“I have now reached the age when I have to choose between sex and walking. I cannot indulge in both,” he told me. He was whimsical on the subject of divorce. “Ladies with broken hearts can be very tedious. You find a lot of them in walking clubs. They carry their baggage with them.” The expression he used wastraîner des casseroles, literally dragging heavy saucepans around. It was evocative, I thought, the image of people walking through life with the sound of their pots and pans clattering behind them: things from their past they would rather forget…”

Extract from Extract from ‘Walking the Hexagon: an escape around France on foot’ – included in the showcase.