Day 1 – To the Tower of Rochegude

There are loads of differences between the first day of pilgrimage from Le Puy and the first day from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. For one, the former is quite a bit easier. That contributes to a second major difference: pilgrims tend to depart much later from Le Puy. In general, the start time tends to be more relaxed in France, but the 0700 pilgrim mass plays a big part in Le Puy. Typically, I’ll wake up, go to mass, return to my gite for breakfast, and then—assuming I arrived late the night before—stroll over to the “Needle” for a visit. After that, I’ll pick up my pack prior to my 1000 check-out time and hit the road. Not many pilgrims are daring to depart SJPDP that late, unless Orisson is their destination.

Given that late departure time, many pilgrims opt for a shorter first stage, aiming for Montbonnet, some 16km away from Le Puy. I vacillate over whether it’s better to recommend Montbonnet or Saint-Privat-d’Allier, 6.5km further on, which is a far more interesting place to spend the afternoon, but I’ve enjoyed the hospitality in Montbonnet on both of my visits to Gite L’Escole.

In any case, none of that applied to my walk this time! Having visited mass yesterday, I rolled out of town at 0600 this morning. A cloudy day awaited me, one in which the rain periodically flirted with intrusion only to back off each time. No complaints here; the high was something like 50 degrees cooler than what’s currently the case back in Portland, so I’m feeling very fortunate.

While I enjoyed my day in Le Puy, that extra 24 hours of pent-up adrenaline resulted in me being shot like a cannon uphill, powering through the ascent in no time. Nobody was awake or around when I passed through Saint-Christophe-sur-Dolaison. I was sad to see that the old snack bar on the outskirts has disappeared completely, though the Auberge in the center is nicely renovated. As it caters in part to the Le Puy crowd, though, I beat its opening by at least a few hours.

From a scouting perspective, my major priority today was to try out the Bains variant, which I’ve never done before. This approach, which deviates from the official GR-65 near Tallode, is roughly 4km longer, but adds a town to the journey. The épicerie/boulangerie in Bains’s center, though, is closed on Mondays, so I needed to tack on an extra detour to hit a bar/depot de pan on the outskirts. Worth it.

Is the Bains detour worth it? The walk itself was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s offroad to a considerable degree, outside of a paved stretch between the village of Augeac and Bains. Bains itself is nice enough, if not especially noteworthy. The church is fine, but similar in feel to Saint-Christophe’s. I was most impressed by the gite in Fay, roughly 3.5km later, which is quite substantial (40 beds). If you happened to hit Montbonnet at a busy time and needed an alternative, that would work quite well. Anyway, I don’t think I’d recommend Bains to first-timers, but returning pilgrims might enjoy the variety.

The bar was closed in Montbonnet when I arrived, but I was happy to push on for Saint-Privat. I had forgotten just how much downhill there was headed into town, not to mention how wooded this section is. It’s one of the joys of walking different stages this time, getting to hit different sections of the walk at different parts of the day. I was probably much more awake and alert passing through this stretch this time! As a bonus, I finally ran into my first pilgrims just before town—a family of five, followed by a pair of women walking together. All French. Americans always stand out a bit on this route, but my presence seems to be particularly noteworthy this time.

I took a long break in Saint-Privat, perched on the castle wall in the old town and watching as a couple other groups of pilgrims continued on from the center. I’d read one report that the bakery in Saint-Privat had closed, but it’s just an ownership change, and there were plenty of croissants and chocolatines on hand. Recharged, I pushed on for the last stretch to Rochegude, where I’m spending the night. To my elation, I found a donkey waiting for me right beneath the old castle tower on the rock overlooking the village. After walking alone all day, I had plenty to tell it.

Before dinner, one of our hosts, Franck, showed us a bit about the village. In particular, I got to see how they weigh sheep. Poor guys. Dinner was extensive: an aperitif, salad with homemade vinaigrette, house bread toasted with bleu cheese, Puy green lentils, hard-boiled eggs with an accompanying sauce, stewed potatoes/carrots/porcini mushrooms, and pan-fried steaks (or, in my case, fried eggs). The cheese course had five options, with more of the homemade bread, followed by berries and cream for dessert. I stumbled back to the gite from our hosts’ house at 10:10pm and collapsed into slumber.