"Walking Our Camino(s)": Day 15: Stage 11: Ornans, 27 kms, Cloud Then Hot Sun, 31°

A Well Planned Day🙂

As I sit in our nice little dormer room writing, Zeus is playing his own tune right outside our window. Loudly!

Non-stop thunder just roaring away! Very cool. I love lightening and thunder storms just as long as the power stays on. Now the heavy rain has arrived. Thankfully we are in and dry. Tomorrow is supposed to be another day like today. Annemarie is down in the spa next door where they have a zero gravity bed and an interesting device you lay in and it is supposed to fix whatever ails you. The arthritis in her neck was bugging her today so here’s hoping this will fix things. Oops, just had to close the window because the rain was getting in.

After a decent breakfast we crossed town then walked along the river, all the while French military troopers were out for their morning run. There is plenty of them. They patrol the streets in France’s major cities and have since 2017. We’ve seen them patrolling the streets many times these past years. Tough looking folks as are the police. Every country has its problems and France is no different.

Route markers!

We thought the climb was just up above the citadel. It wasn’t.

It went up and up. That’s the citadel fortress way below us on the left looking out over Besançon. I took this shot from the top of the climb at the Liberation Memorial.

On the way up we were stopped by two farmers who asked where we were from and where we were walking to. When we told them what our plan was they both tipped their hats to me. A first. A short time later a woman in her car asked us the same question and her response was quite similar. She said that were she not on her way to an appointment she would take us to her house for a drink and visit. How refreshing! Many of the popular well travelled walking routes have kind of led to Pilgrim burnout, but on the quieter routes I’ve found people are usually very open and want to engage. And this route is extremely quiet. When we went to the church here in Ornans to obtain a stamp in our credentials we were told that only 2 other pèlerin (pilgrims) had passed here in the last 3 weeks.

If you look at todays map (above) you’ll notice that after the climb to the top we deviated off the VF. The dark red line would have taken us to a stop where there were no food sources, meaning we’d have had to carry all our food to cook tonight. That’s not a problem, but with Covid concerns we had decided not to take those risks, and often for the same reason the kitchens have been closed. So I planned a route (orange line) that met up with the VF on tomorrow’s stage (blue line) and we followed it in at the end of the stage on an old rail line now converted to a cycling/walking trail. In essence I cut out a stage. There really are no rules on these distance walks. Just practice those things that feel right and work for your particular situation.

This did result in more road walking, but the first half was along very quiet country roads with panoramic views across the surrounding farm land. We seem to be in the foothills of the Jaral Mountains in this area.

We often receive friendly waves or nods from the farmers. And just look at Annemarie’s calves! The North Downs proved to be a good tune up. We managed today’s climb quite nicely.

We arrived in Tarcenay after 17 kms right at noon and at the patisserie I’d found. We shared a nice smoked salmon baguette and had some really good desserts. I picked a chocolate eclair. Wow! It will all be walked off in the next 2-3 hours anyway so may as well indulge from time to time. I’m eating at least twice the food I consume at home.

We set off on a busier highway and stayed there for about 5-6 kms. It was considerably busier, but we managed ok, stepping off the road surface when the big rigs went roaring by, often with a wave to us.

A few cars came a little close so I began sticking my poles out about 2’ and that forced the less courteous drivers to give us more room. After all no one wants two scratches down the side of their Audi or Mercedes! I’ve often used this technique before and so far it’s worked. I’m still here to tell the tale!

We finally found a safe way to get down to an old railway bed that’s been converted to a public trail much like the Goose at home. This took us back onto the VF (the blue route on the above map).

Paul, they make the trestle bridges here out of stone and cement! Last forever and never burn down. But being from Ireland you probably already knew this.

Someone is looking for the shade. It was hot by now. From a cloudy, cool morning to a hot afternoon. Tomorrow is apparently much the same.

A pharmacy in town indicated 34°. It wasn’t as hot as that.

Ornans is a lovely town.

Seems a bit on the edge, but limestone is pretty stable stuff. Still?

Ornans is clearly not on the radar in Canada. They had a world map in the church on which to pin your home. There was one pin from Montreal and a second from Quebec City. Also just one from Sam Fransisco. There are now 2 from the west coast of North America! At our hotel they have only seen 4 other Canadians since 2016. We have been made to feel very welcomed here!