, even further South and East of Le Wast than Cluny. [Ganogobie in English wikipedia, much more in French wikipedia.]
It really is a lovely door. I don't remember the interior at all and I am pretty sure the door was locked.
Here are a few more lovely, and perhaps a bit odd, images from Le Wast.
Oooh, I see this is one of my reflection selfies!
I hope someone has rescued this next house in the last decade. Often French inheritance laws and the, now gone, Catholic history of large sibships mean that quite often houses do just get lost in disputes or simply in difficulties communicating and agreeing things and they collapse as no-one really owns them. There is a minor change in French law coming in to try to minimise the risks of this happening.
I do also remember discovering that Le Wast had no shop, or no shop open, I think the former and realising that I was going to have to be cleverer both about planning my routes to avoid dogs legs, but also to factor in getting fuel and hydration into me. A bit chastened I headed on through farm country to the lovely town of Montreuil. Here are my early evening views from the ramparts of Montreuil.
More on Montreuil tomorrow but I do remember that I checked into a rather nice hotel in the centre of town very tired and a bit dehydrated but feeling a little guilty to spoil myself with such luxury as I ate in the lovely, very French restaurant in the hotel!