Back on Track: Wisques to Bruay

In response to my last post, a wise reader suggested that one ought not to compare lovers. VF is your new companion, she said, ‘give it time, let it grow on you’ – something like that.

Armed with good advice and back on track in Wisques, we have averaged about 20 kms a day over the last 3 days to Bruay-la-Buissiere. No one claims that these sections of the VF in Northern France are especially handsome. But we met some wonderful fellow-walkers in Wisques and somehow time and season have fallen into place, making the days pleasant.

The path here passes through suburbs, manicured parklands, farms and patches of woodland. Spring has started garlanding the ground with sprays of yellow and white and sprinkles of blue and pink (too tiny for my camera) so that even the grey tarmac roads which are hard on your feet, are gentle on the eye. In the new holiday suburbs, it is the upstart tulips and trees grafted by human hands that demand attention.

My sharp-eyed companion has spied several rabbits, one hare and even I could see the three deers darting along a ridge above our path. A big bird, something like a pheasant, clattered right into us, surprising all involved,

For days now, the clouds have held sway over the sky. The sun is soft when it winks out for brief intervals. The wind is silent one day and playful the next. Dire predictions of rain and storm from my pessimistic weather app have not come to pass.

But it is not always pretty – what relationship is? Northern France was devastated by two world wars. Already I have seen more grave yards and war memorials than I can remember anywhere else.

In an area where coal was key to post-war recovery, the detritus of mining, closed down late last century, is part of the landscape. The tyre-churned boggy paths in the woodlands are tedious to walk through. And we have days, perhaps two weeks ahead of us, of walking on sealed roads, designed for cars, not foot-fall.

So yes, I am still apprehensive. But in the parks and the less curated woods, spring is in the air and bird-calls compete with, and occasionally drown out the sound of electric saws on one side and cars on the other.

With a little help from good weather, the VF has been a considerate companion, showing us bits of modern rural France, that are rarely captured through car windows, and never found on must-do tourist lists.

So for the moment we are staying the course with all the hopes and fears of travellers on a road less travelled.