Day 41-43

Day 41- Guipy to Premery-24kms Friday 4 July
We leave without breakfast but with rain gear on as it is raining lightly. Road walking all the way. We pass 4 donkeys, which stand close together for a picture. The landscape is changing and in many places I could be somewhere in Australia with rolling hills, cattle in the paddocks, pastures, wheat & canola. In St Reverian we hail a travelling epicerie  to buy some food which we eat standing up in the doorway of a barn. Along the way the villages are all closed up, no shops, almost abandoned. In St Reverian we take the Roman road, which is very rocky, but away from traffic. In Moussy we pass the a abandoned Hotel de la Perdats with it's faded sign. We shelter from the rain in the shed of a gite before continuing, thunder rolling all around. We make it into Premery to our accommodation at "des Routiers" at 1.30, have our lunch & a long cold panache.

Day 42-Premery to Nevers- 31kms
The three of us start off together, Jean-Pierre, Hiltrud & me aiming for Guerigny, 17kms. It is raining when we leave, which continues for the first hour. The road walking is getting to us, with the camber sloping. Sharply away on our left side. I lengthen that walking pole to compensate. Lovely scenery with undulating hills, no serious ups or downs. We cross the Clamecy to Nevers railway line several times. At each crossing there is the small railway house from the days when the crossings were manually operated. We follow the blue& yellow scallop shell signs to find our way. We pass a chateau behind its high stone walls, past white cows, fields of green corn, golden wheat & stubble. We walk thru silent forests, black clouds overhead. As we come into Guerigny we pass what looks like a former brick factory. Many tall chimneys, long buildings with tiled roof, all in apparent disrepair. In Guerigny we have a delicious crepe for lunch and JP & I decide to walk on. It is no longer raining and with only 14 kms to go to Nevers we set off. Hiltrud will stay in Guerigny as she was only going to walk as far as Nevers before returning home and she us not yet ready to finish. After a short stop along the way we walk into Nevers around 4pm. Here I can finally replace my phone charger which died a few days ago. We wind our way thru the narrow streets, past the ugly war memorial, across the park and find St Bernadettes, where we will stay the night in the pilgrim accommodation, way down the back corner. Here we meet up with Salome, a Swiss pilgrim. She shares our room & we eat our evening meal together in the communal dining room.

Day 43-Nevers to Grossouvre- 26kms
After breakfast we visit the chapel of St Bernadette where her body lies intact in a glass case. It has lain here since 1925. She was tiny. On our way our of town we visit the cathedral which had very modern stain glass windows but a very lovely old clock with the sun for a face. It is raining as we leave and continues, raining, raining. We take shelter for a short while in a farm shed. In Gimouille we stop for coffee before crossing the canal again. At Pont Canal we cross the Seine, on a footbridge alongside the canal Laterale a la Loire. Here the fall at the lock would be at least 5metres. In Apremont-sur-Allier, one of the beaux villages de France, we enjoy lunch in sunshine alongside the river. Soon after leaving Apremont we take the D76, which is also the GR654, that leads us through forests on either side (private), for km after km, straight as a narrow. All is silent, a breeze springs up, we quickly don our wet weather gear and take shelter under some large oaks for 5 minutes while the thunderstorm passes over. We set off again when the rain eases. Suddenly the thunder cracks right over head, lightning flashes & the storm descends. Lashings of rain, we are pelted with hailstones to size if ball bearings and in moments we are drenched through, feet squelching in our boots. This continues for 40 minutes. We just keep on walking. No point in doing anything else. We laugh and laugh. It is ridiculously funny, 3 drowned rats. We emerge from the forests as the rain eases and we are soon at Chateau Grossouvre, today's destination. We are staying in the annexe. We are soon warm with all our stuff drying out. Later our host Jacques Chevaux shows us through the chateau which he is restoring to make into a museum for his collection of old military uniforms, swords & paraphernalia. He has been at it for 16 years so far. & hopes to have the ground floor open in 2 years time. A huge task.