Date: 2008-03-12 08:30 Subject: 501 miles completed, only 789 to go! Security: Public

Well it has certainly been an interesting couple of weeks with another 3 cities/towns visited, snow, rain and sunshine to contend with and practicising my French seems to be paying off – or is just that I am getting better at knowing which page to go to in my phrase book!! 

Having settled into my hotel in Clermont Ferrand, I decided to use my rest day to find out more about the city. The previous afternoon I had got of the bus to walk the last eight miles into the city and seeing how large it was the first priority was to find my way around. 

Originally, the city comprised two towns, Clermont and Mont Ferrand and eventually they formed Clermont Ferrand. 

Over the next few days, I took the opportunity to explore the area including following three tourist routes around the city and out into the country. One of the managers at the hotel was himself a keen walker and had recently completed the route San Jacques, which is one of the pilgrim routes leading to Compestella in Spain and takes about five weeks to complete. He asked how long my walk was taking and when I told him 16 weeks his face was a picture. 

The cathedral at Clermont Ferrand was fascinating, on the outside it was black and even the stained glass windows appeared to be plain, however, from the inside the true splendour of the building displayed itself. The colours of the stained glass windows were incredible and some impressive works of art were on display around the cathedral. Another oddity of the building was the clock and bell above the main entrance which seemed totally out of place on such an old building. 

After six days it was time to move onto St Etienne. I decided to travel by public transport to Lisieux and then walk the 12 miles to Thiers before boarding the train to St Etienne. The weather forecast suggested that light rain may be around but for the main part it would be dry and sunny. About 1½ miles from Thiers the forecast proved to be totally wrong when it started to snow and within five minutes became a blizzard.  

What had been a nice walk in the morning sunshine had suddenly turned into a serious situation and at one stage even the traffic was starting to encounter problems. The only thing that I could do was to put on the fluorescent waterproof gear, use the walking poles to help give me grip and take my time. It took me over an hour to cover the distance and having arrived at the station found I had missed the train and had to wait over an hour for the next.  

When I reached St Etienne it was still snowing and it carried on until the following morning. With the exception of the hotel staff, I did not find the people of St Etienne as friendly as in other parts of France I had visited but as I only had one full day there I was not going to let it bother me. I managed to find a walk of just over 14 miles that took me around the city which was quite hilly but provided some spectacular views of the surrounding hills and of the expanse of the city itself. St Etienne was for many years a centre for mining and industry and there are a couple of museums that are dedicated to these periods. Sadly, I did not have time to visit them. 

Onwards then to Valence, via Lyon whose football team had just been knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United a point made very clearly, but in a good natured way, by a small group of Lyon fans when they found out I was English.

Valence was to prove to be one of the highlights of the walk so far, with tremendous weather, a very pleasant hotel called the Atrium and very friendly people who whenever possible were happy to practice their English or help me with my French. Valence lies on the banks of the Rhone and there was always a very pleasant breeze to make the walking enjoyable and probably explains how I found myself walking 20 miles in one day to Tain l’hermitage and back. I found one or two local landmarks of interest, the Jouvet Park, Peynet bandstand and the Valence Fine Art museum. The park provided a good starting point for many of the walks and I made sure I included a circuit of it each day. Besides the 700 trees and ample grassed areas the park contained a spectacular fountain and above the park was the bandstand. The story goes that in 1942, in front the bandstand Raymond Peynet created his couple of lovers after being impressed by the beauty of its surroundings.

It was time to move onto Montelimar which also provided its own highlights. Starting with accommodation, Le Sphinx, a converted 17^th century mansion house just off the main street, with only 24 rooms and set in a courtyard. Montelimar is famous for Nougat which was first made in the 16^th century and is now famous around the world. I was lucky enough to be taken on a private tour of one of the smaller establishments where I was surprised to see much of the process still being undertaken manually. It takes approximately five hours to make a batch of nougat which once cooled is cut into the chunks you see in the shops.

Two newspapers, Le Dauphine a daily regional paper and Le Tribune a weekly paper with a much wider distribution interviewed me and published articles on the walk. I was quite surprised that they were interested in one person’s journey when they were in the middle of local elections and the Paris – Nice bicycle race was due to start its fourth stage in the town later in the week.

Montelimar has over 140 miles of walks in and around the town and so it was not difficult to select places to walk to. I also made sure that I visited one of the local landmarks, the castle of Adhemar which was built in the 11^th century and during the 12^th century became the home of the Adhemar de Monteil family which in turn gave the town its name, Monteil Adhemar becoming Montelimar.

The countryside around Montelimar was spectacular and in the distance the snow covered Alps could easily be seen. The only “blot” on the landscape was a huge nuclear power station at nearby Cruas with its four chimneys belching out steam, apparently there are several such power stations along the length of the Rhone.

At the weekend I move onto Orange to stay with the parents of a French lady who attends one of the catholic churches in Gosport and who was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to visit her family.

I am also hoping to make time to sort through all the photographs I have taken along the way and get them onto the website.