7/1. Gondrexange back to the Chateau

Presented with a grey cool morning with steady rainfall, I found myself walking solo this on this backwards segment. Everyone else wanted to rest at the Chateau. So I was driven / dropped off in Gondrexange where I would walk back west to the Chateau along the GR.  I discovered an open Tabac Store with food basics and a cash machine down the street -  also a campground . I mention this for future walkers reference. Just down the street the GR crossing the road was easily found and umbrella deployed I headed west up the route along the canal in a steady rain. The first canal walk since Belgium, this was a pleasure and it was a quiet Sunday morning with a few fisherman and fewer yet boaters.Walking with a light pack I could move fast and did for the first hour during which the rain let up and finally stopped. The heat of the prior day was evident by some fallen bird eggs which had literally cooked on the asphalt path. I slackened the pace awhile to enjoy the birdsong and a cuckoo announced its presence echoing through the woods. There is a metal pedestrian bridge to cross the canal which bends toward Nancy and the route follows a branch up towards the lake d Stock. I didn't see the turn marker which directs you onto a bridge heading over the canal west at Diane Chapelle but knew to take it from the guide book confirmed with GPS. Down a quiet road the route is south then curves north skirting the lake. There was signs indicating a right turn, but a new GR5 sign said route revision and pointed straight. This seemed to go about a km up a forest road, turned right a km then right again returning after a km back at the standard route in a left turn. I mention this detail because looking backwards at this last junction - as the  direction a distance walker normally goes heading south - I could find no signs indicating this route revision!? The trail continues onward via the forest road past little lakes with waterfowl where I sat in a breeze (which swept away the bugs) and ate half my sandwich. Moving on the trail passes Rhodes where I noticed a sign for an auberge. The route reaches a highway follows it a bit then turned onto open farm road gradually up a ridge not far from a huge telecommunications tower. I should mention that the markers particularly on highways are these tiny red diamonds with a GR5 and are hard to spot until right on them. At the ridge crest were far views and I was able to watch and video a fox hunting in a field below me. Seeing me at last, he vanished. Down the road is a little village of Fribourg and exploring along a side street I found an old picturesque chateau across from the Marie. The route left town down an ever increasingly brushy farm lane but suddenly emerged at an area with a fishpond/ mowed grass and a pick-nick table on a covered pavilion. Here I sat peacefully and ate my sandwich then blogged for 45 minutes while the fish splashed in the pond. Finally I moved back in the now overgrown route past startled cows. The wet brush hid ruts / holes and I was glad to have my walking stick. There was a wooded section which was sloppy and muddy in places which emerged onto a mowed field with easy walking past Assenoncourt and back to the Chateau.