A rebel without a clue.

Piétons and Deviations... Arras 8 years forward! Do I know dislike it. The war is well over? This heat is ceaseless and it's Friday. 7 days straight of high twenties. I am bewildered. And I am considering Vimy Ridge in the morning! *** Arras feels entirely different, but last time I was here was autumn or winter, and it was damp, Place Les Heros didn't feel to be surrounded by restaurants and bars on all four sides. I didn't spend time in Le Grand Place before, but that is the same on its four arcaded sides. So right sides of food or drink. As I sat in the bar looking at the Hôtel d'Ville those years ago I felt special as I was about to head to Peronne, on the section of Via Francigena I did between Canterbury and it. The previous time I was looking at the battle sites, the Grande Mine from the first morning of the Somme Battle 1916 and the Thiepval memorial, where I found a Charles Sherburn as fallen at that battle. Part of the 100 years anniversary. But now? 2023 and ...

But I wasn't. Drunk I mean. Didn't get to Rouen centre until nearly 7 and turned in at 10. Slept almost entirely until 6... There was a bit of background chatter and the bass sound from the oldest discotheque in France just 10 metres further on from my petit room on the ground floor. As I opened the window the road sweeper was doing his essential work to keep Rouen looking 'clean'. Such a fallacy. Having walked in to Paris through St Denis and Serselles cleanliness only stretches to what a tourist might perceive. I have this problem in LS7. Just over Clay Pit Lane Leeds is squeaky clean, but as you hit 'council estates' it's mountains of detritus where mowing the grass includes all the plastic which lies buried waste deep... After so many days on the move I miscounted the amount of time it took me to reach Rouen from Amiens. Yesterday morning I thought 5, but as I sat opposite Melody in the Taverne Saint Amant, I shouted 'its six'. My original quest ...