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Going Off the Beaten Track in France

July 23, 2016 •

cahors_pont_valentreIf your heart is set on a pil­grim­age or walk­ing tour in France, and you don’t want to pay a com­mer­cial tour­ing com­pany, where can you look for help with travel plan­ning? It’s not always as easy as you might think.

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple will hike the month-long trail across Spain’s Camino de San­ti­ago this year. Mean­while, only one-tenth as many pil­grims will tra­verse the French trails that lead to the SJPDP trail­head for the Camino Francés (from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the base of Pyre­nees and then across north­ern Spain.)

FB group for le Chemin du Puy

FB group for le Chemin du Puy

Because the audi­ence for French pil­grim­ages is 90% smaller, it takes skills and com­mit­ment to find rel­e­vant and timely resources to pre­pare for those walk­ing tours. The best guides have been writ­ten en français, and require at least inter­me­di­ate read­ing and com­pre­hen­sion skills in French, sup­ple­mented by Google Trans­late and other inter­ac­tive trans­la­tion dic­tio­nar­ies.

Scarce resources for niche travelers

The French trail sys­tem for camino pil­grims is off the beaten track, far from the larger or well-known cities.

In these out-of-the-way loca­tions, ser­vices are pro­vided by fam­ily-scale or very small busi­ness enter­prises, located in ham­lets with few other options. The travel sea­son is short, May to Sep­tem­ber. Change is a con­stant, given how hard it is to earn a liv­ing at such a highly sea­sonal busi­ness, with fund­ing com­ing from such a small pop­u­la­tion of tourists and vis­i­tors (many of whom are on very tight bud­gets.) As a result inns, cham­bres d’hôtes, gîtes and bistros that appeared to be thriv­ing last year may no longer be in busi­ness this year…

For peo­ple who want the com­fort of room reser­va­tions before arriv­ing in France, advance plan­ning is essen­tial. Luck­ily, my hik­ing buddy has done this before, knows the con­straints of the Chemin du Puy, and thus made sure to book room reser­va­tions months in advance. She also knew where to look for help.

Spe­cial­ized Face­book groups offer help­ful, some­times per­son­al­ized and up-to-the-minute resources for aspir­ing pèlerins — a god­send for Eng­lish speak­ers. For exam­ple, I’ve joined the FB group devoted to the Via Podi­en­sis (the Way of St. James that begins in Le Puy). Group mem­bers (past, present and future pil­grims) share pho­tos, pack­ing lists, rec­om­men­da­tions (or places to avoid), prayers and so on. On any given day there’s a lively Q‑and‑A con­ver­sa­tion tak­ing place.

Some mem­bers pub­lish links to their blogs and travel mem­oirs. A few ded­i­cated vol­un­teers share detailed work­sheets with tips and links to lodg­ings, cafes, bistros, phar­ma­cies and other essen­tial resources for pil­grims.

These online travel resources are invalu­able for French pil­grim­ages, due to the fast-chang­ing nature of les héberge­ments.

When Facebook is not enough

I spend almost an hour most days keep­ing up with my FB groups’ lat­est updates, but now I want less “ran­dom” point­ers…  With just six weeks before fly­ing to France, I make time to work through a hand­ful of books/guides, and prac­tice my rusty French.

Here’s what’s on my active book­shelf right now:

  • From Here, You Can’t See Paris: Sea­sons of a French Vil­lage and Its Restau­rant, by Michael S. Sanders, © 2002
  • Miam Miam Dodo: Saint Jacques de Com­postelle, Le Puy-en-Velay / Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (GR 65), 2016 edi­tion
  • TopoGu­ides: Sen­tier vers Saint-Jacques-de-Com­postelle via Le Puy (GR 65, 651, 652)
  • Chemins de Com­postelle: Le Puy-en-Velay —> Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Miche­lin Guide), largely focused on maps
  • Advanced French, Hugo edi­tion, DK pub­lish­ing, © 2009
  • South­west France: Dor­dogne, Lot, Bor­deaux (Cado­gan Guide), © 1998

These are not books you’re likely to find on the shelf of the typ­i­cal book­seller. Even Ama​zon​.com may take a few weeks to deliver some of the French guides. Half the books on my list were sourced from over­seas book­sellers so I had to wait 2–4 weeks for their deliv­ery. If you want sim­i­lar books on your shelf, it pays to plan ahead…

Life in a tiny French vil­lage
Spe­cial­ized resource lists

Great topo maps
Good for ele­va­tion plan­ning

French lan­guage prac­tice
Big pic­ture overviews

Bon chemin à vous!

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Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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