It’s a beautiful crisp, cold and slightly foggy day today here in Champagne, so I decided to step away from the computer and take Pepper for a longer than usual walk.
I love walking, especially with my dog. It’s so refreshing to be in nature, to hear the rustle of the trees, the birds singing and the quiet solitude of the forest.
My favourite walking trail is definitely the CBR which stands for Chemin de Fer de la Banlieue de Reims – a former railway line spanning over 400 kms and connecting 180 villages in the Champagne region. It was built in 1894 and played a very important role during the first World War carrying ammunitions, materials and indeed the wounded.
This is an old picture of the station in Verzy which is now a private house. The stations are easy to recognise because they all look the same, built to the same specification. However, as time went on, the railway network was used less and less, and like many European suburban railways, was sadly dismantled in 1966.
But what’s left is over 400kms of trails for us to enjoy on foot or on bicyle around the region.
The bit which passes through our village, Verzy, is now part of the old pilgrim trail to both St. Jacques de Compostelle in northern Spain and the Via Francigena which leads to Rome.
When I walk just a little bit of this trail, those destinations sometimes call to me. How about you?
Yvonne 🙂
For ideas on what to do, where to go and who to meet, download our free guide by CLICKING HERE
