Awake at 6, and heard that others were getting up, so I did the same and started walking just before 8, before it was too hot,
I split Morning Prayer, saying up to the end of the psalm in the 11 November 1918 Park at Pont sur Yonne, and the Bible readings etc. at Villeperrot, where I thought there was a bar. Not so; but I saw a woman and her grandson on the way to the bread van which stops there from 11 to 11:15. When they returned, I asked if she could fill up my water bottle, and she sent the little boy running on ahead to do this. She also told me that I could get to Sens by following the road. True, and easier walking than the tracks between fields; but very little shade.
While I was resting under a tree, the owner of the house asked if I was OK. Yes, just resting, I said, and asked how far to the village restaurant. He didn’t think much of it, and offered to drive me to a tapas bar run by friends of his. This turned out to be in Sens, and not far from my hotel. After two glasses of Mateus rose, a copious amount of chilled water, and a tasty snack of baguette slices topped with cheese and honey, I walked back to check in. Really hot now, so I stayed there until 4:30 when there was some shade.
First to the Tourist Office, as there were a few jobs I wanted to do in Sens. The man who helped me had walked to Vezelay, and warned me it gets harder after Auxerre. Then to the Cathedral, to check the time of Mass. Then shopping, and back to the Cathedral for Mass.
Sens was the centre of an archdiocese including Paris, and where Thomas Becket spent his exile before returning to Canterbury. There’s a statue, possibly of him, taken from the house where he lived.
Limped back to the hotel for a scratch meal of tinned tuna, the apple Philippe gave me, and an oats and chocolate biscuits.
emeritablog: life after work 