This is a bit of catch-up post since I was without internet service the past couple of days. Many of the chambre d’hôtes and gites (the non-hotel accommodations usually in or connected to someone’s home) advertise that they have WiFi, but the functionality is often questionable or non-existent. When that happens, I give myself permission not to worry about it. Last night in Nort-Leulinghem, since I had neither internet nor phone service, I took an hour to watch Friends dubbed in French with French subtitles to try to brush up on my French. I’m not sure if it helped, but it was fun to watch.
Fiennes to Licques
Officially, Fiennes to Licques is only 26Km, but I’m finding that you inevitably miss two or three turns during the day, either because they are poorly marked or you were paying attention to something else rather than looking for the turn. As a result, the actual distance you walk is always a bit more than advertised. Thursday’s route from Fiennes to Licques was a mix of fields, woods, and low-traffic roads, but the sky was a bit cloudy and foreboding until late in the afternoon when the sun finally began to break out. The bluebells that were so prolific in Kent on the way to Canterbury aren’t nearly as prevalent in northern France, but there were a couple of larger fields of them outside Licques. Becca commented that it looked like there should be fairies living there. I think there may be!
The path approaches Licques from the top of a ridge that looks down on various villages before dropping into Licques, giving you the perfect sense of arrival.
My accommodations in Licques were in a small gite just outside town. The host family was lovely. Curiously, the wife is an arts therapist. It’s a curious coincidence (at least, to me) that the young woman I walked into Calais with from the ferry port was there to work with children using art as therapy.
The building in which I stayed (in the gable end of the white building) dates from the 1600’s.
Licques is a quiet village with the basic traveler’s needs: a pharmacy, a cafe, a restaurant, and a boulangerie. I also liked my room, so I chose to take a rest day in Licques to try to doctor up some blisters that were nagging me. They hadn’t yet crippled me, but I was very much aware of them as I walked. The day of rest was, indeed, exactly what I needed.
Licques to Nort-Leulinghem
I was going to include this leg, but this post is already too long, and I have some things I want to include from yesterday’s walk, so this is going into a separate post.