Great France Walk starts to take shape

As the spring approaches so my attention turns to how to turn the Great France Walk into an actual event.

For a start I now have an actual map of the first day's walk. I ended up buying map 1612OT direct from the IGN of France. I will have to include a visit to the wonderful map shop near the Lamb and Flag on my infrequent visits to the capital. Anyway what this map clearly shows is that I have to be able to cover 26 kilometres in the day.

That is therefore my target for the Spring and Summer as I raise the distances I can travel in one day to the 25-30 km mark. I intend doing this by doing first one and then two circular walks of the required length in a day.

I will have to look carefully at my clothing and then at my equipment. I want to be able to be self sufficient on these journeys so will need a proper rucksack to carry my clothes and camping equipment on my back. This again will necessitate practice carrying.

The second day's walk ends at Thury Harcourt, which possesses a camping site, where we have been before and which is in our Michelin guide. The first day's walk ends at May sur Orne, which doesn't have a campsite. I am not planning to sleep rough so as part of our June in France holiday we shall visit this village and see what accommodation is available. At the moment it looks like the first instalment of the Great France Walk could be this autumn.

Those who know me will not be surprised to find I have discovered a gadget which may or may not prove to be useful. It is a GPS IGN Evadeo X55. This is a device similar to the SATnav which can be used with walking, cycling and driving if you use the appropriate maps. I can hear you say but what is wrong with the maps. Nothing is the answer and of course each walk will be planned using the maps. However the GPS device gets you out of those tricky moments of decision when following waymarked signs when the wrong choice can add many km to the walk and delay your arrival at the day's destination. Let's just say I am tempted.

I have also started to think about the security arrangements needed to travel cross country this way. Where does one store the GPS, the cash and the credit card needed to use in an ATM for more cash, and the mobile phone?

I am about to enter a brief period of theatrical endeavour in which I resurrect three productions from last year and start to learn a new one. The resurrection of productions is a new one to me as normally I learn lines for a production, maintain them until the final performance and then erase them from my memory. I have found difficulty in the past remembering even memorable lines from plays that I have been in so my new task is daunting. I have to relearn the lines rapidly as I haven't the luxury of spending weeks in rehearsal. The first of these productions has a rehearsal tonight and then two performances on Friday and Saturday. I start a second revival next week with a rehearsal on Monday. My grey brain cells are in for a hard time!