Signs Along The Way

The white-on-red blaze or balise or waymark symbol of the French Grande Randonnée footpath network. I've followed these welcome and reassuring signs all along the GR 65 from Geneva in Switzerland to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, a distance of almost 1100 km. This path coincides with the French Chemin de Saint-Jacques.

A scallop shell sign (concha de Santiago in Spanish and coquille Saint-Jacques in French) marks the 'Way of St James' (known in Spanish as El Camino de Santiago and in French as Le Chemin de Saint-Jacques).

Next to this springtime spray of yellow broom stands an old stone cross — one of the hundreds if not thousands of crosses you pass along the Way. Pilgrims often place small stones on, around and at the base of these crosses. 

'Joy resides not in things, but in us.'

Perhaps I'll leave this poem for our friend Goat to translate as he's trying to learn French at the moment? (As usual, please click to enlarge.)

'Sarkozy, you will be judged by history.'

Real Love Is A Pilgrimage

The road goes on for ever... Notice the little yellow coquille marker (the scallop shell is a symbol of Saint-Jacques and the Camino) on the dead tree.

This is a simple map showing the main Ways Of Saint James (from John Brierley's A Pilgrim's Guide To The Camino De Santiago).

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists. ANITA BROOKNER

Last year I walked the pilgrim route from Le Puy in south-west France to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain - a journey of 1500 km which lasted exactly 60 days from mid-October to mid-December.

But the Camino had not finished with me. It had gripped me. It had got under my skin. It called me again this year. It drew me back. Be warned, Camino lovers, it does not let you go.

This is an account of my 2nd Camino - this time from Arles in the French Camargue to Puente La Reina on the Camino Francés in northern Spain (combining the Via Tolosana or the Voie d'Arles with the Via Aragonés), a journey on foot of between 800 and 900 km (depending on which statistics you believe). I calculated it was about 870 km. This I walked in 46 days at an average of 19 km a day - slower than my 1st Camino. I didn't want to rush. I wanted to stop from time to time to reflect on things and look around. Also I had some foot problems so I took more rest days.

As usual I had no real strategy. My preparations were fast and minimal. I would see in the due course of time what might unfold, what the Camino might reveal...

French Leaves

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. RALPH WALDO EMERSON

My photo was taken in France last year when I walked the pilgrim path of the Way Of Saint James. It shows autumn trees and volcanic rock near Belvezet on the descent from the Aubrac plateau to Saint-Chély and the wooded valley of the river Lot.

The Long And Winding Road

It was the walking trip of a lifetime. A momentous journey. Even more of a spiritual than a physical or mental experience. An obsession for some; a life-changing event for many; a challenging quest for all. An intensely personal yet uniquely communal striving towards the one goal: Santiago. This is my account of walking the Camino.

From Le Puy-en-Velay in south-central France to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain it's a distance of roughly 1560 km, nearly 1000 miles. I walked this in exactly 60 days, from 17 October to 15 December, averaging 26 km a day (which included 3 rest days).

3 recognized, historical pilgrim routes (starting in Paris, Vezelay, and Le Puy) cross half of France and converge at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port near the western end of the French Pyrenees. These routes are known as The Ways of Saint James, or the Chemins de Saint-Jacques. From Saint-Jean to Santiago the Way becomes the one path, the famous Camino Francés. A 4th route begins at Arles in French Provence, crosses the Pyrenees by the Col du Somport and joins the Camino at Puente la Reina.

Within the Iberian peninsula there are further paths destined for Santiago: the Camino del Norte from Irun, the Camino de Madrid, the Via de la Plata from Seville and the Camino Portugués which runs from Cape Saint Vincent via Lisbon and Oporto. There are many other routes connecting to the Camino with starting points throughout the whole of Europe.

In early October I vowed to walk the Camino. I'd known about it for ages. I had the books. More importantly I had the desire. But it was a spontaneous decision in the end. I'd arrived at a critical cross-roads in my life. I needed a spiritual reawakening. So on the afternoon of 15 October I took a coach to Lyon, France...