Mouchamps

I camped in a bloke's garden last night (he did know) but I seriously wished I hadn't. Accommodation is really sparse around here and I found this guy on a site called Homecamper, couch surfing on grass in effect. The guy looked like a wide eyed Jeff Goldblum with a goatie. He acted surprised that I had turned up that day. I wasn't sure if it was a joke and explained that I spoke very little French. He replied "No problem" in English and proceeded to talk in very fast French. When he pointed the garden I thought "hoarder!". Old plastic swimming pool (which had no water in but it appeared to have a layer of rice pudding at the bottom), decrepit caravan, numerous old kids toys, geese (yes, live geese),several ladders. I could go on. He pointed to where I should camp. As I got my shelter set up he watched me from the house and he did the same when I took it down in the morning. The guy just freaked me out with his fixed stare. I found myself fabricating a narrative about how his broken marriage sent him off the rails. And then his suggested pitch was awful. It continued raining in the night and part of the pitch developed a puddle so I had to move my stuff around. That has been the worst night I've had on this trip by a long way. Fortunately tonight's looks a whole lot better!

The path I am following at the moment isn't the best. It is very bitty so I have to keep checking if I'm going the right way, and I seem to have to walk two kilometers to advance by one. Added to that there are very few shops over the next few days which just adds more diversions. So, over the next couple of days, I am going walk across to another route which looks more favourable. Fingers crossed.

Photos - I didn't take many photos because I left my cable at freaky man's house and didn't wante to waste my battery, but first up is Parc-Soubise. During the wars of the Republic in 1794, 200 people were shot at point blank range by Republican soldiers. The last to be shot was an eight year old boy but the General said "That's enough!" and the boy was the only survivor. He watched as they stripped and searched the corpses which included his friends and relatives. I watched a documentary about Northern Ireland recently and one of the interviewees said good people were doing bad things. That was ringing in my head as I looked at Parc-Soubise.

My only other photo was a baguette vending machine. Only in France!Read more