Day 14 Walking from Tergnier to Cessiers

Friday September 28. We enjoyed a wonderful rather leisurely walk today. There is quite a change in the scenery. The first week from the coast it was small farms with holestein cattle and the second week it was more like the meseta in Spain very flat with sugar beets and harvested grain crops. Now we are in wooded rolling hills with charlois cattle and corn crops. It was an overcast day and we were very cognizant of every turn so as not to have to retrace our route. We arrived in Cessiers about 1pm and we tried the door on the restaurant and it was open. This should have been a warning sign to us as this was the first one that was open around noon in two weeks. They had a fire going in the fireplace and showed us to a table. She went down the menu options including plat du jour. we agreed on this and as it turned out it was great with salad and real beef, frontage, dessert and wine. 28 euros later we walked to our chamber de hire about 59 meters away. They gave a really nice place for 60e and although it is above what we normally pay, we justified it since we had already blown the day on the lunch. We were shown into their solarium room and she brought beer and tea. They knew no English at all but I brought out the iPad with the translater and she as we'll as I typed in the message and out it spoke in the other language. This might not sound great but it seemed to work fine. She explained that her husband is handicapped. They have love birds in a large cage that they let out in the morning and return in the evening as well as cockatiels in cages by their pool. Jackelyn showed us their 1926 Citroen in the garage, crank start with a bulb to squeeze for a horn. The 18th century church is gothic Romanesque. We have left a short two hour walk into Laon tomorrow so that we can enjoy some of the tourist things. Meanwhile we are going to enjoy this beautiful bed and ensuite instead of down the hall.