Arrival in Rheims

We are delighted to say that after a rather pleasant 25kms we have reached the beautiful Cathedral City of Rheims. Inside the cathedral we came across our first "pilgrim", a young Brazilian girl, Carina Costa, who is starting her walk tomorrow. She seemed a bit lost so we helped her out with some advice. Last night we slept in a roadside motel which had a good bed but nothing else to commend it. Between Berry-au-Bac and Rheims there is not much by way of bars, cafes or restaurants so early this morning we bought a couple of sandwiches which we eat at lunchtime. The most notable part of our walk today is that we have now reached Champagne country. I'm sorry to say we have not yet had a chance to sample any but it has been good to see the countryside change from large scale farming to the champagne vinyards. Before entering Rheims we walked along the Canal De L'Aisne for close to three kms, a tiring but beautiful walk. The battle of the Aisne was one of the costliest of WW1 with huge loss of life on the part of the French, British and German forces.

Along the length of the Canal we saw a number of people sat on benches reading. I remarked to Ana María what a rare sight this is nowadays. We soon found out the reason. There is a box with books on the banks of the canal which people can borrow to read. What a splendid idea and how French, I think!

Tomorrow is our rest day. This evening we managed to Skype with our children and grandchildren. Tomorrow we hopefully get our clothes laundered, our supplies replenished and we plan the next week or ten days walks. AND ABOVE ALL WE REST. MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!