12 Orges to Langres
758m climbing
3h 48m elapsed
30th July 2019, 18°C, mostly sunny
54.85km
3h 25m moving
65% off-road
The main deviation from the official route today was to pass through the town of Chatequvillain (to find something for lunch) and then to stay in the enormous forest for as long as possible. After the forest it was only minor detours to avoid roads, small hills or what looked like difficult walking paths.
Red line - the route I took, Orange line - “official” Via Francigena, Blue line - Sigeric’s probable route
Last day for 2019
Today's first waypoint was the town of Châteauvillain which kind of has a grand entrance to the park and forest land on its doorstep. However when I got there the entrance looked closed, fortunately you just go up to the door and push on through. The park and forest itself stretches on for miles, over a third of the journey today was in the forest trails here.
Typical street in Langres
The cathedral in Langres
Overnight: Langres, Le Belvedere des Remparts de la Garenne
I loved Langres but its hard not to compare it with Laon. They're both elongated hill towns on the Via Francigena in France and seem very similar in size. The architecture is similar, plenty of "old stuff", but the cathedral in Laon is much much more impressive.
However compared with Laon, Langres was buzzing with life; it felt like people really lived there and wanted to visit. Laon seemed to have fallen on very hard times, whilst Langres was doing well: Langres had even been twinned with Britain's richest town: Beaconsfield! Oh and Langres also has a cheese, which is great (so long as you don't put it on pizza... I tried it and its not good).
I stayed at an amazing B&B called Le Belvedere des Remparts run by a great Brazillian/American couple who were very welcoming. I'd hugely recommend staying there.
