Day 278 – EU – France [Conflans to Mantes-La-Jolie]

07/01/21

34.7km

  From Conflans (France) to Mantes-La-Jolie (France)

Europe

Running on the riverbanks trails and meeting a very kind reader as I reached Mantes-La-Jolie

I waved goodbye to Matthieu, Anne and the children this morning as they all left for work and school – and I left the comfort of their home to hit the road in a dark, cold and foggy morning. Brrrrrrr! My route today was to take me through a few urban areas, then onto the paths along the River. “Conflans” the town where I was staying, literally means “at the junction of two rivers”: that of Seine and Oise. I am now following the River Seine all the way north to Rouen.

I joined the riverbank path as soon as I could. It consisted mostly of forest trails with the River Seine on my left, many barges moored on the side, some looking like residential boathouses. My parents tried to surprise me on the run, unfortunately we did not manage to meet. My TravelMap spotter reports my position with a delay (purposely) and they lagged behind me, never managing to catch up with me.

I reached Mantes-La-Jolie shortly after noon and was welcomed at the Collegiale (a type of cathedral) by Annegret. Annegret is a colleague of my brother and has been reading my blog posts since the adventure started. We had a little chat in front of the cathedral and it was great to have an exchange in person. My journey wouldn’t be so fulfilling if I wasn’t able to share and to find readers with whom it resonates. Annegret also treated me with a box of chocolates which will surely be my snacks for the next week! I’m very grateful for the kindness I receive on this journey.

Note: the name “Mantes-La-Jolie” possibly comes from Henri IV. He supposedly wrote a letter to his mistress (who lived in Mantes) telling her: “I’ll see you in Mantes, my beautiful”. My beautiful is “Ma Jolie” in French and that’s how it is thought the name of the town was established! Thank you, once again, Annegret for the trivia 🙂

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: