May 22nd Club 11th June

John chose to read from his book Latitude Chapter 12 Seltz, 67, Bas Rhin, Alsace et Lorraine, Alsace1
This is a reported observation of bells ringing once on the hour at Seltz, close to the German frontier, an observation made by a long range walker on the Camino del Cid, while she paused in Castalla. She was a surprise visitor. The only hotel was full that evening and it is expensive. The tourist office phoned to ask if we could help out and we said yes as they know us well. She was glad of the use of a Villeneuve futon and the promise of breakfast at seven. I was in charge of toast and omelettes. Tourists are quite rare here but she was a traveller on a two month sabbatical travelling back to Paris from Cadiz. She had started in Elche yesterday and today she would be off to Alcoi. So she was doing about 30 kilometres a day.
I was fascinated having a conversation with someone actually doing what I reckoned the Clockmakers did, carrying very little and being resourceful as witness our late evening phonecall. Yes, she would be back in Paris by Autumn. The paths were clear to see and mostly well maintained. I eventually outlined my theory to her partly to excuse my breakfast interrogation, partly to test my theory. It seemed suddenly very real. ‘They would travel early Spring and in the Autumn, she said. Its too hot to do distance like that in the summer. She had walked in Savoie and the Jura. ‘I’ll give you one for your book’, she said. The town of Seltz near the German border. I studied there and lived in an upstairs room, a room just like last night. The church was just outside my window. It had a clock which rang all day and all night and I never got used to it. I can hear it now. Ding dong every quarter’. ‘How many times did it ring the hour?’ I asked. ‘Gruss Gott’, she said, or something like it. ‘Once was enough’.