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.'

Coquille Saint Jacques

A word about my blog's new header photo. I took it from the Notre Dame de France (a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary which overlooks Le Puy) just before sunset on the last day of my pilgrimage. The sun stayed hidden for what seemed an eternity, then suddenly began to appear. You can actually see individual sunbeams as they stream out in fan formation from behind the clouds...  

And, as someone pointed out to me, if you look closely enough, you can make out the distinct shape of a coquille Saint Jacques...

The 360% view from my standpoint, this rock of the 'Red Virgin', was simply amazing...

... as I gazed out over the rooftops of Le Puy...

... at the landscape through which I'd walked the previous day...