I always suspected this place existed, but I didn’t expect it to have a sign.

Next to the River Aube, in the middle of France, in the Commune d’Unienville east of Troyes. I saw a sign. I almost fell off my bicycle.

The sign pointed right, with no distance shown, to L’autre Monde. In English, that means Another World. I always suspected such a place existed, but I didn’t expect a highway sign. I kept riding; we were only 2 kilometers from our hotel.

Then I saw a sign for GR 145. I had planned to walk all 1200 miles of this trail, from Canterbury to Rome, in 2020. I had a plane ticket to London for mid-April and 12 weeks marked off on my calendar. Of course, the global pandemic intervened, the airline went bankrupt, and no one went anywhere. The other sign is for the Vezelay Camino. One of my friends walked past it a month ago.

Back at the hotel after almost 60 kilometers on the bike, my mind was spinning. I took a shower and changed clothes. Then I got in the car and drove back to the sign. It was just across the River Aube. I wondered if the sign would still be there.

I parked by the sign to get a photo, and a man walked up. He was from Paris but has a country house nearby. He was born in Algeria and raised in Tunis (or vice-vers) but remained in France after university in Paris. I asked him about the sign. He said perhaps it was a path the heaven, and he pointed up. His name sounded like Dinde.

He pointed to this sign. He said, “It’s a village, right there. You can go over there and get a photo.

The village only has 4 or 5 houses, and this street. Ruelle means “little street.” And that was it.

The others didn’t think much of my story. Perhaps, as a writer, I see things differently. I can think of several story lines set in this place.

Update: This village doesn’t have much of an internet footprint. Or any at all. Suspicious?