Le Chemin du Puy is the first part of a very long pilgrimage route starting at Le-Puy-en-Velay in France and finishing at Santiago in North West Spain. Pilgrims have walked this route for many years to the place where they believed St James was buried. Lucy and Martyn walked more than 750 kilometres on Le Chemin du Puy in spring 2016. This book is the story of their camino.Lucy provides some practical information about what to pack and how to get ready for a long walk. She writes about walking Le Chemin du Puy both in general terms and in more detail on a day to day basis. She describes the places they stayed in, the food they ate and the hospitality received. Some comparisons are drawn between Le Chemin du Puy in France and the Camino Frances in Spain (the second part of the same long pilgrimage walk).
Lucy talks about the relationships they formed with people they met along the way. The majority of walkers they met were not pilgrims. They were French people having short walking holidays. They found it was easier to form friendships with people who were walking a longer distance. They met one pilgrim who had chosen never to go back to his previous lifestyle but to stay a perpetual pilgrim.
Vegetarian food was not the problem Lucy had thought it might be. The quality of the food was excellent on the whole. This was so much the case that it was easy to forget they were on a pilgrimage as there was very little hardship. Cups of tea were not on offer very often but there was good coffee at most of the gîtes and some very nice tisane (herbal tea).
There was nothing to think about except where to stay, what to eat, keeping their clothes and themselves clean enough and finding the way each day. Reducing life’s requirements to this more minimalist level and having very few possessions was all part of the camino experience. Lucy and Martyn became immersed in this relaxed and relatively simple lifestyle. Then they had to come home and back to their normal life.
