This stage was part of the revised pilgrimage process – as I couldn’t find workable lodging at the interim stage between Corbeny and Reims, I walked instead to Guinicourt, a small town with a railstop, and took the regional train from there to Reims.
The walk was not long, about 12 kms, lots of fields and more fields, and was only marred by posters of Marine LePen and Matteo Salvini, two extremely right-wing politicians clubbing together to keep Europe “pristine” with sneaky slogans like giving power to the people… To counteract that, there was a happy chicken farm, a strange concrete depot, more flat fields, war monuments, village signs to “keep our class” (meaning save the school which consisted of only one class, not some kind of caste warfare), and a green field of something I couldn’t identify – not wheat, not legumes, not canola – possibly alfalfa? And then the station at Guinicourt, which was closed, with no more than a sort of bus stop shelter for passengers, where I waited trying to stay warm for about an hour (no café nearby) until the train finally arrived.
In Reims, I stayed two blocks from the beautiful cathedral in a small ground floor (yay no stairs for the chariot) flat in an old building. The host was there to meet me and show me around and then left me to my devices. Which meant a quick visit to the main shopping street to buy a pocket wifi (the place had no wifi, which I had missed when I rented it, and my French sim card won’t tether to my computer) device and load it with Gb, and to a pharmacy to buy something noxious. I came back to the flat, undid everything, loaded all non-clothing items except electronics and toilet articles into the small bathroom area (mercifully the wc was separate so I could leave the door of the shower-room safely shut for awhile) and then wrapped my face up and turned the fogger on, shut the door and headed to the laundromat, where I washed everything but what I was wearing.
Feeling somewhat relieved, I came back to the house, first stopping at a little grocery to buy some food for dinner and the next day.
Day 19 – April 14 in Reims – I had planned this day to be for updating the blog, but I ended up having to work all day, so that didn’t happen. I did not go out at all. In the evening I liberated the poisoned chariot and all its accoutrements and aired the bathroom out so it could be restored to its proper use, and got my now assuredly bug-free (if indeed there had been any) belongings repacked up and ready to go.
