Thursday, August 20, 2009

Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey


puy-en-velay 1, originally uploaded by christophe.fr.

Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey in southern France, another Camino walk. Not sure yet if I will walk all the way to Santiago in western Spain a distance of 1521 KM or only as far as Saint Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrenees 736 KM. If I continue into Spain I plan to go up north and walk the Camino del Norte along the north coast, when I walked last time I walked the Camino Frances about 774 KM across Spain.

When my friend Pru came from Paris to spend the summer at her cottage in Lubec she brought me a copy of, Miam Miam Dodo Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle La Voie du Puy. The widely considered best guide book for the Camino Le Puy-en-Valey to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port along the GR 65(Grande Randonnée 65). It is easy to see where it gets it's reputation excellent maps and detailed information on each village and town that you pass through as well as contact information and rates for all of the accommodations along the chemin.

Right now my plans are to start walking the first week in March. Le Puy and the surrounding area is in the Haute-Loire region and the first week of walking is at altitude ranging from 640 meters at Le Puy to 1400 meters at L'Aubrac so there is the possibility of Snow in these areas but I'm not worried I have lots of time I will either wait out the storm in a village or take a bus or train down out of the mountains.