Best Foot Forward - A 500-Mile Walk Through Hidden France [Kindle Edition]

I greatly enjoyed Susie Kelly's book The Valley of Heaven and Hell - Cycling in the Shadow of Marie-Antoinette in which she cycled with her husband on the trail of Marie Antoinette as she fled from Paris to Rheims (only to return later to meet her death). Susie's earlier book, Best Foot Forward is now available in Kindle format and describes how she walked alone from La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast right across France and into Switzerland, carrying a flimsy tent and a few essentials - an adventure indeed.

Having done quite a bit of walking in France myself, I could only marvel at Susie's ability to find her way through such a great distance in the French countryside. While there are way marks on all the major routes, a west-east journey like this required a lot of route-finding across dull terrain which the major walking routes never passed through. Susie was equipped only with a large scale map which frequently misled her and often had to rely on the knowledge of passers by who turned out to be far from reliable.

The walk was quite early in the year and even when Susie arrived at a campsite they were often far from ready for visitors. Sometimes she was the only camper, separated from the world in the middle of the night only by one wall of nylon tent, but she seems to have an ability to trust to fate and a mobile phone (which presumable was often out of range). The campsite facilities seem to have varied from pristine to filthy and the distance from shops and restaurants meant that she was often faced with another walk to find her evening meal. She seemed to be un-phased by eating alone in restaurants and was sometimes rewarded by exquisite meals which enabled her to forget the difficulties of the day.

Of course, on a journey like this, you meet a vast range of people, some helpful, others less so. Often her fellow campers were affluent folk in mobile homes (the French seem to love these even more than we do in Britain). The appearance of a lone back-packer often went un-noticed by the leisure campers but occasionally people recognised what an arduous task Susie had set herself and invited her into their caravan for a welcome evening drink and other treats.

Susie is well-up on French history and culture and provides a lot of background information to her readers. At one point she met a group of elderly people speaking the Creusois dialect derived from the langue d'Oc, the ancient language of the southern part of France, "the original language of the Troubadors". While walking through the hilltop village of Charroux we read of the plagues and militiary battles which scarred the area in previous centuries. It is details like this that made me want to visit new areas of France to see the beautifully described sites she saw on her travels.

I have read many books of "great walks", but few which show an ability to trudge on day after day through terrible rain and furious heat. Susies nights were beset by flooding and insect infestations yet she carried right across France, with feet blistered into a pulp and with terrible pain - a journey lke this cannot be made in comfort. Many people would have given up but eventually she reached Lake Geneva and walked into the lake, filling her battered green jungle hat with water and pouring it over her head. The end of an incredible journey which provided this reader at least with a sense of having travelled with the author through her struggles.

The book is available is fantastic value and would make a great addition to any Kindle.

As a self confessed armchair traveller and long time Francophile, I am constantly in search of travelogues that give me that elusive combination of the feeling of 'being there' and intimacy. Having recently discovered 'The Valley of Heaven and Hell' by the same author, which gave me that combination in bucket loads, it was a delight to discover that she had written several other titles, all with the same accessible, authoritatively informative and - most importantly - effortlessly easy and entertaining style.

Susie Kelly seems to be one of those deliciously fortunate people to whom extraordinary things happen with an ease that makes you wonder what you are doing with your life; who for instance would advertise for someone -ANYONE - to house-sit her home and animals on the internet? Who would confidently expect sane relpies? Who would, when they actually get them,see nothing unusual about the respondent being a complete stranger form Texas of all places, who turns out to be dependable, resourceful,and prepared to travel countless thousands of miles on the say-so of a stranger to a country she has never visited, and take on a role that a professional soldier might think twice about?

Joyously, this unlikely beginning is just the typically idiosyncratic precursor to a tale that takes in 500 miles of rural France and includes, in equal measure, laugh-out-loud tales of personal discomfort, disarmingly frank descriptions of the authors self doubt as to her sanity at taking on such a challenge, and absolutely oodles of insightful descriptions of the places she passes through, together with just the right amount of historical perspective.

In summary, as a searcher for books that allow me to feel in a very real way, that I am the traveller and that what happens to the writer, is happening to me, I found 'Best Foot Forward' to be almost perfect in every respect. it is warm, accessible, entertaining, genuine and informative. An all-round great read. And so much safer and cheaper than slogging across France on your own, with a Texan stanger looking after your worldly possessions!

I read this book in March 2005 and could read it time and time again as I could with all of Susie Kelly's books. She is an inspiration with all her wonderful adventures and has a wonderful insight into the history of France, and her charachterisation of people and events are funny, educational and very entertaining. I would highly recommend this book. Congratulations Susie Kelly! I feel privileged to have had such enjoyment from reading your books.