On The March With Joan Of Arc

Echoes of the Middle Ages surround Mark Stratton as he walks the trail that led a simple village girl to become France’s national heroine

- Mark Stratton

As last autumn’s leaf-fall crunched underfoot, Joan of Arc’s presence was palpable amid the oak forest through which she had once ridden. It was February 1429. The 17-year-old was obeying voices from God telling her to travel from Lorraine to Chinon in the Loire Valley to convince France’s disempowered king to take back his rightful crown from the English usurpers whom she would soon defeat in battle.

But her journey was fraught with danger. Perhaps the barking stags I now heard in this forest near Fronville sounded to her like the hunting dogs of English men-at-arms or the treacherous Burgundians? Maybe, we shared similar exultation upon leaving the forest’s dark recesses to see the same marvellous church at Blécourt that exists today?

Even in the wildest realms of fantasy, Joan of Arc’s story has always sounded far-fetched. Yet when I dipped into detailed transcripts from her 1430-31 trial for heresy and the hearing that posthumously quashed that earlier condemnation in 1456, her unflinching resolve under inquisition leapt from the pages. So to better understand her meteoric young life, I decided to follow part of the route she rode toward Chinon.

Heavenly voices would not guide my crusade but instead the Sentier Jeanne d’Arc. This little-known footpath (the GR703) runs for 236 kilometres from Toul in Meurthe-et-Moselle to Bagneuxla-Fosse in Aube. It purportedly traces Joan’s progress from her birthplace in Domrémy-la-Pucelle (‘pucelle’, meaning maiden, was added in her honour) in the south-west of the historical Lorraine region.