A totally different day to yesterday; we woke to blue skies and sunshine, but cold. We left Luneville heading north into rolling open countryside. Although this area was heavily fought over in August and September 1914 during the Battle of the Frontiers, there are no obvious signs of battle. WW1 War Memorials seem to be the only monuments; it was sad to see so many names listed as fallen, many from the same families. The effect of such losses must have been catastrophic to these small rural communities. Many of the villages along, or near the WFW were destroyed during the war, being rebuilt only to suffer a similar fate during WW2. Brin-sur Seille, the village we overnighted in (6 km east of the WFW), was a border town in in 1914, with German occupied territory to the east of the River Seille. Our host explained how the village was abandoned and destroyed after 1914.
While not as physically demanding as Stage 1 and 2, walking this part of the WFW brings its own challenges. There are long stretches on rain-soaked and rutted tracks or roads, and it often feels like we are ‘following the Yellow Brick Road’. Our constant companions as we follow the track of the long-removed trench-line have been skylarks, whose beautiful high-pitched song lifts our spirits as we meander across the landscape, as we hope it did for the soldiers over a hundred years ago. On these sections it is easy to drop into companionable silence, with only the noise of our walking poles ‘clacking’ on the road to disturb the peace.
One other observation we have made as we traverse this stretch of the WFW is to note the abundance of mistletoe growing in the trees, a sight rarely seen in the UK now. It evokes happy memories of many past Christmases with our two families together, thoughts which fill the space as the kilometres pass by.
We have recently set up a twitter account which is @IntoTheBreachWFW23
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