As a family we were once given a lift by my uncle from Calgary Airport to Ralston, a small township near Medicine Hat in the vast prairies of Alberta. “The drive will take three hours,” we were told, “I’ll wake you up for the bend and I’ll wake you up for the bridge!”

My walk today would be of similar duration to the journey along the Trans-Canadian Highway 1, and would contain not many more features. My constant companion on these 17 kilometres would be the Canal Latéral à la Marne, into which the previous day’s canal (the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne) flows at Condé. Confused yet? You’ll have plenty of time to work it out.

I’d had a good night’s sleep at Le Clé des Champs, and a good breakfast and had a brief look round the town before setting out. I planned to be at my destination for lunchtime, so didn’t bother with the customary baguette purchasing.

The church here appears to have lost its tower during the Great War, and it was replaced with a wonderfully naïve replacement. You’ll be spared yet further church pictures however, as I wasn’t able to get past the gates to the churchyard, let along get inside!

And so, the rasp of the grain dryer called me to the canal bank, and the next 16 km. I would normally stride out and try to get at least 5 under my belt in the first hour, but I was still tired after yesterday and vowed to take things a bit easier today.

The weather was overcast and cool: perfect for walking. And if I’m honest, while being sniffy about canal walking, it’s pretty darn easy: one foot in front of the other and repeat. The mind can wander, one can turn aside from time to time to knock the seeds from a dandelion head or try to locate a bird singing in the tree. (A black cap made this particularly easy at one point, practically singing directly into my ear!).

This seems to be a good time to introduce you to some of my equipment that I have brought with me. “Kit Corner” if you like… I won’t detail it all in one go, that might be a bit much, important to pace those things, you know. But I’d like to introduce you to my walking poles, Magda and Zbigniew.

Like all Polish people I have ever met, these poles are utterly reliable, fearless and have got me out of some scrapes on a number of occasions. Named after a pen friend I used to have and a dishy Third Officer, my sister Hayley could tell you all about, Magda and Zbigniew are seen here, especially customised with red and white tape that I bought in Arras, representing not just the red and white flashes of the Via Francigena in France, but also the national colours of Poland.

(If you’re confused as to which one is which, Zbigniew is the slightly taller ones and Magda that slightly more shapely one).

So that was Kit Corner done for today. There’ll be a chance to meet George and Fred next time I’m traversing a towpath.

I did see a boat.

And there were three sets of locks. I learned something fascinating on this canal. Here you don’t need a lock keeper whizzing along in a van to open and close locks. You simply turn this lever a quarter turn and the automated system of flooding or draining the lock kicks in. Clever, eh!

The official route of the Via Francigena takes pity on the walker, and runs off the canal, taking in the nearby villages of Vraix and Juvigny, but this adds another kilometre into the journey and I was hungry.

Eventually, Châlons-en-Champagne gone into view, off the port bow. I put myself a little under pressure by arriving into town at 2pm, just as many places stopped serving food, however a pizza chap took pity on me, and turned away from the monumental pile of dough he was preparing for evening service and cooked my a rather mouthwatering Napoli pizza.

Suitably fortified, I felt able to take on another Gothic Cathedral. This time dedicated to Saint Etienne. A place of wonderful height and space, and bathed with glorious colour from the vivid stained glass. Standby for another gallery, after this tomb, crying out for a caption competition!

There was little then to do except obtain my stamp from the Tourist Office (successful) and find my accommodation (eventually successful).

And here I am, safely ensconced in a family home on the Avenue de Metz. Tomorrow, I’ve only got 15 km of canal to walk along!