E5 Days 51-55

Thursday, April 25th 2024

La Ferme de Flo

• The day starts with a delicious breakfast with Fabergé egg(-cup)s that remind us of ‘The Intouchables’.

• Christmas music plays in the background – very fittingly.
• ‘No need to hurry,‘ says Moos and we take this to heart, because when we’ve finally packed up and are ready to leave, we ask again if it’s OK for us to stay a little longer and play a game of pandemic (’Who knows when we’ll get the chance again,’ I say reasonably).

• To our delight, Moos agrees and so we sit comfortably in the living room and play a game before today’s stage.
• When we finally say goodbye, Moos says: ‘Before you go, you should definitely take a look inside the garden!’ – OK, we think, that’s fine, let’s have a quick look inside.
• However, we only saw a fraction of the huge garden from the living room window and our ‘peek inside’ turnes into a hike before the actual hike.

• In any case, Moos is right, it’s totally worth visiting the garden: It’s beautiful, wild and really magical now in spring, when everything is starting to bloom.
• Everything is so lovingly arranged and behind every corner you find a cosy seating area surrounded by greenery – the garden reminds me a lot of Rosi, my aunt, and her garden. I’m sure she would love this one!
• From time to time you get a peek of the beautiful old villa shining through – wow!

• In the end it’s already past midday when we finally set off – on what is fortunately not such a long stage.
• Crossing fields and small meadow paths, we reach a small village at the top of a hill where we discover a castle – albeit a private one that you can’t get into.

• We continue across blossoming rapeseed fields and through a beautiful green forest into the small town of Pont-sur-Yonne, where we want to stock up on blister plasters at the pharmacy.
• I am not sure what’s got into me, but as we enter the main square, instead of ‘Where’s the pharmacy?’ I say out loud ‘Can you get me a coffee?’, whereupon Matthäus looks at me in bewilderment.
• A guy driving past us asks us out of the lowered car window if we’re doing the Camino de Santiago and we answer: ‘No, no, just the GR’, although that’s not quite true either, well, close enough.

• Along the Yonne, which I still persist in calling ‘Yvonne’, the path leads us to an aqueduct where water is apparently still transported.

• We soon reach the small village of Évry, where we are staying today at the Ferme de Flo.
• Flo is out and about when we arrive, but we are greeted by a group of fat turkeys, who fluff themselves up and show us who’s boss here.

• Meanwhile, we chill out in front of the building we think is our accommodation until Flo arrives and tells us that this is the gite and we are staying in the other house – also great.
• So we follow her into the beautifully decorated guest house, where we make ourselves some tea and get cosy.
• Flo’s neighbour has cooked something for us for dinner (delicious!) and Flo serves us a wine from Bourgogne, the region we are currently in.

• Flo is full of energy and does a lot: she talks about holidays on the farm, for which she offers a whole programme, about the many animals that live here and about school classes that come here by the busload to visit the farm.

Friday, April 26th

Powernap on the way

• Some days are best when they pass, and this is one of them.
• It starts with me not really getting out of bed – let alone getting going – which really stresses Matthäus out: Not surprising, considering the 35 kilometre stage we have ahead of us today.
• By half past ten, we have finally packed up and are ready to leave and are looking for Flo, who is somewhere on the farm’s huge grounds.
• We look at the animals and see goats, sheep, all with young, guinea pigs, ponies and dogs, but nowhere Flo.
• Eventually she finds us, we pay and say goodbye.

• She hugs me goodbye and some hugs are simply great – like this one at that moment, I really needed it.
• Nevertheless, I’m really exhausted and need a break at kilometre five, during which I promptly fall asleep at the edge of the field.
• Other hikers come along the path and chat briefly with Matthäus, who only realises that I’ve fallen asleep when one of the others says ‘Shh’.
• He wakes me up, slightly worried, and tells me that he had a quick chat with the hikers and they asked him where we were going today.
• As it was already 12 noon and I had fallen asleep by the side of the path, he didn’t dare say where we were really going and named the next largest town along the way (‘Thorigny’).
• ‘It’s a very beautiful path,’ they assure him, “and not far at all!”… and they’re right: the path winds its way across fields, green meadows and through small villages and is really beautiful.

• Thorigny itself is not so spectacular, but we come along a railway line that is obviously very busy and where we see one train after another rattling past – even a Swiss one – that would please Sebi, to whom I immediately send train photos.

• We take several breaks, devour our sandwiches and think about whether we can somehow shorten the route.
• We are super happy when we realise: Yes, we can, and by a whopping five kilometres!
• So we reach our accommodation ‘La Merlette’, one of the fanciest (in the sense of most expensive) on the whole route, earlier than expected via great paths with views of yellow rapeseed fields.
• At first, when we see the room, we think ‘Oh, nice, but for the price!’

• But then we unpack our pizza slices for dinner downstairs in Sylvie and André’s living room and carefully ask if we can heat them up in the microwave.
• Sylvie takes them out of our hands, puts them on nice plates and says in horror: ‘That’s all you want to eat today?’
• Apparently this is anything but acceptable to her (‘And after a long day of hiking!’) and she brings us tomatoes with chutney as a starter and chocolate pudding for dessert (the kind with whipped cream on top, like you get in the supermarket – I have really fond childhood memories of those from Belgium!)
• She serves each of us a glass of wine, because what would a meal be without good wine?
• Cheers!

Saturday, April 27th

Meeting at the roundabout

• For breakfast we are spoilt once again in ‘La Merlette’: there are even baby crepes!

• Then we say goodbye to our fantastic hosts and their fluffy dog, Paolo, with whom I try to take a starter selfie: Which doesn’t quite work, because one of us is always not looking at the camera – which I’m sure is entirely down to Paolo’s wild running around.

• We set off along country lanes and our first stop today is Villeneuve, the next largest town, where we stock up on all kinds of delicacies at the butcher’s, which Sylvie recommended to us, including not so light, but all the more delicious stuffed peppers – yum! A highlight!
• The people behind the counter and we laugh and chat a bit before popping into the supermarket opposite and then really setting off.
• Shortly after leaving the village, we pass a mill, which would normally be home to a restaurant, but unfortunately it’s ‘temporarily closed’ due to renovation work – moah, that doesn’t exactly lift my spirits.

• Speaking of mood, my mood soon reaches a daily low again – I’m not in a good mood at the moment and the fact that there’s another 30 kilometre stage today doesn’t help.
• We walk through beautiful, bright green forests to the small village of Rigny-Le-Ferron, which is very pretty and picturesque with its little stone houses.

• We continue across fields and through woods until we see a couple of horses in the middle of nowhere, although their existence is at least explained shortly afterwards by a small village that appears along the way and where there is a farm.

• Shortly afterwards we come to an equally beautiful lake – great!
• Now our path leads over a (hopefully) disused railway line, but this has not been renovated Voie Verte style, but has instead been left to decay and wilderness.

• The light is now very nice in the evening and we soon reach our destination, Estissac, where, after a long search, we are thankfully able to stay with Damien and Quentin.
• Estissac is very royal, the houses are large and stately and make a very dignified, fancy impression overall.

• At the roundabout, which we cross on foot, we meet Damien and Quentin, who drive in by car.
• Damien immediately recognises us as their guests (OK, two slightly lost-looking hikers – it wasn’t that hard) and hops out of the car to greet us and tell us that unfortunately they already have an appointment for tonight (it is Saturday after all), but what time would we like to have breakfast tomorrow?
• We cautiously suggest nine o’clock – will that suit them? Yes, says Damien – it’s a good thing there’s not so much traffic here in Estissac, because we block the roundabout a bit during the conversation.
• So instead of Damien and Quentin, Madame, their dog, is waiting for us in their house and she greets us very happily.
• Unfortunately, we don’t have that much time for Madame because we’ve arranged to Skype with my family – oooh, we hear Madame whimpering outside the door until Matthäus takes pity on her and gives her a few cuddles after all.
• The room with the bathroom is great by the way – there are even bath slippers in all shapes and sizes (which look like a collection from various hotels ;)) – mega!

Sunday, April 28th

Madame et Monsieur

• Great breakfast from Damien, who looks a little sleepy.
• Madame, excited as ever, is a nice contrast to him and wants to be cuddled every two minutes.
• Surprise when a fat grey cat walks through the door: ‘Ah, monsieur,’ says Damien.
• Damien makes fresh waffles for us – wooow!
• We have a good chat with him about their fancy life in Champagne, good wines and cats and dogs.

• Then we set off in the bright sunshine.
• Via country lanes and further along the disused railway line, our path leads up to a hill from where we have a great view and can already see Troyes on the horizon.

• We are making the detour to Troyes for two reasons: Firstly, because it was very difficult to find accommodation in the area and so we weren’t quite as flexible with the route, and secondly, because Matthäus’s parents visited the town a few years ago and liked it a lot.
• We take a break on the hill (with a view) and enjoy the filled peppers.

• I currently have a constantly sunburned nose and no matter how much sun cream I put on it, it doesn’t get any better.
• I think it’s probably due to the intense spring sun.
• We soon reach the foothills of Troyes and a beautifully landscaped park through which, funnily enough, the Vienne flows.

• As it’s Sunday lunchtime/afternoon, there are naturally lots of runners, walkers and dog walkers here.
• In the town of Troyes itself, we stay in a flat in the centre of one of the half-timbered houses.

• Shortly after arriving, we are ready to go out again, take a stroll through the town, look around and do some shopping for the next few days.
• It really is a great town with lots of colourful half-timbered houses.

• At the supermarket, we find out that although it is open (it is Sunday after all), alcohol is only sold until 12.30pm – so much for my plans to toast the day with champagne here in Champagne.
• After the mood is briefly dampened, it improves again when I discover a packet of cider on sale, which we skilfully smuggle out through the self-checkout – yes!
• We treat ourselves to this with our delicious home-cooked dinner of tomato and mozzarella pasta and skype with friends – nice!

Monday, April 29th

Monsieur Gourmet dans la Rue Gourmand

• Breakfast in bed!
• Laundry is dry!
• The day is off to a good start!
• Pack up and off we go through the beautiful city centre of Troyes, where one half-timbered house follows the next – Matthäus’s parents weren’t exaggerating when they described how beautiful the city is.
• There are also lots of imposing Gothic stone churches and as we are looking for the cathedral, I ask ‘Aaah, is that the cathedral?’ at each of them, to which Matthäus takes a look at his mobile phone and says: ‘No, it’s just up ahead.’

• The cathedral actually dwarfs the other (also very imposing) churches with its huge Gothic nave, which rises very high and is perfectly rounded off by the artistically designed stained glass windows that frame it on all four sides – great, we’re glad we took the time to look inside.

• Just opposite is a pharmacy where we buy new foot cream as our old one is running out.
• The pharmacist has understood the principle of long-distance hiking and picks out the smallest tube he can find.
• We then follow a Voie Verte out of the city, but it turns out to be a right next to a huge road, which is why we take a short detour through the park to avoid it, at least for a while.
• We pass a beautiful wooden villa in a suburb of Troyes.

• For the rest of the day, our route takes us along rather bleak-looking canals, but always on very easy paths – flat and constructed like forest roads.

• It doesn’t take long before we reach Lusigny-sur-Barse, where Raphaël and Laurent are already waiting for us and give us a warm welcome.
• They are both around 50 and live here together in a great old house and appreciate good food, good wine and – for regional reasons, of course – champagne.
• Raphaël so much so that he has learnt and perfected cooking and now offers cookery courses for anyone interested – just as they offer a four-course meal with wine accompaniment and champagne aperitif with every stay.
• The whole thing is not cheap – we actually considered whether we should book it, but then thought: Come on, let’s do it! – and I have to say: not only did it totally pay off, but we would have really missed out!

• When we receive the confirmation email from them, it turns out that Raphaël’s surname is something like ‘Gourmet’, which our autocorrect immediately corrects to ‘Gourmet’ and the address given is actually – we can hardly believe our eyes – ‘11 av Pierre Gomand 10270 Lusigny-sur-Barse’ – almost ‘Av Pierre Gourmand’ – wow, everything fits together!
• The feast begins with an aperitif in Raphaël and Laurent living room. The aperitif consists of delicious appetisers and – that goes without saying – champagne.
• I finally get to enjoy my champagne and what a champagne it is!
• Although they have written on the website ‘including a glass of each drink’ with the meal, we have such a good time that we’ve emptied the champagne bottle in no time at all (and that’s how it continues with the subsequent bottles of wine…)

• The food is really great, like in a gourmet restaurant – and the wine is matched to the food- wow!
• The whole thing is framed by great conversations that actually go into some depth, because thank goodness our French has improved considerably since the start of our hike.
• A picture-perfect French meal and we really enjoyed the evening with Raphaël and Laurent – mega!