Where it started.

€1 to get from Amiens to Beauvais from quai 17 in the Gare Routiere; bargain. Must be some concession run by the municipalities to transport people in and out of that random airport - Tillé ... It's not Paris and it's technically not Beauvais...

I have my habits. At the Auberge du Jeunesse I had two average machine made coffees so I must seek a third better man made allongé. Unlike that phoney Andy, from Bottle and Bean, I don't really need a coffee that does anything other than stimulate. I prefer the street vendored affairs: Place Gambetta and a LavAzza is Italian style enough: they've been roasting that way for centuries so I get a taste I like. One sugar melted and well stirred, but a petite galette I can take or leave, but for the second morning I take: I prefer a chocolate coffee bean.

Am I a lost soul? The paths I move along often have little to impress themselves beyond a glancing veneer. I shuffle onwards ever seeking for nothing because there is nothing really at the end of the journey except more rope; endlessly finite rope. Am I suspended on a thread dangling (and ready to fall away; scattered like autumn leaves)?

***

Decided to go back to Beauvais and have Repas before heading to the airport. I don't like the return. And I've been returning for 2 days now...

Yes. But I am tired. Very tired. Walking on Monday and Tuesday was murder in the first degree.

Melancholy morning: If you took away all the places to eat, cafés, hair dressers... There is nothing to it? Let me walk.

This time I've not suffered any soreness in my feet. ECCO sandals are adequate, but the sole appears to wear a little quickly: they're not durable really: they don't use a Vibrant sole.

***

Which day was the best? The first morning and definitely passing alongside the valley with a breeze in my step. That was the 14th July: Bastille Day.

Up until the auto-stop dropped me on the outskirts of Mantes-la-Jolie (Limay) and then I really struggled to find a place I could afford on the Chemin Saint Jacques vers Beauvais. Continuing on towards Chartres would've been a stupid mistake. And Rouen was definitely a beautiful city. Size does matter and history too. Just the right size. Not a fraction of it like Beauvais and not overwhelming like Paris. And Rouen is rich in history. Shame that the RAF bombed it? But what else could be done against those nasty Nazis...

My favourite French cities are Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon - Rouen too. Amiens is OK for a day. It's a little too bombed to be anything other than 1950s outside the Cathedral, Beffroi and Citadel. Rouen was restored more because of its link with Jeanne D'Arc, I think.

***

Pretty queasy hour's journey from Amiens, but I recalled the large shopping centre on the outskirts/ring road in Beauvais so jumped off, made a deposit and went to E.Lerclerc to get galette, noix and vervaine for the journey back.

Now I am back in Beauvais and it's OK. Second time is always a worthwhile operation. You remember things easily forgotten from a brief visit. Beauvais is always here and at £14.99 it's inevitable I will come again to walk to Paris...

As we head to noon it's time to return to the excellent Little Italy before I walk to the airport - an hour north alongside a mainroad.

Back to Café du Marché for a hair of the dog...