Into the countryside

Out of Caen, our way continues to trace the river Orne. 'Our' as on this first week I have old friend Andrew with me (and his yellow rucksack cover that a future post may have to reveal..) We follow the GR36, one of the long distance footpaths that crisscross France. 

The Orne is a deep valley that cuts through the Suisse-Normande, a low hilly plateau that quickly offers what seems deepest France. Here's an alpine looking church that lives up to the area's surprising name. 

The walking is a delicious mixture of riverside paths, quiet country lanes, a disused railway ('la voie verte', popular with the Caen citizenry), woods, field edges and tracks - many dripping with hawthorn in flower. 

This is the view coming down to Clecy, two days out from Caen in the heart of the Suisse-Normande. The photo fails to do justice to the panorama!

And here is the river and a fisherman from a Clecy B&B window.