{"id":296,"date":"2018-06-15T05:23:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T04:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=296"},"modified":"2021-11-30T18:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T18:00:42","slug":"day-10-arras-to-lonqueval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"Day 9 Arras to Lonqueval – 9th June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distance: 35.9 km \u2013 Elevation +230 m -140 m<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weather: <\/strong>Sunny. Temperature: High 27 degrees<\/p>\n

I left Maison Saint Vaast after my unusual stay and found my way out of the city using the Cicerone guide.<\/p>\n

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City life is so different to life in rural communities – in the rural areas of France I am always greeted with bonjour and a smile but sadly not here in Arras – yesterday I received absolutely no reply when I offered a ‘ bonjour ‘ as I passed residents on my walk into the city – not just once it was each and every time they just walked past.<\/p>\n

However this morning I was surprised by a tap on the shoulder as I waited at a road crossing on the outskirts of the city. I turned to be greeted with a smile by a rather scholarly looking gentleman who was inquisitive about the pilgrim’s badge on the reverse of my rucksack. He spoke no English but I was so pleased for his interest and with my limited French was able to explain to him that I was a pilgrim walking to Rome to visit the tomb of Saint Peter and the badge showed Saint Peter’s keys – ” The keys of heaven”. After as I continued to walk through the city suburbs I thought how worthwhile the French lessons I had taken in the months before leaving had been<\/p>\n

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The Cicerone guide instructions took me easily to the outskirts of Mercatel but at a fork in the path they became confusing – left or right? I could see the spire of a church to my left so I chose left. Albeit the wrong way, it was a fortuitous choice because I found the church open in the centre of Mercatel. Sadly churches in France are mostly closed but this one was open simply because it was being cleaned. As I entered I was greeted by the most wonderful holy music that just filled the church. The cleaning lady greeted me with such a warm and loving smile and asked if I would like the music stopped as I sat – I said no – the music is beautiful and when I was leaving she took me to the room from whence the music came and showed me the CD cover. It showed a trio of French priests calling themselves ‘ Les Pr\u00e8tres’ and the CD was titled ‘ Amen’<\/p>\n

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Rather than go back to find the Cicerone route I elected to take a straight 14 kilometre stretch of the D917 which took me through Boyelles where I found a boulan\u0123erie and bought lunch for later. The D917 was relatively quiet for most of the way to Bapaume<\/p>\n

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It was another warm and humid day and around midday, I found a farm track close to the giant wind turbines on top of the hill. I found a spot of shade and sat and ate a delicious apple turnover with just the gentle sound of the wind turbine in the background.<\/p>\n

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Onwards to Bapaulme I came to the top of a hill and was surprised to find a friterie and it was open! Still hungry I ordered a small portion of chips<\/p>\n

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As I sat eating – another surprise – Steve appeared and we walked on together to Bapaume where I left Steve for my onward journey to Lonqueval. It was to be a 35 kilometre walk today and from Bapaume I still had 10 kilometres to go. I was getting low on water and as I passed two men chatting one asked ” Compostella” ?  after explaining I was on my way to Rome I took the opportunity to ask for some water – they had a quick discussion between themselves from which I gathered local tap water was from stored rainwater which they believed would not be good for me. Thus my water bottle was filled with bottled water and I was given an ice-cold bottle of Perrier water – the people here are a joy to know.<\/p>\n

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After a long day I arrived at Chez Monique a small B&B run by the lovely Monique who welcomed me with an ice cooled beer. I showered and retired to bed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

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

Distance: 35.9 km \u2013 Elevation +230 m -140 m Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 27 degrees I left Maison Saint Vaast after my unusual stay and found my way out of the city using the Cicerone guide. City life is so different to life in rural communities – in the rural areas of France I am always greeted with bonjour and a smile but sadly not here in Arras – yesterday I received absolutely no reply when<\/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-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5006,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/5006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrimsway.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}