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On the Path to Our Camino

April 12, 2016 •

Chemin du Puy - Cele Variant

A path along the Chemin du Puy

Sev­eral of my most recent posts have dis­cussed my intent to walk a seg­ment of the Via Podi­en­sis. The Via Podi­en­sis (or le Chemin du Puy) refers to a net­work of trails that lead from cen­tral France toward the start­ing point for the Camino de San­ti­ago.

I’ve been very busy since that post, with work and what’s required to pre­pare for a 3‑week walk in France. A trek like this requires a lot of phys­i­cal and men­tal prepa­ra­tion, as well as logis­tics…

Sep­a­rately and together, Jane and I have got­ten a lot done in the past 6 weeks.

Progress Made

We’ve booked our flights, which in my case, required decid­ing where my jump­ing-off point would be, Seat­tle or Boston. Deci­sion: Boston. It short­ens the travel time, and cuts 33% of the time zone dif­fer­ence between our homes on the West Coast and cen­tral France. Mak­ing that deci­sion required nego­ti­at­ing fam­ily vaca­tion plans…

We’ve booked rooms in Toulouse, to recover from jet lag before tak­ing the train to Figeac, and pre­pare for our home­ward flights 21 days later.

Our itinerary in France

Our itin­er­ary in France

We’ve planned the route, selected the cham­bres d’hôtes (tiny inns), cho­sen rooms (when pos­si­ble), and wired deposits to hold our reser­va­tions. If you want to stay in some­what more upscale lodg­ings than the dor­mi­to­ries pre­ferred by many pil­grims, there are often very few choices within easy walk­ing dis­tance of the chemin.

Now we’re cross­ing our fin­gers that hand­shake agree­ments with the hote­liers will be remem­bered when we arrive on their doorstep each night, hot, sweaty and exhausted…

Plan­ning the route was a labor of love on Jane’s part. Explor­ing options required a lot of con­ver­sa­tion, online and library research, and out­reach to for­mer pil­grims who’ve trav­eled this Way before. For­tu­nately, we now belong to sev­eral Face­book groups devoted to pil­grims focused on spe­cific treks along the Way. That makes it eas­ier to get our ques­tions answered, with mul­ti­ple view­points in some cases…

Because we both rel­ish la belle cui­sine française, opti­miz­ing where we’d be and when was an impor­tant fac­tor for us.

To devise the opti­mal route Jane jug­gled with mul­ti­ple fac­tors: aver­age daily dis­tance, dif­fi­culty of the ter­rain, access to mod­er­ately priced lodg­ings, avail­abil­ity of din­ners (at local restau­rants or pro­vided by the innkeep­ers), etc. Opti­miz­ing venues and week­days is an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion for rural France.

Arriv­ing (or not) on spe­cific week­days is a prac­ti­cal con­sid­er­a­tion when vis­it­ing rural areas or vil­lages with lim­ited options or sites to visit. Plus, to avoid going hun­gry, pil­grims should avoid arriv­ing in a vil­lage on a day when all the bistros or restau­rants are closed! Unless they’re stay­ing in a place that offers a table d’hôte.

Nuanced travel plan­ning like this is one of Jane’s joys in life, sec­ond only to the joy she expe­ri­ences when mak­ing one of those jour­neys. I’m lucky she’s plan­ning this for both our sakes.

Next Post: updates on hik­ing boots and travel gear…

About This Blog

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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