In comparison to the Camino del Norte, the Chemin du Puy is a guidebook author’s dream. The official route is stable. Among the gpx tracks I’ve been able to compare thus far, practically nothing has changed since I was last here in 2018. While the Norte has settled into a more consistent track at this point, there are still persistent changes. Usually for the better, but details to be managed nonetheless. Beyond that, aside from the Figeac-Cahors smorgasbord of options, there aren’t a ton of variants. This is in contrast to the Norte, where I have nearly as many kms of variants to track as the official route.
The exception to this is the walk between Bouziès and Cahors. Because, my goodness, there are so many different possible ways to slide and dice this section that it’s almost impossible to articulate in any kind of coherent manner.
But wait, we need to make some choices before we ever even get to Bouziès from Cabrerets. Are you detouring to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. (Follow-up question: why on earth wouldn’t you detour to Saint-Cirq Lapopie?). If so, you have three choices. One choice is to take the official approach, following the D662 to the bridge over the Lot into Bouziès, then doubling back southward along the other side of the Lot. Eventually this leads to the rightly beloved Chemin de Halage, a walking path hacked into the cliff. However, if you go this way, you’ll also most likely need to backtrack through all of it, in order to walk onward to Cahors. And who likes walking all the same ground?
Instead, you could follow the D662 southward through Conduché. It eventually leads to another bridge, after which you can loop back to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie via the excellent camping. This isn’t for everyone; a chunk of it goes through a tunnel with sporadic car traffic and that could be unnerving. What it offers, though, are the best views of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie that you’re going to get anywhere walking.
How about a middle ground, though? After descending to the D662, there’s an old (Eiffel-built) train bridge visible to your left. I’ve wondered about this and this time I finally grabbed the opportunity. It’s pretty simple to cross. Turning left onto the dirt road soon after joining the D662, you’ll find a footpath climbing sharply to the bridge right at its base. On the other side, don’t take the first footpath, immediately after the bridge connects with land, but rather the second—it’s not quite as steep and there are more branches to grab onto for support. This shaves off 1.5km, plus it brings the joy of walking across a train bridge.
OK, so however Saint-Cirq-Lapopie played out for you, now you’re headed west, towards Cahors, and you’ve left Bouziès behind you. If you look at a map of this stage, you’ll notice that the trail starts out following the river, but it then suddenly drops far to the south, veering far inland. This is annoying. The problem is that sheer cliffs line the southside of the Lot in that section, so it’s simply not possible to walk any further there. Fortunately, that caused a similar problem for the train that used to run through here, so—yes!—there’s another defunct train bridge cutting across the Lot. Instead of following the waymarks as they turn you inland, passing under a railroad crossing, you can keep following the dirt road along the river. Just before you arrive at the train bridge, you’ll find a footpath through the trees to your left, climbing up to the bridge.
Now here’s the thing: to an even greater degree than the Eiffel Bridge crossing to Bouziès, this crossing is an adventure. It’s a sharp climb up to the bridge. It was particularly dicey today, on wet ground, but it was navigable. The harder part is getting down off the other side. This is the second time in a row that I’ve been met with a fair amount of brambles over there. While there is a footpath one could descend down on the left when the bridge first meets land, I’m not brave enough to try that plunging drop. Instead, I’ve found that the best approach is to weave delicately through the brambles nearly to the next road overpass, ultimately turning off of the railroad on a footpath to the right. It’s an easier descent than the original ascent, but the brambles are a pain. (Especially when your clothes, none of which dried the night before, are waving from the back of your pack and catching on every last damned one of them.)
Once through that obstacle course, you turn left onto the road and follow it to Saint-Géry. If you turn left onto the bridge, bypassing the town, you can actually shave 4km off this stage. If you loop through Saint-Géry, you still save yourself 1.5km, while earning access to a bakery, grocery, and café. The bakery has cookies for 50 cents.
Later on, you can decide whether or not to detour into Béars and Vers, and from Vers you can even do another train bridge variant, which I previously wrote about. And finally, after Arcambal, you have the choice of continuing to follow the river into Cahors—saving yourself another 4km in the process, or instead climbing to Mont-Saint-Cyr and its impressive view of the town.
What a mess!
For me, on this cloudy day with intermittent drizzle and showers, I took the Eiffel Bridge to Bouziés, the train bridge to Saint-Géry (had a cookie), followed the GR36 through the hills from Pasturat to Arcambal, and then stuck with the river to Cahors, since I did the Cyr approach a couple of days ago. As for Saint-Cirq-Lapopie? That’s tomorrow. When, I kid you not, there is currently a “flash flood warning” in effect. Bring it on. Do your worst, wacky French weather.
