It’s spring. It’s May. It’s the day before Mother’s Day! Here are some random photos of flowers and shrubs. Some of you can probably name many of them. I’ve definitely moved from tulips to irises! I have walked from a cold England and northern France, when one night the temperature was 32 degrees, to central …
Category: 2023B Via Francigena
519. Hautvillier and Don Piere Perignon
What do I do when I’m in Champagna? I go to the “cradle of champagne”- Hautvillers. I’m skipping several of Sigeric’s Via Francigena stages between Reims and Vitry en Francaise. By train and a very short taxi ride, I’m in Hautvillers. This small village became the home for Pierre Perignon, later Dom Perignon, or really …
518. Cathedrals
Amiens What to write about cathedrals? Similar to writing about wonderful music, I probably should write nothing. Simply be quiet. Write nothing. But the various cathedrals compel me to acknowledge their power and presence. Here are mere fragments from my journal entries for Amiens, Laon, and Reims. Amiens. Wow!!! The power of a perfectly proportioned …
517. Victory-Europe Day in Reims
Slow traveling gives me time to participate in unanticipated events. I’m in Reims. Famous for its beautiful, beautiful cathedral. I’m entering a square and I hear a trumpeter practicing. On one side of the square three police vans are parked. After asking one friendly policeman what is happening, I learn that there are ceremonies for …
516. Soldiers’ Life, more
Besides walking this area of the Somme, I visited three museums and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Center. I forgot to mention in the previous post that soldiers had ways of dealing with boredom. Some of them made art in the trenches. Just as I like photographing artistic individuals, whether it be folk art, street …
515. Soldier’s Life
Walking through the Somme and seeing the memorials and cemeteries, I wondered about the soldiers. From the displays I read the British tried to train or motor their soldiers as close to the front lines as possible. Probably close to an area that served as a rest area for the soldiers being rotated from the …
514. Villages of Picardy
Besides being quite small, the Picardy villages are very, very quiet. As I lived in two rural Illinois villages with barely 400 folks in each village (one had a very active co-op grain elevator and the other had a relatively busy restaurant) I know small, quiet villages. In France, I know that I'm approaching a …
513. Soccer and World War 1
All this walking in the Somme has me unavoidably thinking about my feet. Some people use their feet not just to walk but to play sports. Soccer for example. I didn’t grow up playing soccer. Heck, I didn't know that the word "football" had different meanings for Americans and Europeans. Even while walking in France …
512. Walking the Somme
I am walking the Somme. From downtown Decatur to Bethlehem, Georgia or from Springfield to Decatur, Illinois, between 2 1/2-3 million men fought with over 1 million killed, wounded, or missing in action. In the period July 1 to December 1916, over 500,000 killed. That July 1 has been declared the “worst day in the …
511. The valley of the Somme
As a very young Swedish immigrant, my unknown-to-me grandpa Lindquist came to the USA in the 1880’s. Later, as he was in his mid 30’s and supporting a wife and five kids, he did not volunteer for “the war to end all wars.” He supported his family by being a book binder. Whether he was …
Journeys: Explorations in Body, Mind, and Spirit 