Arras to Bapaume 26.8km (16.6km walking)

Back on the road again! But, not before stopping at Notting Hill for a departing « noisette » (espresso macchiato) and a hot chocolate for our thermos. On his early morning trip to the boulangerie to buy breakfast croisants, Paul had also picked up a still hot almond croissant and cheese baguettes for lunch, so we were well provided for!

A gentle rain accompanied us as we walked south through the city and out onto rolling farmland, some fields sewn with sugar beet, presumably destined for a large local mill we could see in the distance.

We had a break in Mercatel in a conveniently situated bus shelter next to a chapel. Later, we passed a WWI cemetery of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Sunken Road Cemetry. Just down the hill was a small family chapel with a bench painted with the VF sign and a visitors book. Eventually the rain stopped and we ate our sandwiches sitting on our groundsheet under a tree. Near Hamelincourt, we were a little confused about where the path went, so decided to walk along the road through the town. This was fortuitous in that we came across an automated farm stand where Lois bought a local rhubarb yogurt. Also, the road took us past the site of the Casorti family final resting place. A plaque described this interesting Italian family which had maintained a summer residence in Hamelincourt in the middle of the 19thC (destroyed in 1917). Until the 1830’s, the family travelled throughout Europe as musicians, actors, acrobats or mimes, and were later hired as dance masters, music teachers and composers, or to teach etiquette and posture, mainly in France and Germany. Their compositions were and apparently still are performed the world over.

The farmland closer to Bapaume is dotted with windmills, which we were told have been appearing « like mushrooms ».

As we intended to only walk 15 kms today, we headed to a railway station at Courcelles le-Comte, from where we called a taxi to take us the remaining 10 kms.

Wildlife notes: Sound of a cuckoo

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