A nice, varied stage through the flat country between the Vosges and the Jura. The stage is long but fairly flat and it runs on well-walkable paths. The route passes a beautiful lake area with a large swimming lake. There are some detours from the original GR5 trail. These make the route longer, but this way you have to walk less on asphalt.
Today a long hike lays ahead of us. It is a 34 kilometer walk to a place along the trail where there is a campsite and since the landscape is quite flat, we decide to walk it in one go. So we leave the campground early and start the hike around 8 am.
The route starts at a small village that we walk through, after which we soon enter the woods. Because it rained a lot last night, the paths are slippery and wet, so we need to be carefull.
After a few kilometers we’ve left the forest and we walk more and more among farmlands. The road undulates a bit, but it’s not really steep anywhere. We keep a good pace and after 2 hours and 9.5 kilometers of walking, we set up our chairs at the edge of a grassy field for our first break.
The corn that was green before we reached the Vosges Mountains, is now yellow and looking ready for harvest. Even the corn that not long ago were young sprouts, are now already sturdy plants. You really notice that the season is beginning to change and that we are getting further and further south.
After the break we walk between fields towards a lake area. According to the route on the navigation we first have to walk quite a bit on the main road through a few villages, but the signage has other plans. When we reach the first village, the white/red signs indicate an “alternative” route of the GR5, which we decide to take. The advantage is that we arrive a lot earlier in the lake area, but it is to be hoped that this detour won’t add too many extra kilometers. But we can’t tell until we get back on the original navigational route.
By now we are (hopefully) well over halfway through the hike, so we take a long break on a sunny grassy area between the lakes. While Malou prepares lunch, Mark pitched up the soaking wet tent to dry and makes a clothesline where we can let our damp clothes and towels dry in the sun. After a few rainy days, it’s sometimes difficult to keep everything properly dry.
We enjoy our French cheese baguette and sitting among all our gear on display, it looks like a campsite… We expect some questions about that sooner or later anyway, so during lunch we practice the French version of the phrase “No way, we’re not camping here, we’re just drying our tent that’s still wet from this morning’s dew”
After the break of almost an hour, everything is thoroughly dry again and we continue our hike. We pass a few more lakes and the temperature starts to rise considerably. The water supply is dwindling and the caps go on. Given the red color of Mark’s nose, just a little too late…
Along the lakes we enjoy the tranquility, nature and the many beautiful water birds that live here.
Towards the end of the area it starts to get a little busier and suddenly we see an inflatable fort and bouncy castles in the water with dozens of people in bright orange life jackets. A little further on is a day beach and since it is a Saturday afternoon with lovely summer weather, it’s super busy here. The temptation is strong to throw off the heavy backpacks and take a refreshing dip. But we still have to walk quite a bit (10+ km) so we’d better not. Unfortunately… But luckily we can refill our water bottles at the lifeguard building near the lake.
We cross the freeway, leave the lake district and walk a few kilometers along the “Canal de la Haute-Saône” which is connected to Canal du Rhône-au-Rhin by an aqueduct over the L’Allan. Here we meet a man that’s encouraging us with “Bravo, bravo!”. He himself walked a large section of the GR5 years ago, he lives nearby and meets hikers “all of Europe” on this section of the trail. What an enthusiasm! Encounters like this always give us new energy to continue hiking.
By now we are 25 kilometers on the road and still have a stretch to go… One more hill until our final destination of the day, another 7 kilometers or so. We walk uphill through the forest and at the top there is already another change of road indicated. Since the detour earlier in the day provided a nicer route and not more kilometers, we decide to take this one as well. Again, a beautiful route, but unfortunately, this one is 2.5 kilometers longer… It makes the hike even longer so we put in some extra pace and after about 1.5 hours the village comes into sight, where we will take the bus to the campsite.
Every time we walk more than 30 kilometers, we say to each other “we shouldn’t do that again…”. More than 30 kilometers is just a little too much with our backpacks on. But it was a beautiful, varied route and we are glad to be on the bus to the campsite.
We had planned to come back to the bus stop tomorrow and do the stage to Saint Hippolyte. But in the evening during planning our next stage, it turns out that no buses run in this small French village on Sundays (and no train, Über or cab either…) so that unexpectedly results in an extra day of rest. Not too bad actually, after today’s challenging stage.
