Our journey today was from Samer to Hesdin. Our host couldn’t understand where we were going to because our mangled French did not pronounce our destination as Edin.

We had a steep hill to climb initially, the Wall we were told, but after that it was downhill to Montreuil and then we followed the river Canche to Hesdin.

The rivers in this region flow east to west from the chalk hills to the Channel. They are clear and beautiful like the chalk rivers of England.

We detoured slightly from our route to visit Montreuil. I couldn’t think why I knew this town but it was the General Headquarters for the British Army in the First World War. There was a statue of General Haig in the town square which was originally installed after the first war. During the German occupation the statue disappeared, presumably melted down. It was recast after WW2.

Hesdin is a relatively new town. The original Hesdin, a few kilometres from the current town, was ordered to be destroyed by the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V, in 1553. The new town was rebuilt from the rubble.

In the evening we had a walk through the village where we’re staying which is adjacent to Hesdin. There is nothing spectacular but the church cemetery was fascinating with polished granite graves. I liked the reference to a love of cycling but I’m really not ready for a grave marked with my name and birth year before my time is up.

Although just a small village hotel our dinner in the hotel restaurant was first class in the French style.

We had our Camino records stamped for the first time this morning. We’re on our way!

We headed off south this morning from Calais. The first 10 km were flat along an old railway line. That easy cycling wasn’t to last. This had formerly been marshy ground and is crossed with attractive canals.

After Guines, near where the Field of the Cloth of Gold was held, we had to get over the chalk hills which are the same geological formation as the South Downs. From sea level we cycled up to 150 metres / 500 feet. Beryl cycled fabulously all the way. There were great views back to the coast.

The rest of the day was spent cycling up and down. We found a great boulangerie for our lunch.

Our journey and elevation profile are clear on the hilly day we had.

Samer is a quaint old town with typical cobbled square.

This evening we’re staying in a delightful Chambre d’Hote. The only problem was that we had to cycle back over some hilly roads to Samer for dinner.

We caught the train to Waterloo and moved over to Waterloo East where we boarded a train to Folkestone West.

From the station we cycled a mere 2 km to a hotel in Cheriton where we were picked up by the Eurotunnel Cycle Service. This is a contracted out service which presumably Eurotunnel are obliged to offer but they don’t publicise it widely. A place has to be booked beforehand. At £20 per person plus bike it is good value.

We were joined by four other cyclists on the minibus who had ridden from Maidstone and were cycling on to The Hague over the following couple of days before flying home.

Dan, our friendly driver, dropped us off closer to the centre of Calais which turned out to be only 200 metres from to hotel.

This evening we walked into the centre of Calais. The town was clearly razed during the war and almost all the buildings are new. We revived ourselves with large glasses of Leffe which is the nearest we got to a local brew.

After dinner we walked up to the Calais beach following signs for the Via Francigena, the pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome.

It was good to reach Calais Plage for the start of our French Camino. Tomorrow we begin to cycle south.

Beryl is riding on her Liv road bike. To help her up the hills, Julian has installed a 32 rear cassette which required a new long cage derailleur.

For luggage, Beryl has an Ortleib seat pack which has a capacity of 16.5 litres. Beryl is restricting herself to 2 kg of luggage – essentially no more than one plus a spare of cycling and day wear plus cycling shoes and sandals. “The less I take, the less there is to take up the hills.”

Julian is riding his Dawes Super Galaxy tourer. This machine required new chain, cassette, and jockey wheels. The brakes and brake levers were replaced about a year ago. Otherwise, it is much the same bike that Julian has cycled to the top of Mont Ventoux.

For luggage, Julian has two rear panniers. One contains clothes and shoes. The other will hold locks, tools, spare cables, chargers etc.

We are using Wahoo GPS devices for route finding and statistics gathering.

We are cycling across France on our own bicycles on a self-supported basis. Our accommodation will consist of various hotels, bed and breakfast, and apartments. We have no plans to camp or to stay in hostels.

For the route, we have started with Cicerone’s Cycling London to Paris on the classic Dover / Calais route. https://www.cicerone.co.uk/cycling-london-to-paris Julian has taken each route and transcribed into our own RidewithGPS routes for each day starting and ending at our overnight lodgings. Onwards from Paris we have explored various routes on the internet to take us to Orléans and to Tours.

We will be completing between 50 and 80 km each day at a relaxed pace. This will give us time to detour to interesting sites and to explore each town that we pass through or stop in. We will also be stopping for a couple of nights in Amiens, Paris and Orléans.

Beryl is pointing to the start of French way from Paris to Santiago de Compostela. We saw this poster in Donaueschingen in the Black Forest in Germany. It was heartening to see how pilgrims would make their way to Santiago from all over Europe. Although on that trip we followed the Donau or Danube east, we were inspired to take the Camino.

Now we have arrived at the beginnings of our own camino journey. We have walked along the North Downs Way from Farnham, past Woking where we live, almost to Canterbury. It will take us another few days to walk on to Folkestone / Dover. Beryl had the vision of us making our own way all the way from our home to Santiago. In periods of a fortnight at a time we will walk or cycle to Santiago.

In 2019 we plan to cycle from Calais to Paris and then on to Tours on the River Loire. This will be about 600 km and will take us half way down France. Our subsequent plan is to cycle in 2020 from Tours to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the foot of the Pyrenees. From 2021 onwards we will walk and / or cycle to Santiago and then to Finisterre.