Day 3 – Back in the Aubrac
The hardest question one is asked on the Chemin isn’t “Why are you walking,” or “What will you do with your life when you return home.” No, it’s “Where did you sleep last night.” So much happens over the course of the day that when you finally pause and try to sift through the images […]
Day 2 – Some Sauvage Weather
Plenty of things went wrong today. The bakery in Monistrol-d’Allier was closed, due to illness. The farm snack bar in Rognac was also closed, as was the food truck after Montaure, and—crushing, for me— Chez Jérôme in Chazeaux seems to have shut down permanently. It drizzled off and on all morning, then abandoned all pretense […]
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 […]
A Whole Day in Le-Puy-en-Velay
Every time I’ve visited Le Puy in the past, I’ve arrived under cover of darkness and left the following morning, so I’ve never had a ton of time to explore. This time around, I was committed to giving myself a day. So what to do with all of that time? I was up at 6:30am, […]
Off to Le Puy!
When I first decided to walk the Camino de Santiago, I dutifully ordered the first guidebook I could find. It was harder in those days; the options were a lot more limited. I ended up with Alison Raju’s The Way of St James: Le Puy to Santiago. It’s something to marvel at today, that this […]
2021 Pilgrimage on the Northern Caminos
Like everything else, the pandemic effectively shut down pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago over the past 15 months, aside from a soft reopening for Europeans last summer. With Europe finally reopening, to varying degrees, the smoke is starting to clear. And, to my great relief, much of the pilgrim infrastructure is bouncing back, with […]