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Travel
Information
Season: May to
October, uncrowded and usually not too hot in the summer.
First Hotel: Hotel Bristol, Le Puy, on the afternoon/early evening
of Day 1.
Full Package: If you are
thinking about our flight inclusive package we use British Airways scheduled
flights from London Heathrow to Lyon, and then onward travel by train to
Le Puy (see below under ’Nearest Airport’).
Flights
to Paris are also available from most UK regional airports with onward
connection to Lyon by air or TGV high-speed train. There is now a direct
TGV train service from Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport to Lyon.
There is also the Eurostar Rail Service from St Pancras via Channel Tunnel
and Paris.
Nearest Airport: Lyon (for
full package customers). You should take a morning flight. On
arrival take the airport shuttle bus to Lyon Part Dieu station (not Perrache station), which takes 30 minutes. The best train to aim for has been the TGV at around
14:19, which will get you to St Etienne Chateaucreux at 15:08, where you change
for Le Puy departing at 15:56 arriving at 17:20.
Please check times before travelling. These rail tickets
are included in the Air and Rail Travel package. You will receive
up-to-date train times for your date of travel, or alternatively you can
visit Rail Europe's website at www.sncf.com.
Alternative airport: Paris. There is a TGV rail station at Charles
de Gaulle (Roissy) airport, so there is no longer any necessity to travel
into Paris. The most suitable train
departs at around 12:58 and arrives in Lyon at 15:01. You change trains
for St Etienne- Chateaucreux departing at 15:19 and arriving at 16:08.
Change again for Le Puy departing 17:13 arriving at 18:37. (Please
check times before travelling).
By Rail: Eurostar
rail service from St Pancras via the Channel Tunnel to
Paris and Paris to Le Puy. www.sncf.com
End of Tour: In Conques
on day 12. Travel to Rodez by bus (no service on Saturday or Sundays) and
then daily direct non-TGV train For Example:
dep. 11.50, arr. Paris Austerlitz 18.50.
Or on any weekday and Saturday, taxi to St. Christophe, and direct
non-TGV train to Paris Austerlitz dep. 07.03, arr. Paris 13.35.
If
you have driven down, our ground operator can organize for a car to take
you back to Le Puy, the journey takes about 4.5 hours and costs around 50
euros per person. This has to be booked in advance.
If
you are organizing your own transport, you could also fly with Ryan Air
from Rodez-Marcillac Airport, about 12 km outside Rodez. There are
no rail or bus connections to the airport, so you will either have to take
the morning bus to Rodez (6.5E) then taxi to the airport (30E) or take a
taxi all the way from Conques (75-85E).
Level of Difficulty
Fitness: A moderate to
strenuous graded trek that anyone with a reasonable degree of walking
experience and current reasonable state of fitness should cope with.
The relatively high grade reflects the length of some of the day
stages and the nature of the terrain.
Day stages: Approximately
15 to 28 km per day with average altitude gains of 550m. This is about 5
to 8 hours of walking.
Waymarking: The route is well marked with red and white GR waymarks
and 'Chemin de St Jacques' scallop shell signs.
Accommodation & Meals
Evening
meal, bed and breakfast are included throughout the tour. Two star hotels
offer en suite facilities. One
star hotels do not always have en suite facilities. Luggage is transferred
between hotels every day.
q
Night 1: Le Puy.
2 star. This
elegant and well equipped hotel is centrally situated a short walk
from the train station. All rooms have en suite facilities, telephone and
T.V.
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Night
2: St
Privat d’Allier. 1 star a medium-sized Logis de France listed hotel (30 rooms)
in this quiet village of 200 inhabitants. Rooms are a bit basic but
there is a lovely old restaurant with green lentils the local speciality.
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Night 3: Saugues. 2
star Logis de France small hotel (17 rooms) with a restful
atmosphere and a shaded terrace. TV
and phone in rooms. When visited it had an excellent restaurant and
a most friendly service.
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Night 4: Les Faux.
Another small village hotel with 13 rooms about 1km off the route. The
rooms have either a bath or shower and W.C. A couple of rooms
however have shared facilities. Set in the quiet picturesque
hilly area over the River Limagnole. It is nice to sit with a beer
in the garden overlooking a pond.
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Night 5:
Aumont. 2 star small hotel in the centre of the town. The rooms
have either a bath or shower and W.C. as well as T.V. and telephone.
Nice restaurant!
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Night 6: Nasbinals.
2 star a hotel in the centre of the village, close to the church.
You may be moved to a hotel 500 metres away but will eat at the central
hotel in communal style with other walkers.
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Night 7:
St Chely d’Aubrac,
2 star. A small hotel with comfortable rooms in the centre of a small
village run by a young couple. The restaurant
offers regional specialities.
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Night 8:
St Come d’Olt. Our
guesthouse (Chambre d’hote) tonight will give you a warm welcome. This
is a 19th century Aveyronnaise house located in the entrance of Saint-Come
d’Olt. It has a private
garden and a heated swimming pool with six superb bedrooms. Each of the
six rooms wonderfully restored has its own personality with
private bathroom and from 2 to 4 beds. A generous breakfast, is included.
If we cannot get you in here, you will need to walk on a few kms to
Espalion where you will stay in a pleasant 'fin de siecle' town hotel with
a great restaurant.
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Night 9:
Estaing. 2 star
standard. The Logis de France
hotel is tucked into the narrow space between the river Lot and the
castle. It has 40 comfortable rooms with all modern conveniences.
The large dining room has a fine stone fireplace in which the chef
cooks a range of regional specialities. It is one of the most
beautiful villages of France.
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Night 10:
Espeyrac. This
small hotel offers a warm welcome, the hotel
has a nice restaurant and bar. Some rooms are not ensuite.
Breakfast is also a simple continental one.
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Night 11:
Conques. The
hotel we normally use is a 2 stars, 11 bedroom hotel. The
building has mediaeval origins and so rooms may have low beams,
etc... Some of the rooms have views across
the belfry of St Foys. There is an excellent restaurant in which to
celebrate your completion of the tour. It is situated in
the centre of the village or guest house located in the lower part of
village by the beautiful Romanesque bridge if hotel fully booked..
General Information
Baths:
it is not normal for your room to have a bath, the main reason being that
it takes up a lot of space, some hotels/guesthouses may have a separate
room in the house where a bath is available to guests, but in the main it
is showers.
Breakfast:
in countries such as France/Italy/Spain/Greece etc are usually coffee and
toast/croissant, if you want more for breakfast then we would suggest you
purchase some food the night before. It is important for you to tell us if
you have any dietary requirements when you book your holiday so that we
can inform everyone that you are staying with.
Single
Supplements:
are payable on most of our tours. 1) The single supplement
guarantees the privacy of your own room, however, rooms can at times be
small and in some places may not enjoy the same facilities as double/twin
rooms.
Language:
Don’t expect people to speak English! Why not bring a phrase book with
you and practice a little
French?
Luggage:
When staying in hotels, sometimes your luggage will have been taken to
you room awaiting your arrival. However don’t be surprised if your
luggage is waiting for you to take it up to your room.
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Outline
Itinerary
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Day
1: Arrive Le Puy.
Hopefully you will have enough time to look around some of the sites or
this could be saved for tomorrow morning if you manage your time
well. Le Puy Cathedral is a beauty and has a history of pilgrimage
dating back to the 9th century. There is also the pretty St Michel
d'Aiguilhe sitting on its volcanic plug with its beautiful chapel and at
its foot the little Romanesque Chapelle St Claire which was originally
part of a pilgrim's hospital. Le Puy is famous for its lace and
green lentils which can be purchased in the town.
q
Day
2: Le Puy to St
Privat d’Allier 23.5 kms. We
climb out of Le Puy onto a plateau and overlook a winding ravine type
valley. We pass
through black basalt villages like La Roche, then cross a watershed to
reach St Privat, perched above the Allier gorge with its much modified
castle dating from the Hundred Years War.
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Day
3: St Privat
d’Allier to Saugues 19 kms. Much
of the day is spent crossing the valley of the River Allier; we start with a level walk to
Rochegude, where the Saint Jacques chapel dominates the Allier pass,
providing beautiful views. We
descend to the river at Monistrol (Romanesque church) and climb steeply up
the other
side past some striking geological formations.
Easy tracks across an agrarian and forest plateau at about 1000 metres take us to Sauges, meeting-point
for all pilgrims coming from the Auvergne. This town features in the
history of the Hundred Years war and in the 1700s as a marshalling point
for hunters of the giant man eating wolves that terrorized the region for
a few years.
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Day
4: Saugues to les
Faux. 27.5 kms. We stick
closely to the route the pilgrims took as we start off through the tiny
hamlet of Pinet where many of the pilgrims stayed.
We gradually climb up the valley and follow the Villange River
upstream to Clauze with its ancient tower impossibly still clinging to a
boulder - the remains of a 12th century
castle. Our walk is long but
not steep through wooded landscapes, moors of broom pine woods and meadows
enclosed by granites posts. We head off into forests and around a
huge estate called Le Sauvage with its massive solid stone barns, ramps
and court yard. Interesting damed ponds kept water supplied to the
place. On the way on we pass the pilgrim's chapel at St Roch, before
detouring off the GR route to a pleasant rural stay at Les Faux.
q
Day
5: Les Faux to Aumont. 21 kms. We eventually arrive in the
village of St Alban with its Romanesque church dating back to the 11th
century and interesting chateau which has been partially restored.. We climb upwards for a couple of hours,
into rolling bucolic landscapes, enjoying the views of St
Alban and the lush Limagnole Valley.
Eventually we emerge on to the Margeride plateau at around 900
metres, before descending down to Aumont.
It is a pleasant market town with a beautiful church. A fine little town - one of those delightful undiscovered
parts of France.
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Day
6: Aumont to
Nasbinals. 26 kms. Our walk
starts off through the small town with its 16th and 17th century houses,
until we join a forest path. We
pass through the villages of La Chaze and Lasbros and we start to cross
the vast and remote plateau of Aubrac.
This is a desolate region of wild flowers, dry stone walls, largely
treeless and empty of people. Part of the route here follows
Agrippa's old Roman road. Our route takes us through tiny hamlets and farmsteads crossings
streams over ancient granite bridges, past huge granite boulders and
piles until we arrive at Nasbinals, a transhumance village with a
beautiful church. May time is fantastic for the flowers in the
fields including large stands of narcissus and orchids in damper niches.
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Day
7: Nasbinals to St Chely d’Aubrac. 17 kms.
An exhilarating day, much of it on open hillsides and grassy drove
roads, reaching 1368 metres - the highest point of the tour.
We
pass through the great transhumance centre of Aubrac (church of 1220 and
Tour des Anglais). There is a new interpretation centre here and a
fantastic inn, an ideal place to take refuge if it is cold, where huge
slices of fruit flan are served for a few Euros! After Aubrac you
drop steeply past the ruins of Knights Templar Belvezet caste to pretty St
Chely in its secluded valley.
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Day
8: St Chely
d’Aubrac to St Come d'Olt. 16kms. We
contour along beech-clad slops onto an open ridge, and then descend
through chestnut woods to the 'Cancels' stream crossing a few little
bridges to ascend suddenly steeply to the hamlet of La Roziere.
There is a bit more undulation until finally you descend to St Come d'Olt, with its mediaeval gateways and
twisted church spire. This is a pretty little walled village, very
much part of the original Way of St James, and has a great
patisserie. (Possibly you will have to walk a further 6 kilometres
onto Espalion if we cannot get you in here).
q
Day
9: St Come d'Olt to
Estaing 17 kms. Leave St Come with
good views across the Lot back to the village. Really it feels as if
you are leaving the Massif Central region and into more productive
farmlands from now on. The route then splits with a higher or lower
route to the important market town of Espalion, perhaps too early for
lunch but there are plenty of places for coffee and time to admire the old
arched bridge dating from the 13th century, the regal houses and the 16th
century turreted chateau overlooking the River Lot. Continuing on we
pass the exquisite little chapel at the picturesque hamlet called
Bessuejouls which has a concealed upper chapel in the belfry. There
follows quite a muddy section climbing through oak woods to a ridge path
with extensive views over the Lot Valley, and then pass between vines and
tobacco fileds to reach Estaing. Estaing has preserved vividly the
memory of the passage of pilgrims to Compostela. The famous festival
of St Fleuret is held yearly on the first Sunday in July, during which
hundreds of costumed people follow a procession to commemorate Saint
Jacques and other pilgrims. An imposing castle dominates the town
and is gradually being restored for the public.
q
Day 10: Estaing
to Espeyrac. 25 kms. After a
short stint along the banks of the Lot, we climb up to the plateau of
Campeux plateau. We continue along
the left bank of the Lot until Rouquette and then through beautiful
villages such as Golinhac, Campagnac and still smaller hamlets until we
reach the very tranquil village called Espeyrac. It is an idyllic
spot.
q
Day 11: Espeyrac
to Conques 13 kms. A short
distance today, taking us through Senergues (picturesque castle) and
maintaining our height until the final stony descent into Conques.
This, one of the finest hill-towns in France, clusters round the
magnificent Romanesque abbey of St Foy, patron saint of prisoners: her
shrine became an object of pilgrimage in its own right. The village
does get its fair share of tourists but for good reason. It is other
worldly, unspoilt and absolutely chocolate box! At St Foy they
sometimes do free evening organ recitals. Other attractions include
the treasury where some very fine mediaeval treasures are housed.
There is also the Romanesque bridge down in the valley which is worth the
detour to cross.
q
Day 12: Return
home. Limited early morning bus service to Rodez railway station,
otherwise or at weekends, you will need to pre order a taxi.
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