… times better when I’ve had a decent shower and so you can imagine that this morning I’m feeling on top of the world (so just watch someone come along and spoil it) after the shower that I have just had at the truckstop on the edge of Chalons sur Marne. In fact I can safely say that the shower was better than the sleep that I had – but only just, because that was really good as well.

I made a coffee and then piddled off into town, finding an Intermarche open on the way so that I could do some shopping there and have something to eat at lunchtime, and from there I went into Chalons.

Chalons is a very interesting city, and a very old one too. It came into existence in early Roman days, being situated where the Roman Via Agrippa, that ran from Milan to Boulogne, crossed the Marne. There’s nothing left from those days but you can trace the outlines of all three of the defensive walls that ringed the city at one time or another.

This is the site of the Porte de Marne where the Via Agrippa leaves the city and arrives at the river.

There’s plenty that remains from the apogee of the town’s fortunes in the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries but if you peer through the window-dressing you’ll notice that it’s all in a very poor state of repair indeed and whatever it is that they are spending the town’s money on, it isn’t on the historic monuments and artefacts, that’s for sure.

One important church here in the town fell down in 1157, and it looks as if a couple of others are on their way to join it.

When I used to regularly use the N77 I remember them building the new airport at Varzy. One of the things today was to go for a wander around and look at it.

Its official title is the Aeroport Paris-Varzy, even though it is miles and miles away from Paris and ss you might expect, knowing my luck, it’s closed on a Sunday (which I find rather strange) so I couldn’t go inside. However I didn’t miss much as there wasn’t much to miss. It’s a little, well, basic despite the modern buildings.

There were a couple of bus stops here, one of which advertised a service to Euro-Disney, but all of them bore the same depressing notice – “as of 28 October 2012 the shuttle service is suspended” and gave a list of local taxi numbers, implying that not even taxis wait at the airport. A brand new railway link has been built to the airport but that goes to the freight terminals and doesn’t continue on to the passenger terminal.

All of this implies that a passenger service does not figure highly on the airport’s list of priorities. So if you are offered a flight to Paris-Varzy, bring a good book with you – preferably War and Peace. There isn’t even a hotel for you to go and have a kip.

There were plenty of other things to see along the route – none of which you might find particularly interesting – but a word does have to be said about the little village of Aubeterre. Its claim to fame is that during World War II a Lancaster bomber flying overhead exploded and the bits fell to earth. The rear gunner was trapped in his turret and that fell as one piece, all of about 16,000 feet.

Then, incredibly, the turret found some high-tension cables in a field. It bounced onto the cables, which interrupted its fall and then fell to earth. The rear gunner walked away from the wreckage.

A mere cockstride away from Aubeterre is the historic city of Troyes. This was somewhere that was high on my list of places to visit.

I just meant to have a brief hour or so around the city, but the more that I saw of the place, the more that I explored. I could easily spend a couple of days here.

So I’ve parked up for the night just outside the city and I’ll be back in the morning.

Before I clear off though, I’ll have to post this photo because this building is something for which I came especially to Troyes

A couple of people who figure quite often in these pages, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, are Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Marguerite Bourgeoys. The former was the person probably most responsible for the founding of Montréal and the latter was someone who, having been a friend of the sister of the former, was inspired by him to go to the New World.

Following her arrival in 1653 she devoted her life to Good Works especially amongst the female population of the city and the filles du roi, the young girls from the orphanages who were sent to Nouvelle France to become wives for the soldiers who, on the expiry of their period of engagement, opted to remain behind.

For her devotion, she was canonised in 1982, the first female saint of Canada.

Before leaving for Nouvelle France she stayed for a while with Chomedey de Maisonneuve and his sister in their family home. And this building is it.

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