Cessieres-Suzy to Laon

I’m working on this post at the moment because it’s not quite 7:00 p.m. in Laon, and the restaurants in France don’t reopen after lunch (usually closing at 2:00 p.m.) until 7:00 p.m. It’s not terrible, and you get used to it, but you have to plan accordingly.

Leaving Cessieres-Suzy yesterday morning headed to Laon (a short walk of 7 1/2 miles), it was raining, which continued until Laon. It was quite pleasant, though, because the temperatures had dropped again, and the rain was gentle.

Shortly after this video, I caught up with Eric, the French pilgrim who was walking with Chiara, from Italy (now living in London) and another younger woman, Ruth (pronounced “Root” in Dutch) from Belgium. They had been walking together and camping out for four or five days, so they had a great banter going between themselves. I enjoyed their energy as we walked together the last few miles into Laon (and up onto the high hill on which Laon sits) where we had lunch and coffee together and then visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame before saying our goodbyes until the next time our paths crossed. Ruth, though, will be leaving the Via Francigena in Reims where she will join the Chemin de St. Jacque to Santiago. After that, she plans to return to Belgium to earn her second degree to allow her to teach disabled children. A fun afternoon.

After checking into the Hotel Chevaliers, only a couple of blocks from the cathedral, I messaged Genah and Jean-Franco (the pilgrims from Nashville), who had said they were taking a rest day in Laon on Saturday. We then met for a beer in the plaza in front of the cathedral, although I didn’t get a photo. It was good to see them again, and they now feel like genuine friends. That is one of the magic things about a Camino. Barriers fall pretty quickly and you make friends easily.

I should set the scene for Laon: It sits on the top of a large hill that rises almost 1,000 feet above the surrounding Picardy plain. That advantage has made it a stronghold since long before the Romans fortified the city, which allowed it to check numerous invasions. The current ramparts that surround the city were begun in the 9th century, and the gothic cathedral was begun in 1150.

I slipped out just before dusk this evening to see if I could capture any drone footage of the city, but the light was waning, and I was a bit nervous about being called out for flying a drone in the city. I also realized just a moment ago that I must have failed to hit the start button on what I thought would be my best shot. Oh well, you get this instead:

Cathedral, Basilica, Abbey, Monastery: What are They?

I finally looked something up this afternoon while sitting in the cathedral and wondering what the differences were between a cathedral, a basilica, an abbey, a monastery, and an ordinary parish or community church, and the book, How to Read Churches, A Crash Course in Christian Architecture, by Denis R. McNamara, gave me this information:

• Cathedral – “The word cathedral is properly an adjective, describing a building that houses the chair of the bishop. The chair, from Biblical times a symbol of authority, signifies the office of a bishop situated in a geographical region called a diocese.
• Basilica – An honorific title designating a church of important historical or cultural value.
• Abbey – An abbey is a place inhabited by monks or nuns ruled by an abbot or abbess.
• Monastery – A building complex centered around a chapel for people committed to a disciplined life of prayer, study, and work, often called monks or nuns.

More Echoes of World War I and World War II

This morning at breakfast in my hotel, I introduced myself to another man who was carrying a backpack, and I assumed might be a fellow pilgrim. His name was Peter, and he is from The Netherlands. He is a pilgrim although he was reluctant to call himself one since he isn’t religious. He said I was the first pilgrim he had met in a week on the Via Francigena, which he is doing in stages. This time, he started in Arras and will finish in Reims. He had also been moved by the various military cemeteries and the pointless loss of life they represented. He said he was a big fan of Pink Floyd, and he quoted a couple of verses from the song, Us and Them:

Roger Waters, who wrote Us and Them and was one of the co-founders of Pink Floyd, had a deep understanding of the pointlessness of war since his father was killed in the Battle of Anzio in Italy when Roger was five months old.

As Peter and I talked, another man who was having breakfast with his wife, asked if he could join us because he was enjoying our conversation. Johann from Flanders related that two days after the Armistice in 1945, his father, 15 years old at the time, and some other villagers were trying to harvest some potatoes from a field they couldn’t access during the war. While walking through the field, his father hit a land mine that detonated and blinded him. Johann’s father never saw his son. Johann also mentioned that parts of northeastern France and Belgium have a growing problem with groundwater contamination from unexploded munitions in the ground leaching into the groundwater.

Final Disconnected Notes

The view from my hotel room window:

For those of you interested in French food, I’m going to try new dishes along the way. Tonight, I had an andouille sausage made from chicken and pork that is a Picardy regional specialty. They call it “white pudding”. It was incredibly light tasting and so very good. I would highly recommend it.

30kms to Corbeny tomorrow!