Day34 Leffonds to Langres -“Yes madam, I am crazy”

Our morning began as others have. We woke, groaned as we got out of bed, packed, and headed off to our hosts table for breakfast. Here we were served bread (including a really yummy cranberry hazelnut loaf) with jam and honey and of course COFFEE!

We signed their book, received our stamps, and headed off for the morning. Our hostess saw us off and requested that we send her a post card when we arrive in Rome. I actually wrote that down on paper too so I will remember.

Since my ankle has been acting up the last couple of days, I decided to lightly wrap it. And that seemed to do the trick! Walking today was almost pain free!

Thank you to all who were sending up prayers and well wishes for me. Now Mark’s knee is starting to complain. I am thinking that our next rest day will be met with great enthusiasm.

Back to today’s events. You know the drill by now. We walked on the road and then mostly trails and fields today which was a welcome relief. After walking up some seriously steep inclines, we found ourselves on top of a reservoir. It was pretty spectacular. We ate lunch on a bench facing the water side after opting out of the first open restaurant we’d seen in days. It was a little fancy for two stinky pilgrims we decided.

We truly emptied out all our food supplies. We feasted on an avocado, split a little can of tuna in tomato sauce (mostly sauce), bread, and one fig each. Knowing we were heading to a large town where we could easily resupply made emptying out all our food less stressful. We have discovered that most of the towns we are traveling through do not have stores or food markets open either due to going out of business or being away for the summer. Yes, small grocery stores do actually shut down for the entire month of August in France.

Then we started climbing. Did I mention we began walking uphill? That pretty much sums up our afternoon. Sometimes steep, sometimes not but always up. Just before the endpoint we went steeply down for about 45min loosing all the hard work of the afternoon. Weep not for us dear friends. Our destination was a hilltop fortified town, and we got to recover all that altitude for a second time.

And then in the distance on top of a mountain was our stopping point. We were truly winded after finishing the climb into Langres. Entering a city through the Arc Gallo-Romain gate was impressive. Of course there are many other historic gates too, but I promise not to list them all. But for fellow history nerds, the city of Langres is worth researching or better yet visiting. It is one of the few cities untouched by recent wars.

Mark and I walked on top of the ramparts that surround the city and provide some spectacular views then we actually went shopping for food. After stocking up on food for dinner tonight, breakfast in the morning, and lunch tomorrow we headed over to the pharmacy for some assistance.

You all know about the tooth saga. Well, the super glue supply dried up. Obviously Mark needs some more but where to buy it in France is the question. We walked into the local pharmacy and apparently made the pharmacist’s day because she could not stop laughing. But she did point us to a store through her tears of laughter. Then Mark glued in his tooth and went back to show the pharmacist that it is possible to use super glue to temporarily replace a tooth. She now has a great story to tell at the end of her work day. She left us with the words “you are crazy”! This truism didn’t phase us….we’ve heard it before…often from some of you reading this vlog.