15/07/2026
Pilgrim's Progress - Alice Eastaugh
A note from the Via Francigena - Friday 26th June 2026
I have made it to a village called Seveux-Motey and on Sunday I will arrive in Besançon where I shall visit the cathedral and get a stamp for my pilgrim passport.
The last week has been a challenge with the weather to say the least. I have survived it by leaving early in the morning (around 5am) to get as many kilometres covered before the heat truly descends. Last weekend I had two of my longest days planned, about 40km each day and these would not have been possible without the early starts. I was very fortunate in that we had the thunderstorms that reached you the middle of this week on the Saturday evening and through the night which gave me some morning drizzle and then cloud cover till about midday Sunday. The first part of that walk was a steep climb up to a viewpoint above the town I’d stayed in, Bar-Sur-Aube, just as the sun was rising over it and behind me a glorious rainbow (pictures included).
A guesstimate puts me crossing into Switzerland around the 3rd of July.
At the beginning of the journey I camped most nights which gave me a chance to adjust from work mode to pilgrim mode. There’s something about the simplicity of rocking up to a campsite without booking, hoping for the best (it worked out), pitching my tent and having some space that allowed me to enter into a different headspace and enjoy where I was.
I’ve camped a few times in the weeks since but I’ve mostly been in pilgrim gîtes (run by small local pulgrim associations) and municipal gîtes (run by the local mayor’s office), with the occasional B&B, homestay with a family and twice in religious houses; Abbaye Notre-Dame de Wisques with Benedictine nuns and then in Vermand with a community of Poor Clare sisters, both of which were very welcoming.
Where I’m going to stay each night has a large bearing on the length of stages I walk and the logistics of this often takes up a large portion of my brain each day if I’m honest. There are various sources I use to identify possible accommodation. The first is a booklet from the French Federation of the Via Francigena which I ordered before I left; the second is the official VF app; there’s another app called Camino Ninja and also, the Cicerone guidebooks. I look through all these, at the route and distances between places and then try to sort my itinerary for the week or so ahead. Then I start emailing places which I do in French using ChatGPT (an AI program) as my French is extremely rudimentary at best and then I wait… Sometimes they get back to me straight away, last night I emailed at 20:37 and had a reply at 20:46! Often it’s a little longer than that. Sometimes they have space, sometimes not. When they don’t I check if there’s somewhere else in the same village or town or somewhere nearby or look at coming off the route a little. Last week for one particular night I tried multiple different places to no avail however the last place I tried (on the afternoon of the day in question) suggested I try the municipal Gîte at another local town. I made it there just before 5pm and rang both numbers on the door, no answer. I texted both and heard nothing. I sat nearby on a step for a while hoping. Then I went to the church to top up my water (there drinking water at most cemeteries and churches in France), then to the Mairie (Mayor’s office) just in case. I spoke to a woman there who was running a yoga class and who said that if I hadn’t heard anything by 8.20pm when her class finished she would take me to hers, it was by now sometime after 6pm. To receive this kind offer and to now have a backup option gave me a real boost and a new sense of optimism and I went back to waiting near the Gîte. And, very soon, a woman appeared, she had come to let me in! My sense of relief and gratitude were great.
Along the way I have received some lovely pilgrim hospitality. On my first Sunday in France I had decided to stop for a long break at the ruin of Le Chapelle Saint Louis. It was up on a hill with beautiful panoramic views, the weather was gloriously hot and the chapel gave shade where not much else was around. As I approached I saw a couple sat by it, we made very small small talk with me trying to explain what I was doing and where I was going in very rudimentary French. I then sat nearby. Another couple joined them soon after and one of these came over to me and asked if I would like to join them for lunch! I paused for all of a second before gratefully accepting. It was a delicious lunch, Spanish omelette with salad followed by apple cake with stewed rhubarb and then coffee and the company was so warm and friendly. They left after we had eaten and I stayed for a little longer to draw and pass away some more time before heading to my campsite. The journey had felt a little lonely and strange till then, they lifted me and helped me to step more fully into my pilgrim shoes. I’m on to my second pair now, of the physical ones that is.
Another invitation to lunch followed a week later.
I have met only a few other pilgrims on this route so far, two I have walked with. One of those, a French woman, for several days, though she is ahead of me now after I had a detour in Paris to see my brother and sister-in-law. That was a good rest though and a chance to restock my depleted stores. It also meant I could pop to Notre Dame and see the restoration work and attend a service.
I have a very simple pattern of daily prayer that I do as I walk, usually near the start of the day. I thank God for things that have happened in last day; I pray for specific people or groups of people, almost always for the parish; I say my hopes for the day to come which are usually things like, ‘I hope I don’t get any blisters today’, ‘I hope I meet some other pilgrims’, ‘I hope I have a good walk.’ Then I say the Lord’s Prayer and a few others that I recall.
My days also have a straightforward routine. Get up, pack, tidy, leave where I stayed last night, walk, maybe have a break or two, walk some more, arrive at my accommodation for that night, shower, wash and dry clothes, have dinner, organise things for the next day like make lunch or get out plasters for blisters, read a bit, write my journal, go to bed, repeat. It’s good to have a rhythm, as each part of it becomes a sign to follow as much as those that mark the way of the Via Francigena. As Aslan says to Eustace at the beginning of The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis), “But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. [...] Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.”
I hope all is well in the parish and I really appreciate the prayers, it means an awful lot to know I am being supported as I go.
Bien cordialement,
Alice
