{"id":271,"date":"2018-06-12T02:05:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T01:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=271"},"modified":"2021-11-30T16:54:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T16:54:57","slug":"day-9-villers-chatel-to-arras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"Day 8 Villers Chatel to Arras – 8th June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distance: 25.7 km \u2013 Elevation +130 m -210 m<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weather: <\/strong>Sunny. Temperature: High 25 degrees<\/p>\n

I said goodbye to my hosts after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mr Jean de Franssu walked with me as looked back at the chateau shrouded in the morning mist.<\/p>\n

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He put me on the right track and gave me a map marked with the route to Arras. They were wonderful hosts and the pilgrim accommodation is provided on a donativo basis<\/p>\n

I quickly reached the small town of Aubigny en Artois which was just awakening as I walked through. Walking on to pass through Frevin Capelle to reach Acq where I found a boulan\u0123erie and sandwicherie open – I was greeted by this beaming smile<\/p>\n

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Another good opporunity for a conversation in French as my sandwich “avec jambon et fromage et salade pour le route” was freshly prepared . Shortly after I found a bar open and enjoyed a very welcome cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

Somehow I lost my way around Maroeuil and found myself on a rather busy section of the D939. I stopped in a parking area and donned my yellow vest. I could see behind me the ruins of Mont Saint Eloi Abbey which is where I should have been.<\/p>\n

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I eventually found a way off the D939 and immediately came to  transport cafe where I was unexpectedly served by an English man who really didn’t want to chat but the ice cold drink was so welcome on what was a very hot day. Pressing on into Duisans where by surprise I came across this<\/p>\n

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One of those rare Via Francigena signs ! From here I was able to pick up the Cicerone path into Arras.<\/p>\n

Arras is a large city and it was rush hour. After a couple of mishaps with Google I arrived at “Maison Saint Vaast” which is a Roman Catholic conference centre and they have perfectly adequate rooms available at a very reaonable price for pilgrims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The staff are a delight, friendly and helpful. I had booked dinner and breakfast and asked on arrival ” A quelle heure est le dejeuner ” and was told 6.30 pm which gave me 45 minutes to shower and generally make my self presentable after a tiring days walk. I duly arrived on time and asked where the dining room was – I pointed in the right diection with the words ” bon app\u00e8tit”. I found my way to the restaurant expecting to find it hustling and humming with activity – it was a large 100 seater room – but it was totally empty and silent – and there in the middle of the room was a single place setting strategically placed in front of glass doored refrigerator in which I saw a tray complete with a pre-preparefd 3 course dinner ! The main course was cold and I found a microwave and sat there in splendid isolation enjoying a very tasty dinner – and wondering why the member of staff had been so precise about the time for dinner – the whole dining expeience was so surreal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Distance: 25.7 km \u2013 Elevation +130 m -210 m Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 25 degrees I said goodbye to my hosts after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast Mr Jean de Franssu walked with me as looked back at the chateau shrouded in the morning mist. He put me on the right track and gave me a map marked with the route to Arras. They were wonderful hosts and the pilgrim accommodation is provided<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5004,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/5004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}