Covid - Lock Down - Drowning by Numbers - A Roman Road
Email To Dan Walker ~ 1 April 2020. The first Covid lock-down

Dear Dan got back to UK to find the fear and loathing getting worse by the day, the media is full of examples of entire sectors going down the tubes. Drowning by numbers. This morning it was taxi drivers who are now taking £60 on a good day, no sign of anything changing. "Loan-sharks" have moved in on them. The Prime Minister is either absent or, when he does bother to turn up, forgets to bring his brain or his morals or both.

I had a long call with “the staff” at the nursery in Cornwall yesterday. They went home a week ago of course so the plants will all be dead within another week or so - about 10 thousand of them - this time of year we water early and late almost every day. The plants in the tunnels will die first, not even the rain to save them, So I had to give the two of them notice as there will be no work for them when it’s all over. There goes a small family business, nearly 25 years of work, and my retirment fund.

Alice has worked for us for more than twenty years. The total meltdown that surrounds us in fact makes my personal difficulties easier to bear. Mary, the farmer’s wife who helped Alice with the late and early watering in summer, asked for a reference. I told her I would be proud to give her a reference and just managed not to add "of course there will be no fucking jobs for you"

Alice phoned up last night and burst into tears.

Here, as promised, is my Roman road route between Chatillon and Calais.

The D2 Route
Close to Boudreville on the D965 Chatillon-Chaumont road turn onto D996 to Montigny sur Aube (signposted to A5) You are in the valley of the Aube
Follow D996 to Gevrolles and somewhere between Gevrolles and Lanty-sur-Aube you cross the border from Cote d’Or to Haute Marne and the road number changes to D396 which is already unmistakably the Roman Road, stick on it via
Laferte sur Aube
Clairvaux (on your left)
Bayel (on your right)
Until you meet D619 just before Bar sur Aube
Turn left onto D619 at the T junction and stay on it through Bar sur Aube, anti-clockwise round the short fast one-way system and stay on it passing
Ailleville
Arsonval (Roman bridge at Spoy on your left)
Right fork no more than 2 kilometres after Arsonval signposted to Vitry le Francois and Brienne le Chateau puts you back on the D396 (like an arrow now) passing through
Brienne le Chateau where you pass through one end of the town. You pass a Leclerc Express on your right then a hundred yards further on a Pain Sandwich snack bar which keeps good opening hours, easy parking good coffee, cold drinks cakes and sandwiches.

Keep on the 396 to Rosnay l’Hopital
Margerie Hancourt
A few miles after Margerie Hancourt you are up on a ridge road with great views over open country to right and left. Saint Dizier far away on your right. You pass the turn to Arzilliers on you right and after little more than 1 kilometre, as the main road bends to the right, you take the left turn onto D2 signposted to Les Rivieres and Henruel
You are still on the Roman Road but in the valley of the Marne now
Blacy
Pringy
Songy
Cheppes la Prairie
Vitry la Ville
Togny au Boeufs
After Togny, approaching Chalons en Champagne, you pass Coolus on your right, then entering Competrix you come to a floral roundabout, turn right, this is still the D2 stay on D2 for a mile or three until it turns into the D3 (railway line and the Marne on your right) which will take you to the A26 towards Reims,
Off the A26 take the A4 round Reims,
then A26 to Calais.

We usually stop at the first services on the A26 after Reims ~ Aire de Champs Roland ~ It’s small but they will do you a burger and frites cooked Fresh at almost any hour of the day or night.

In V’s little Peugeot 205 we can do this trip in four and a half hours with one 10 minute stop for fuel, coffee and a pee. You have to average 60mph on the back roads, not difficult, and 80mph on the payage which is slightly over the limit but we haven’t been stopped so far. I have a scenic route which takes about 10 hours but is fucking beautiful and cuts like a knife through the history of western Europe. Available on application.

Joe