The day started as the previous ones. Fog and the chilly wind. The moisture slowly creeps up on you. Perspiration from your body and the fog from outside. The technology of “wicking membrane jackets” a good one, does not help. Today I walked very closely and on the Chausee Brunehaut, a Roman or older road that goes straight for more than 60km to Arras. The pleasure of walking is that you see so much more than when you travel in a car or on bike.

On the open field I came across this small memorial. Before I wrote this I investigate a little. Albert Hanne was a 22 year old miner on his way to work, who was shot by mistake by a German watch at this spot. He died in the local hospital 20 July 1942. I can imagine that the German soldier was probably as young as Albert and also as scared as he.

I continued in the fog towards the church spire that in the haze rises above the horizon. In that church yard are the graves of a British flight crew that crashed nearby 1943.

At the church is a board that informs about the local stretch of the Via Francigena. It sadens me that so much effort and enthusiasm has been spent on it, but it is not for the pilgrims walking to Rome. It meanders too much. Probably a way of telling local people about their past history and culture also encourage them to get up and walk, which is a good thing. I shall walk on the grey stretch in the middle of the picture, the Chaussee Brunehaut, not the most pleasant experience, but it is a part of history under my feet.

The pictures are all along the Chaussee. The actual modern road, the D341, bypass a couple of villages and is also blocked at a couple of places. I reach my Gite in Houdain and walk a short distance to the local supermarket for food, a light tuna salad. Tomorrow will be tricky. Because I have shortened my daily distances, it can be a long walk.