Day 29-31

Day 29-Sun 22/6- Baye to Sezanne 17km
Our host drives us to Baye to start our walking at the Abbey there. Along the D951, up and down until St Six where we get a long uphill haul along the tree lined road offering shade and a slight breeze. Along the road are km markers -Voi de la Liberte 1944- We wonder whether this was the road the allies came when liberating France after the war. The small villages we pass thru offer no shops of  any kind. We have been told that in this area there are 25 villages with only 5 bakeries to service them. We pass a chateau with its grand wrought iron gates, then a couple of large walled farmhouses, through fields, along a forest track, thru green & shady woods before emerging into a vineyard. We enter Sezanne as the clock strikes 12. After getting supplies at the marche we check in to an aged care facility where we are staying the night. Smiling nuns in grey habits welcome us. Lunch is immediately offered. Here we will also have dinner & breakfast. A most delightful place. Here also we meet 75yo Jozef from Belgium who is to become our new travelling companion.

Day 30-Sezanne to Anglure- 23km
After 4 we reach the village if Vindey with its "Put"- the stone shaped bottle - which marks the border between Brie-Champenoise and Champagne Crayeuse. Through grain fields, we feast off cherrys overhanging the path, much of which is alongside the disused railway line. We pass a grain silo busy with trucks bringing in the harvest. The horse flies are biting again. Harvesters are busy heading the wheat. Tractors pull large trailers filled with grain on their way to the silos. Arriving in Anglure there is a complex of massive silos, very busy with trucks & tractors rumbling in with their loads of grain. Here JP & I are at no 5 Rue de Pont & Jozef is at the hotel. A shorter day, grassy unpaved pathways. In the village there is the remains of a large water mill from medieval times.

Day 31-Tue 24/6-Anglure to Savierres 26km
Another sunny day. Across the bridge through the fields. We chat with a man tending his vegetable garden. We come to the canal de la Haute Seine. Serene white swans gliding in the waterlilies. Little black water birds dancing across the lily pads like they are running on water. In Mery-sur-Seine, Joan of Arc stands watch on top of the tower, while at street level there is a statue if Valmy Jemmapes- waving his rifle in one hand over his head (1702). We have lunch here & Jo catches us up so now we can walk together again. We follow the canal, crossing occasionally from side to side for shade and grassy paths, past locks (ecluses) and finally turn right to go into Savieres. Once there we have to walk am extra 1.1km to our gite. Mme Noble makes a dinner party of our stay and we meet her friends, making  7 altogether. Another Jean-Pierre who offers to show us his city of Troyes tomorrow and also to drill a hole in a scallop shell for JP who broke his today. We even get clafoutis cerises for dessert. Yum.