Back to Le Puy and home!

A tender start to the day as our feet get used to shoes again. Liz in particular has had some spectacular blisters. The nail on her big-toe may not recover.

Down the road to the bar for breakfast, served in substantial quantities by the chef - just as busy as the night before. Our (pre-booked) taxi arrived promptly to take us back to Le Puy so we collected our bags and set off back the route we had walked. This was fascinating but in a sense dispiriting as all our memories unscrolled back. It was astonishing to see from the seat of a car the hilliness of much of it and to re-live the climbs. Our return journey took a good couple of hours during which we saw many new walkers en route. It had been quite sad to say goodbye to our various travelling companions we had bumped into as we walked, particulerly as they were setting off into rain today, and it was difficult to relate to these newcomers!

We will now take a few days to drive back to England but are fully resolved to come back next year. To be continued.

Aumont Aubrac to Nasbinals 26k.

Simple breakfast after a noisy night where the plumbing trumpeted its presence. On our way for a longish day by 7.45am. Shortly after leaving town, a joke! The route is diverted through a tunnel under an Autoroute - known locally as the "St. Jacques-duct". OK, I never said it was funny. Generally the going today is flat other than what the guidebook of Alison Raju describes as "undulations". Most of the day we were up high among the alpine pastures. Our arrival at Nasbinals this weekend apparently coincides with the annual 'Transhumance' where the local cattle are moved with great celebrations up to the high pastures for 145 days of summer grazing. With ribbons on their horns they look very content as they go on their summer holidays. But economically this farming has to be fairly marginal and a prime beneficiary of the CAP. The local population has declined 70% in the past century.

Coffee was served Chez Regine at Les Quatre Chemins, a simple place surrounded by fields of wild jonquils and narcissus and many other spring flowers on this rocky plateau. We stopped for lunch near Wolf Rock and by teatime had reached the Maison de Rosalie at Montgros, a hamlet up in the hills. This proved to be a charming 2** hotel (and bakery - wonderful sight of rows of the rising dough of bread). This could be a good alternative stop to Nasbinals.

Nasbinals is heaving for the celebrations and the Hotel de la Route d'Argent is gloriously overbooked. The good news is that the English Cup Final is on the TV in the bar. The bad news is that Man.U. lose, to Clare's total grief.

Because of the crowds we have been assigned accommodation in the holiday home (tiny restored mews house) of M.& M. Delont nearby. It's fine and proves a lot more quiet than the hotel in these circumstances. No room in the dining room for supper but we hang onto our table in the bar for a meal that makes up in substance what it lacks in finesse: particularly 'Aligot' - mashed potato whipped up with large quantities of melted local cheese: very sticky but excellent fuel for a day's striding over mountains. After our long day we are ready for bed by 9pm and leave the merrymakers to it.

Le Faux to Aumont Aubrac 20k

Up for 7.15am breakfast after a cool night. Big bowls of coffee+warm milk, toasted baguette + nice butter + greengage jam. Lots of macho stomping around in boots as fellow travelers chatted and planned and paid their bills. On the road by 8am.

When people write such things as 'My Year in the Back of Beyond with a Great Climate, Strange Food and Recalcitrant Natives' they tend to assemble it to a bit of a formula. The diary of a walking holiday is also by its nature a bit repetitive. Highlights of today for each of the senses:
Sight: the blinding yellow of fields of dandelions matched by hedges of blooming broom.
Sound: The never-ending birdsong but also the scrunch of boots on the gritty granite path; also the sound of the wind in the pine woods to the exclusion of everything else.
Taste: The pate for lunch, coarse and meaty was good; but also, after a sweaty morning, the sea salt on the tomatoes.
Smell: Quite a choice and being far from sophistication there are few unpleasant smells. Cows that smell as they should; also coffee and cold Stellas, but also that broom and those pine trees.
Touch: On a masochistic note, the cool breeze on your back when you take your backpack off, but mainly that fresh shower after you finish for the day!

Today was good. The upward bits seemed fewer and less steep, with plenty of flat and gentle downhills. We are still in marginal dairy farming country which is endlessly picturesque. Occasional holiday homes to counter the tide of depopulation.

The menu tonight (Hotel Prunieres, with a lift!) was a bit of an adventure. Sac de d'os is a local delicacy: scraps of mutton/pork boiled in a pig's stomach. V.tasty. 'Lingue' (fish) got confused with 'Langue' (tongue). Limited control of a language can be so broadening.

Bed by 10pm.

Saugues to Le Faux, about 25k

A very pleasant breakfast with fresh fruit, charmingly served, after a disturbed night - possibly that excellent cheese! We were on our way by 7.45am having bought a couple of quiches for lunch. Amiable waves from passers-by and motorists as we left the town to stroll up through gentle farmland. There were quite a lot of hills in the course of the day which we tended to plod up without regard to the views until we got to the top. Then it was flat with endless small fields with lots of wild flowers and cows. We passed small hamlets dependent on marginal farming with a bit of timber harvesting and processing. It is truly beautiful countryside and we are lucky to have seen it and to have the memories. But the population flight from the land is very apparent. Des doing well with the map-reading and general navigation. He has the knack of being able to read as he goes along without tripping over loose stones.

We had a lovely picnic spot at a crossing of the river Verlange by a stone bridge. Afterwards some snoozed or cooled their feet in the water according to taste.










Then our path led up the main road past an (optional) turning off for Le Sauvage, former domain of the Knights Templars, not at all as isolated, in the Spring sunshine, as the guide books might imply. We passed the St.Roch fountain and chapel and refuge - a 19c replacement following a hurricane so it probably does get a bit bleak up here. Then a generally easy path off road down towards Rouget and St.Alban. But a turning was signed off to the left down a dusty path for Hotel Restaurant L'Oustal de Parent at Le Faux. What a discovery and what a plus - a newly restored stopping place just off the route in the right location. A massive granite house complex in the sunshine was very welcoming. Bare floors and rustic charm and family run. Our luggage was already upstairs. A couple of cold beers on arrival never tasted better. Bags of space and nice clean rooms although the dimples on the shower floor are a bit hard on tender feet!

After a rest we sat in the garden before supper while the sun went down and the birds quietened. A noticably 'Southern' feel to the place. An early start tomorrow might be appropriate as temperatures of 27 degrees are forecast. Excellent supper of vegetable soup, boeuf bourguignon, cheese, and plum and egg custard, with a bottle of Cote du Rhone; all done with professional aplomb. This new venture deserves to succeed.

St.Privat to Saugues 17.5k

We breakfasted, simply, at 7.30am with bags ready for collection and by eight o'clock we were across the road at the boulangerie/epicerie getting and packing supplies for our lunch, including some nice tomatoes. And then off. Uphill. And it was to be an up and down kind of a day.







The first landmark we got to was the chapel dedicated to St.James at Rochgude somewhat perilously dominating the view from across the valley. There was then a steep descent of 300m via roots and rocks down to Monistrol with a strategic modern bridge across the valley. We managed to spill the tomatoes on the way down but retrieved them fairly intact. The rural environment was rather blighted by the big electricity generator humming away in the valley. We stopped for a coffee and then promptly had a 500m climb back up the other side of the valley which was a bit steep. The subsequent stroll across the agricultural top was charming and we stopped to enjoy our picnic lunch in the sunny lee of a wall. Plenty of livestock in smallscale farming - cows, sheep, horses and donkeys with meadows filled with yellow dandelions as far as the horizon.

At Rognac we enjoyed a minor miracle - a nice housewife in a village house earned an extra Euro or two by offering drinks and 'myrtle tart' to those looking to rest their feet. We seized the opportunity. Then a gentle descent into Saugues, a charming small town of 2,000 people with a medieval centre around the massive Romanesque church. Interestingly the clock bells sound twice; the first set of rings is a sort of clearing of the throat to tell you the real set is coming to signal the time.

Our hotel (Le Terrasse **) was excellent, old but well maintained. After a cool beer or two on the eponymous front terrace we shopped for the morrow and saw the sights - principally the instructive War Memorial. This small town suffered the loss of 126 young men in the First World War. The number of times the same surname appears consecutively two or three times makes it difficult to carry on reading. The World War II losses were sub-categorized: 1939-40, 8 dead; four more died "in captivity". Civilian deaths "killed by Germans" 8, Resistence 4. Subsequently another 6 were remembered from the War of North Africa. A lot of pain for a small place.

Our hotel restaurant was trying hard bearing in mind the budget they were working to. There was a good soup followed by tasty chicken and a most impressive cheese trolley which included a tastebud blowing blend of Roquefort and Marc. And for the local pudding a surprisingly tasty sweet Lentil Tart.

The etymology of the optical 'lens' is from 'lentil' - because of the shape.

Before bed we signed the visitors' book. We hope to come again. A very satisfying day.

Le Puy to St.Privat d'Allier 22k

Something Liz had eaten yesterday violently disagreed with her so we had a disturbed night. Things seem to have calmed down and we are ready for an early start. Our luggage is being transported for us between stops although it must be said that many of the younger and fitter walkers carry their belongings, including bedrolls, in big backpacks. So each day our clearly labeled bags have to be downstairs early for collection and will hopefully reappear when we arrive at our next stop. Rather a solemn breakfast as all thoughts are concentrated on the unknowns of the day. We set off at 8.
The route is clearly marked with the 'balise' symbol at frequent intervals and leads from a square down the slope from the Cathedral back up a long slope through residential streets past the (seems appropriate) 'elastic bandage' factory and out of town on a broad track. Lots of other starters of all shapes and sizes including some children. People chat amiably between puffs and the steeper climbs spread out the pack.

Beautiful countryside as soon as you leave town and as we start up onto the Massif Central. Notable are the wild flowers on the wayside verge - not chemically blasted into oblivion. Meadows filled with wild narcissus and much else, all in beautiful growth. Endless birdsong. Puy is already one of the higher points on the walk at 625 metres but today we go up another 425 metres before descending.
[I am not too sure why the 'Elevations Chart' reads from right to left, like oriental script? Is that a convention?]

Before La Roche we stopped for a cup of tea from two enterprising youngsters who had set up a drinks stall on the path. French entrepreneurship lives. We bought the necessities for our picnic lunch in the village of St.Christopher sur Dolaison which we ate around the memorial cross in Ramourouscle.
After 18k some were calling it a day but we had one more long uphill slog, and a subsequent steep descent before we reached St.Privat. 24k or 16 miles was plenty for a first day.

La Vielle Auberge, with a rusty piece of modern sculpture outside and our baggage safely inside, was clean and appropriate - pilgrims must be their only business - and we enjoyed a simple supper: salad, trout, cheese, baked Alaska and a bottle of white Burgundy. Bed by 9pm quietly satisfied, if genuinely weary, stiff and footsore after our first day's walking.

We arrive at Le Puy

Starting point! First glimpses of Le Puy, where yes the lentils come from, are quite dramatic in lovely hilly green countryside - a busy buzzy town with craggy outcrops and monuments. Check in at the Hotel Bristol *** which obviously serves as a popular starting point for pilgrims. There is a carpark at the hotel, with a very narrow entrance, but the proprietor, not unreasonably, encourages us to use the underground municipal facility for the rest of the week, at the special 'randonneurs' rate while we are walking.
After lunch we climb up to the Cathedral from where it will all begin. Big slope up to the dramatic front door which opens onto a staircase which carries on climbing up into the nave.Kitted ourselves out with the vital 'Creanciales' - these are 'Passports' issued by the Bishop which we will have stamped at each overnight stop throughout our trip as evidence of our achievement. We have also obtained a scallop shell to be carried all the way tied to Clare's backpack - "or whoever else makes it!". The scallop is the symbol of St James and of the pilgrims and is much in evidence.
When sorting out the kitty found that Madame at the Cheval Blanc had made a mistake on our bill and had not charged us for our meal. She was most appreciative when I rang her and said we would sort it out on our return. A suitably 'holy' thing to do?

A walk through France and Spain

15th May 2005

If this works out it is going to be the record of a walk - via a journal I am keeping as we go. In stages over the next few years (in addition to my wife Liz there will be my cousin Desmond and his wife Clare) we are going to walk the old medieval route of the pilgrimage of St James from Le Puy en Velay (Auvergne) across France and into Spain to finish at Santiago de Compostela - sometime. It's about 1,000 miles in all. There is nothing too pilgrimagey about our intentions but it seems a worthwhile thing to do and there has been quite a lot of interest in this particular walk recently. Many hundreds of thousands of people have done it since early medieval times and currently tens of thousands a year do all or part of it.

If I set out the main bones of our trip further details (food, botany, physical decay etc.) can be added by the others according to their special interests. Clare is also keeping a journal and we will be able to cover the same stuff from different points of view. I will add an eclectic selection of our photos but they come out on this a bit small. You can left-click on them to see the finer detail!

This time we are having a 'taster' for a week to see how our inexperienced walkers' feet (and other bits) handle it and we will walk from Le Puy to Nasbinals. We have made our booking arrangements through Worldwalks who act as agents for a wide variety of walking holidays and specifically in this case Nouvel Itinéraire. And this is another useful site which provides, via a sequence of pages, a helpful guide to the route and to the various levels of accommodation available on or near the French part.

So today we were off by car and tunnel for the Auvergne. Troublefree journey with a break tonight off the Autoroute at St Boil, near Chalon sur Saone. Bit of a problem as (a) the small but well spoken of Cheval Blanc hotel had no trace of our booking, and (b) the chef/owner has just had a heart attack: his 'hearty Burgundian appetite' does feature in the guide book. He had been taken to hospital but seemed to be doing OK and certainly his wife did well singlehandedly in his absence giving us a friendly welcome and a good meal despite her domestic problems. We learned from her that the impressive Chateau in the village - there's not much else - is run by a religious institution as a drugs rehab centre (much graphic miming of syringes).


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