A Sunday stroll

We woke this morning to beautiful blue skies. After a relaxing cup of tea in bed I suggested that maybe we should go for a walk, so we enjoyed a light breakfast, packed up a couple of jambon beurres (ham baguettes) and a flask of coffee and, after a quick check of our route, set off. I had wanted to explore a path behind our house, which we hadn’t really walked along previously, but we weren’t sure that all the marked paths met up properly, so it would be a bit of a voyage of discovery. We walked through the village and were soon heading up through beautiful woodland.

The woodland ended and we emerged onto high farmland plains. I had to take a quick photo, as I thought we were looking like giants with miniature heads, walking with our backs to the low, late autumn sun.

As we walked through the fields of kale, and winter wheat, we could hear a familiar gaggle for this time of year. We looked up, searching the sky for formations of birds. We could definitely hear the cranes on their migration south, but they take a while to spot sometimes. When we did manage to accustom our eyes, we saw three big flocks on the horizon. They stop off at the Lac d’Orient on their migration, and will probably spend a few days there before continuing their long flight south.

As we walked along the edge of vineyards and kale fields we could see to our right the small village of Chervy, nestled amongst its own vineyards. On the horizon the wind turbines were delicately turning, harnessing what wind and energy there was on such a calm day. It’s always nice to be able to see neighbouring villages, it really gives a sense of place in the landscape.

We turned left here and headed back down into Viviers-sur-Artaut, enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon sun. We passed back into forest, quiet, and dappled with the low setting sun. We’d been out for nearly three hours, and our minds were wandering to a sit down, a cup of earl grey tea, and dinner in front of a lit fire.

But one last treat awaited us as we dipped down into Viviers, an amazing view of our village. Our usual point de vue is on the other side of the valley, but this view was just as spectacular.

Now time for that tea!