Category: Francigena

All cows are black at midnight

Monday 9/4/2018

Distance 25.8km Total Distance from Canterbury 224.5km

‘All cows are black at midnight’ was one of the myriad gnomic utterances of Fr Swetnam, my first professor of Greek in Rome. He was a wise and good man. I have been on the receiving end of full time education for some or all of the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I took a break in the noughties but was back at school in 2011. In between times I have tried to redress the balance, teaching medicine, theology and ancient languages. I’m not sure who my best ever teacher was but am certain of the worst. Also in Rome I was obliged to upgrade my classical Latin to ecclesiastical and was taught by an unhappy person. One day he said, looking around the room, ‘Today we come to the ablative absolute, and I know by looking at you that 40% are never going to understand it.’ To quote another very wise  man, an Australian speaking to third level lecturers in Nairobi, ‘If learning has not occurred, teaching hasn’t happened.’ Continue reading “Day 9 Bapaume to Péronne”

‘The village used to have everything from the baptistery to the cemetery’

Sunday 8/4/2018

Distance 26.1km Total Distance from Canterbury 198.7km

Sunday morning in Arras was very sleepy. I headed back through the city centre finding it quite deserted, a big change from the previous day. I followed the Raju book to begin with. This brought me down to the railway station and soon again out on to the open road. Very quickly I was in Beaurains and a small military cemetery which I visited. The previous graves I had visited where in a parish graveyard. This was the first I would see of the very many dedicated military cemeteries. This one was British, with 331 commonwealth graves and the graves of four Germans. It was immaculately kept, and there is a visitor’s book and a register so that each individual gravestone is readily identified. The  graveyard was designed by Edwin Lutyens. He also was the architect of the intended Catholic cathedral in Liverpool, of which the crypt was built and is now incorporated into the modern cathedral. i am guessing he designed a ‘standard’ cemetery with the cross, and its platform and the style of the walls. I stayed a while. Continue reading “Day 8 – Arras to Bapaume”

I plan where practical to have one day off each week. This may or may not be on Sunday. But in a gentle way it will be honouring the Sabbath, and giving time for rest and recuperation, catching up on things that need doing, washing probably, and possibly a celebratory meal, something a fraction less frugal than what may occur on other days. Continue reading “Day 7 – Rest day in Arras”

Turn neither to right nor left, keep your foot from evil (Proverbs 4:27)

Friday 6/4/2018

Distance 32.8km Total from Canterbury 172.6km

There are always options. I knew today was going to be a long distance, over 30km. I don’t mind doing over 30 when it is necessary. 25-28 is really comfortable. Two or three times I have walked 42km, most recently, in subzero temps, to Leon last November, and the first time on the day of my first arrival at Santiago de Compostela, with two Sardinians. We had intended to spend two days over the final distance, but somehow we just kept going. There is a 42 km day coming up next week – due to the lack of anywhere to stay within a shorter distance. Anyway, I will generally do what I can to shorten the distance. Continue reading “Day 6 – Bruay La Buissiere to Arras”

‘Even though the road may be hard, it leads to the light of God…’ (St Benôit Joseph Labre)

Thursday 5/4/2018

Distance 21km Total from Canterbury 139.8km

After a magnificent breakfast I bade farewell to Madame Brigitte. The first stop was just around the corner at the parish church. It was not open but there was a war grave. Eight young men from a bomber which presumably was shot down in 1943. Something immensly sad though I am not a fan of war.

They were all very young and their details are here

After this I reached very quickly Amettes, a fascinating place. It is the birth place of St Benôit Joseph Labre, patron saint of pilgrims. After a brief walk through fields you come to his birthplace, just below the parish church. Continue reading “Day 5 – Auchy-au-Bois to Bruay La Buissiere”

“If I’d known you were coming I’d have baked a cake…”

Wednesday 4/4/2018

Distance 29.3km Total from Canterbury 118.8km

Abbeys a bit like buses. You wait a long time for one and then two come along. Mass in Nôtre Dame was not until 0945 and I didn’t want to be that late setting out. But Soeur Lucie told me there was Mass at the men’s abbey at 0645 so I got up early and headed down the 400m to the other abbey. With the hour having gone forward this was before dawn so I  had to imagine the way a bit. The male abbey L’Abbaye de St Paul is also a foundation of Solesmes. The two abbeys are nonetheless independent of each other though I daresay as good friends as two enclosed communities can be. I arrived as morning prayer was finishing, again all sung in Latin Gregorian chant, the men more visible to the congregation than their neighbours. There appeared to be about a dozen in a church clearly built for many more. Continue reading “Day 4 – Wisques to Auchy-au-Bois”

While France slept

Monday 2/4/18

Distance 28.4km Total from Canterbury 62.9km

The picture is of the clock tower of Calais town hall.

A short walk to the Dover ferry terminal and then the process began. This is PRE-Brexit. I sense it can only get more complicated. You need passport to check in. The kindly lady said in 30 years she had never seen an ‘Irish Passport Card’ before. But she was persuaded.  I have had mine for over two years, since they were first issued. Then you have to have your passport scanned to get on the bus. The bus drives  you 200m to French immigration. Continue reading “Day 2 – Dover to Licques”

Plenty of mud and a security scare

Easter Sunday 1/4/18

Today’s distance 34.5k Total from Canterbury 34.5k

I began with Holy Communion in the Cathedral at 8am and it was quiet and reserved with few people and no noise. Afterwards I and Howie and Renata, a couple starting out on the Camino del Santiago, met with Canon Clare for a pilgrim blessing in the crypt which was moving and a good way to start. We had agreed to walk together today and I went to retrieve my bag from adjoining hotel. Continue reading “Day 1 – Canterbury Cathedral to the Port of Dover”

The image is of a modern bronze sculpture over the altar in the cathedral which marks the spot where St Thomas was murdered.

Day 0 sounds right and ‘Holy Saturday’ sounds right. It is a very quiet day liturgically except usually for practice and preparation and church c!eaning. And choir practice. I came from Winchester to London by train. A dreadfully noisy carriage with 8 or 10 exceptionally high spirited men – not youngsters – drinking cider. And shouting raucously. The train from London to Canterbury was fine. The city of Canterbury was so full at 1pm it was hard to move in the streets. I suppose that’s what you get on a holiday weekend. The small hotel is physically attached to the gate of the Cathedral. A little bit surprising then that the people at thetourist office could not tell me how to find it. They couldn’t supply me with a map of tomorrow’s walk to Dover either, which surprised me slightly. 

There was a lengthy queue to enter the Cathedral, achieved by paying £12.50. Happily when I identified myself as a pilgrim and as someone who wanted to pray (though not as a priest) I was warmly invited in with no charge. I was very underwhelmed by the cathedral, I’m sorry to say. Loads of noisy people taking selfies, draped over an altar rail on one occasion. The crypt was a little quieter but not much. I like cathedrals, but something rather disappointing here. I  went to Evensong which was well done and prayerful.

There is a beautiful passage in the Office of Readings for today, ‘from an ancient homily’:

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. 

I didn’t really experience it. Most of the day was like being at a football match.

I went to the Easter Vigil in the Catholic parish just a few yards from the cathedral. It was well done with nice music. It finished at 11:30pm. Time for bed and finally I will start walking in the morning.