I trotted up to Notre Dame late last night, after 14 hours of non-stop walking and 40 miles. Either the bad ankle improved a lot or everything else got worse so didnt notice the ankle so much. Tom - would have taken your advice and made it a two day walk, but if sleeping out once in urban areas places to hide/sleep diminish and risk goes up. A group of four guys on the darkened Quais, within sight of Notre Dame, tried a fairly inept mugging - the guy who grabbed me seemed surprised to find a shambling dazed-looking, pack-laden vagrant had a useful and automatic repertoire of aikido hold-breaks, and also his trusty ash stave; but it was a warning to me. Anyway the irony is that I arrived in central Paris just too late to catch the night bus to London. I walked for another hour looking for a cheap hotel. In Paris! In central Paris! Hollow laugh! At midnight I gave up and slept out in the - notorious - Bois de Boulogne, in a patch of brambles. I was barely concealed, lit by a full moon and lights from some of the swankiest apartments in Paris. Bearing in mind my fun on the quais I dozed with my boots on, fully dressed and with my stick held across my chest - like one of those carved knights on a medieval tomb. Despite cold and a bit of drizzle I slept well till dawn. Even more surprisingly, my legs and feet were almost fine. So, yesterday and last night packed all off Herzogs greatest discomforts into one 24 hour period. Ideal, really - as the preceding month of walking was all joy. A brasserie coffee and pastry, then dug out my one clean shirt and now Im on the day bus to London. In the next eight hours Ill travel as far as I walked in the last two weeks. All a bit silly, really. Therell be a real update on theslowadventure very soon - but first a little sleep.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:42:00 +0000
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