A rebel without a clue.

Where it all began. The airport. A brief visit to Compiegne for lunch as it's only €1 each way on the local bus network. Was going to head for a Coq Hardi at Café Les Halles, opposite to where the Marche is in Beauvais is held, but on a Monday it is closed so walked up to the airport, picking up a fresh Tradi baguette, and now sit waiting for the time to pass before back to Leeds. People whittering in which ever language they use to whitter and I had to have a beer before I explode. Cheapest option was way too expensive 1664. The bar on T2 is almost €12 a pint. The exclusivity of airports and the profiteering which goes on beggars belief! I will manage on just the baguette, and perhaps the sardines in the tin I've had since the first day, but it's just boredom which does it - eating. Something to distract me from a few hours facing the back of someone's seat and seeing if any of the aircrew are actually nice... ... I have not seen a soul for days now every fucker is goi...

A great night's sleep. Meandering along the towpath, and through the Les Hortillonnages, towards the Quai Belu where I was last Friday ready to clock out.  The same disinterested service, from the millennials running Green Corner, meant I followed my feet onwards after two 25cls. Found the Airbnb soon after, close to to Eglise Saint-Jacques, which is a bit like an unattended hostel (as it had four rooms, and communal facilities) leaving Sunday opiated faces for a deep shower and a rapid clothes wash. I was in Lalaland with a thunderstorm coming and going overhead before nine. Eight days walking from Saturday until Sunday, Friday the day off to head to Arras from Rouen. Next time, enroute to Mont-Saint-Michel, it's Rouen West? This time I forgot my credentials for staying in pilgrim digs so had a few issues around accommodation. But once I discovered Airbnb can be paid with using PayPal I was laughing. Hotels and Chambre D'hotes are too expensive, with inflation the way it i...

Rain and mosquitoes Drunk angler at the 35 kilometres stage moves me forward for another 3.5. Beer at the rural arts cafe/bar And a large ramkin of GORP To keep me going. And I really must smell. Me, the bag and the clothes. Even the bum bag Like a vagrant Or a tramp. There is a washing machine at the end of the way Today. God she's gorgeous! Jardin, canal, la Somme!

Albert famous for being central to years of mass suicide in the form of ww1. War is chosen. All the many reasons mean there was simply no reason: I received a 1st at university for the essay which I presented, complete and consistent throughout, on the causes of Great War (only one of two - the other related to Dickens and his portrayal of London during his lifespan) I argued all the causes were excuses used in hindsight to justify the simple idiotic gallantry of the opening days of the war, which would be over by Christmas, but just became dirtier and dirtier(with cavalry charge against machine gun and heavy field artillery) until a stalemate was reached in the race to the channel! And then so many pointless attempts were made to breakout of the web spun by both sides to the advantage of neither that, by the end, all nations were on the brink of revolution/civil war/starvation/chaos ... It was such a meaningless waste of lives human, bovine, porcine, equine, canine and the billions of...

Passing Arras in 2014 and 2016 there was only one place selling 'craft' or 'artisanale' beer and now 7 years later it's everywhere! Did a silent Saturday morning tour of both place  prior to the café opening for two coffees and a croissant. Then picked up two saucisson poulet  from the rotisserie truck which is ubiquitous at French town centre street Marché before leaving Arras south passed the Citadel. Claustrophobia, panic attack and an asthma attack too. All in the same overwhelming bar surrounded by meaningless English Somme memorial visitors. It took me a lot of effort to overcome the tension and to relax. When I finally found the Airbnb: first walking to one end of town the correct way before receiving a welcome message with 27 Rue General LeClerc, not 27 Rue General Faidherbe as in Airbnb, and dying from lack of air through my windpipe and almost becoming heavily soiled in the trouser area, and finally putting the code on the door to think it wasn't openi...

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 ...