The Artillery School. 25.5 Donnement to Dienville

Ray leaves us today he is going he to see his daughter who is visiting from Australia, their respective journeys may well takeuch the same time. The bus to Troyes the nearest rail link leaves at 6.33am it is on time .Tim sees him off and gets the breakfast and is rewarded with early morning light on the large church in town. So we are well ready when the taxi arrives at 8 to take us back to Donneville where we left off yesterday.
The walk is interesting around the various ponds in the area. Unfortunately they are ex gravel pits some are still in action we are repeatedly buzzed by large lorries along the fairly small roads.
We get to Brienne de Château for lunch it is the home of the military academy that trained Napoleon 1 for 5 years They are very proud of him maybe because he gave them a million Francs when banged up in St Helena. Though the museum dedicated to him does admit that he was glorified across France in the century after his death and so this may be a bit exaggerated. The church in town is again in this Gothic style and has some very old and subtle stained glass, looks a bit like sepia toned photos.
A few km from home we meet a French woman walking the route to Santiago de Compostela this coincides with the Via Franicigena for this point but not for much further.
Back at the campsite a cool dry day with light packs has been quite pleasant and we have spotted two Black Kites wheeling above us.

Link to where we are on Google Maps