Alternative routes

[siena423]

hi everyone! would like to start the camino from kilometre 0 outside notre dame in paris in march 2011. i completed camino frances this year and it was the most awesome time of my life! my husband now wants to do it with me but only if we start from notre dame. is it well signposted, are there any guidebooks, places to stay etc. thanks for your help siena

 

[KiwiNomad06]

my husband now wants to do it with me but only if we start from notre dame. is it well signposted, are there any guidebooks, places to stay etc. thanks for your help siena

I don't know where the 'signposting' starts, but I followed the first couple of kilometres away from Notre Dame. The Tour St Jacques is not far from ND, and has recently been restored. From Notre Dame you follow all the various Rue "St Jacques" that you can see on a modern map, leading you up the hill past the Sorbonne. Near the top you reach the Haut Pas church which has an old statue of St Jacques in it. And that is as far as I followed the route from Paris. I never noticed any obvious signs....

Another place in Paris worth visiting is the Basilique St Denis, and I gather pilgrims used to come here in the north before crossing the city.

 

[Deleted member 397]

There is a book available from CSJ that covers this route as well as one from Lepere publications,see
http://www.chemin-compostelle.fr

 

[Peter Robins]

the 'signposting' (or waymarking) starts in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Poland . . . The route should now be marked from all those places all the way to Santiago, tho in France different organisations have marked it in different ways (and Gareth had some critical remarks on the marking in the Gironde on his blog last year).

See my web page for more details, including detailed mapping of the Chartres route from the Tour St Jacques (I'm not sure of the exact line of the Orleans branch in a couple of places - I've been meaning to go and reconnoitre, but . . .) http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/routes ... paris.html

An FFRP topoguide to the GR was supposed to be ready this year, but there's no sign of it yet - perhaps next year.

 

[Peter Robins]

PS. the CSJ guide is way out of date now, tho someone is supposed to be updating it at the moment.

 

[Deleted member 397]

I was going to say in my earlier post that the CSJ guide is old but when I looked at the site and then the updates there seemed to be quite comprehensive additions.

 

[giorgio]

To my knowledge there are no direct connections from Paris to the ways of St James existing in France ( tours, Vezelay and Le Puy) .
I believe you have to work out your itinerary from Paris using the network of well marked paths that cover France .
To have a look at them you should access
http://www.ffrandonnee.fr
where you will find all the network and all available guides that cover them (of course in french)
Let me know if you need further details
Ultreya
Giorgio

 

[sillydoll]

In the middle ages, hundreds of pilgrims gathered in Paris - at St Jacques de la Boucherie, Notre Dame and St Julien le Pauvre, to walk to shrines in France and to Santiago.

Wiki: The "Eglise St. Julien le Pauvre", the "church of poor St. Julien", is one of the oldest and smallest and most quaint churches of Paris. Destroyed by the Vikings in 886, it was rebuilt at the end of the 10th century. Located on the old main road of the Gallic and Roman city, and so on the routes to St. Denis and St. Jacques de Compostelle and other medieval pilgrimage sites -- and today situated in a pretty little riverside park with wonderful views of Notre Dame -- this church is one of the best Paris venues for escaping from the crowds, and for imagining the long history of this ancient city. It is now under the care of the Lebanese Catholic Community or 'Melkite Church', in Communion with Rome.--

In 2004 I used the CSJ Guide book as well as Mary Wilkie’s Book which was available from her at cranleigh@northnet.com.au
I also used Philippe Du Ngoc's website http://www.philippe@doph.net
We booked many small hotels using http://www.logis-de-france.fr

 

[gittiharre]

Compostelle 2000 have an office in Paris and my friend Louis did just that, he left from his apartment in Paris and walked to Santiago and back. He now works as a volunteer in this office. Google Compostelle 2000 and you should find the address of the office. They run regular support evenings etc too. Regards, Gitti

 

[KiwiNomad06]

I have just been looking at my photos and realise I took a photo of a very modern Camino sign in Paris, on the wall outside the church of St Jacques du Haut Pas. You reach this church if you carry on up the hill past the Sorbonne, and there are several signs of St Jacques pilgrimage inside the church. I have posted a photo of an old statue of St Jacques above, but have a few photos of a more modern wooden carving of the Virgin and St Jacques inside the church, so you could PM me if interested. Personally, I found it very moving to come to this church: it seemed like I had stepped aside in some way from the tourist throng and had begun a pilgrimage.

Margaret

 

[Anonymous]

the CSJ guide is way out of date now, tho someone is supposed to be updating it at the moment.

I had a good look at the folder when I was helping at the CSJ office back in July and I did a bit of a tidy up of the material in consultation with Marion, but it could certainly do with some updating. Today I received my Camino December newsletter (No.88) from the French pilgrims and they have advertised a great new website. I have already sent this information in an email to CSJ to update the Turonensis page on the CSJ website.

http://www.amis-st-jacques-tours.org

Looking at this site, particularly a very helpful page about budgeting (a breakdown of how it costs 900 Euros to walk from Tours to SJPP), and plenty of good practical stuff. I think it a very useful site indeed. It seems that this new site is the result of the merger of two pilgrim fraternities: "L'association regroupe deux départements : l'Indre-et-Loire et le Loir-et-Cher. Elle adhère à l'Union Jacquaire de France."

The secretary's email is: andre.henri-claude@neuf.fr

When I was in the CSJ office in July, it was a happy coincidence that there were two enquirers that day wanting to know about the Tours route, so I was able to give them my advice after walking that way from Worcester last year. I would love to see this route become more popular with English pilgrims because the small number of English pilgrims on the Spanish Caminos (compared to other nationalities) becomes even more noticeable in France. There are plenty of Dutch cyclists and French and Belgian walkers, but I did not encounter another English pilgrim in the entire six weeks it took me to walk from Dieppe to SJPP.* Ironically, as I walked from Chartres to Tours, local people were always keen to remind me that this spur of the chemins de St-Jacques-de-Compostelle was known as the Route des Anglais. (Incidentally, as you walk the Turonensis there are some wonderful road names: in one village you are walking on the Rue de la Folie; and a road of madness it can sometimes be when you get to some unmarked sections south of Bordeaux where the balisage disappears completely.)

If anyone wishes to know about the route from Dieppe to Rouen - the old fishmongers' overnight route from the port to the city - and the Route des Anglais from Chartres to Tours, I have organised the folder in the CSJ office to make this information more accessible and clearer. Also the associations in Rouen and Chartres are very helpful as they too wish to see more English pilgrims on the route. There is a CSJ member with a B&B between Rouen and Chartres, and a network of individuals in the towns between Chartres and Tours who will welcome pilgrims. It is a lovely route and people are very welcoming.

I will be writing about it in more detail eventually, now that I have more time to organise my thoughts and catch up with a few projects that have lain dormant for a while, but this will be more of a fictionalised treatment: a Santiago road novel which will also be a spiritual enquiry and a counterblast to some of the popular 'New Age' or purely secular writings about the Camino. With any luck it will not be at all successful and won't swell the crowds on the Camino Francés any more...

While I am preparing for this, I am going to be reviewing the record of my walking journey through France. When I do that, I will create some kind of booklet for the Dieppe-Tours route and the Turonensis itself. Something like John's recent guide to the Camino Inglés would be a good model and I'll likewise offer my guide as a freebie if CSJ want it.

Gareth

*PS That's wrong: of course I encountered another English pilgrim! CSJ member, Barbara Reed who kindly put me up for a couple of nights, so I could have a good rest day at her house halfway to SJPP. Barbara walks the Camino with Daly her donkey and contributes to this Forum. What I really meant is that I didn't meet another English pilgrim doing this route when I walked it.
Hi, Barbara if you're reading this.

 

[Peter Robins]

I would love to see this route become more popular with English pilgrims

yes, likewise. I would imagine the Normans and Bretons too are disappointed that they see few English pilgrims on their routes. One problem for the CSJ guide is it's such a long route. Not much changes as regards the 'places to see' info, but trying to maintain a full guide with detailed route and accommodation lists is a lot of work, as this info changes frequently. I did offer to help with the maintenance of the CSJ guide a few years back, but I certainly don't have the time to do a full 'rewrite'.

I will create some kind of booklet for the Dieppe-Tours route

That would be very good. I have been intending to write some sort of online guide expanding on my 'Routes from Channel Ports' page http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/routes/channel.html but have been busy with other things and not had time to even walk them, let along write any sort of guide. Mind you, I have always been of the view that if you have mapping then you don't need a detailed route guide, so I will probably concentrate on that. I'm also coming more to the view that it might be better to concentrate more on walking from England to nearer shrines like MSM, Chartres or Tours rather than Santiago. Perhaps a yearly event from London/Canterbury/Winchester to Chartres would be a good place to start.

 

[Theo]

Hi,

You're right, Peter, we are expecting a lot of English pilgrims on our routes in Brittany ...

I think the best way for English pilgrims to reach the 'Chemin de Tours/Via Turonensis' is to walk through Normandy (from Barfleur / Cherbourg on the 'Chemin des Anglais' to Mont-St-Michel ), Brittany and Anjou (on the 'Voie des Plantagenêts').

HERE you can view a map and read some information about the Breton St-James routes.

There are also 2 English guide books for these routes, from Winchester to Mont-St-Michel and from Mont-St-Michel to St-Jean-D'Angely on Via Turonensis. The authors call them : 'Three Saint's Way".

HERE the link to the publisher website where you can buy them.

Theo

 

[pilgrimgal]

Wow, I would love to do the camino from Notre Dame! A few years ago I was at St Martin in Tours and was surprised to learn it was en route for Santiago! Didn't know much about the routes then. I'm doing my first this May from Porto, and it looks like it won't be my only pilgrimage!

 

[Peter Robins]

See my web page for more details, including detailed mapping of the Chartres route from the Tour St Jacques (I'm not sure of the exact line of the Orleans branch in a couple of places - I've been meaning to go and reconnoitre, but . . .) http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/routes ... paris.html

the Orleans branch of the GR655 is now shown on the latest IGN maps - at least as far as Orleans - so I've added it to my mapping. I've also added the alternative routes from the various Compostelan organisations that cut out excessive meanders of the GR. The Loiret group's Etampes-Orleans route is a full 63km shorter than the GR!

The only bit outstanding is the Orleans-Vouvray section, which is not yet marked on IGN and I've not been able to find any online description of any sort. It's not the same as the GR3.