Day 14: Besançon, France, Hot, 30°

A Recovery Day…Sort Of

Speaking for myself, I had the sort of half decent sleep that only a reasonable level of tiredness (I didn’t say exhaustion😂) and a little bit of a/c can provide. For the first time in some time our room was dark and cool. Oddly the first thing we did this morning was rush out for our first continental breakfast in France. Never mind that we didn’t have a chance to shower yesterday. We both decided that if it was going to be fairly hot then what was the point. Haha, clearly we are lagging a little bit! Just finished a shower and it was the best one so far on the walk. We have this thing about rating the showers during our travels, and have done this for years. What a dumb miss this morning! I think I’ll have another before bed in about 4-5 hours! 

Breakfast was as expected with some of the nicest pain de chocolate, fresh mini-baguettes and of course a nice glass of hot tea. Simple pleasures. 

We managed to sort out our data plans using Orange, one of the more pricey options (cheap by Canadian standards) because it should give me the best cell coverage as I cross the Alps. They are the biggest, but certainly not the most helpful crew, at least here. I’ve had better luck with them in Spain and elsewhere. Then it was off to the tabaco shop to purchase the actual data. The fellow there was way more helpful. I told him he should be working at Orange. 

Then we purchased me a sweet little Swiss knife and made tracks for the Cathedral to try to find a stamp for our credentials. 

Another lovely old church, Cathedral Saint-Jean. 

I spoke with a fellow who was tuning the organ and he kindly walked us over to find the woman in charge. Only a few people come through here each year on their way to Rome. The stamp was beautiful heavy brass and quite lovely in bright red. 

A walk around this ancient place. 

As we were about to depart the organist started to play. A small sample? 

Then it was up to the massive Citadelle that dominated the cliffs above. We hiked up, but really didn’t have time to go in. Mostly up for the city views, and unfortunately we watched a cyclist who was racing down the road suffer a quite terrible crash. There were others with the language skills to help, and on our way down the ambulance had arrived. Hope he’s ok. 



We sat at the bottom opposite the cathedral waiting for what we expected would have been a great peeling of the noon bells. They didn’t peel. Not a sound. Who does that, right?

Lots of chimneys! Everywhere. 

By now it was time to feed the walkers again. We have around 27 kms to walk tomorrow. A nice walk after the steep climb out of the river basin. 

We enjoyed a very nice plate du jour with a small beer. Looking forward to a few more of these. I don’t think I’m losing any weight though Annemarie claims I am. Hmmm?

Then off to sort out a money problem followed by a nice walk along the river during the heat of the day🙄 Like I said, a bit dozy today! 

Note the massive fortress. We climb up somewhere to the right tomorrow. Maybe there’s an escalator! It could happen. 

You could go either way. I read a comment from another walker who had walked from Canterbury to Lausanne and he said that he nearly died on the climb out. It was the first steep climb he’d encountered as France before here is pretty flat. Hopefully our training on the North Downs should help.







We are almost ready for tomorrow. We’ve arranged an early breakfast at the hotel and we will be on our way before we are really awake. Variable weather coming the next few days. Should be interesting. 

You might notice the new map photo at the page top. Should help to find the small towns where we will be staying. The route is in orange. 

By the way, thanks everyone for the great texts, emails  and blog comments. Enjoy hearing from everyone! 

Ok, time to call my parents then out to find dinner. Can’t believe I’m hungry again, lol!

Bon Chemin!