Charleville to Avancon

The hills cycling out of Charleville were brutal. I crossed valley after valley and it hurt. In half an hour I had only managed 15km. I stopped for the picque-nique at what appeared to be the perfect bench, nicely shaded in the well kept lawns to the rear of the village church. But I wasn't there five minutes before I was set upon by two conversationl locals. My pleas that I didn't have good French were to no avail, question after question came, the fact tat I was an English priest just whetting their interest, until I gave up trying to eat and moved on feeling pretty sorry for myself. 

Eventually the hills became fewer and the way levelled. I stopped at Rethel for a leisurely break in front of the Mairie. My next stop was in the tiny hamlet of Avancon about 30km north of Reims. My hosts, Damien and Emilie live on a farm with their three daughters. However, once I had found the farm it was obvious I had called at a bad time. Clemence, their eldest daughter had just fallen and broken her arm and was being taken to hospital by Emilie. I wished there was somewhere else I could go, but Avancon was a one horse, no hotel kind of a place. Damien was incredibly gracious in the circumstances.