Best Time to Walk in spring

[jane barclay]

I'm sure this question has been asked before but I'm not finding the exact answer. My husband and I are planning to walk the Le Puy route as far as Cahors in the spring of 2025. We plan to book our accommodation in advance (that's just who I am.... I need to know I have a place to stay or I will be stressed about it!), shorter days of ~20km or so. We can't leave until to end of April at the earliest. I understand that the route, especially as far as Conques, gets quite busy in May with French holiday walkers. Would it be better to leave end of April to try and get ahead of the crowd, or wait until later in May when maybe the busyness has subsided? I see that there's a holiday on May 20. Is there a sweet spot? Does it matter at all if we are booking ahead?

 

[John Gilliland]

I'm sure this question has been asked before but I'm not finding the exact answer. My husband and I are planning to walk the Le Puy route as far as Cahors in the spring of 2025. We plan to book our accommodation in advance (that's just who I am.... I need to know I have a place to stay or I will be stressed about it!), shorter days of ~20km or so. We can't leave until to end of April at the earliest. I understand that the route, especially as far as Conques, gets quite busy in May with French holiday walkers. Would it be better to leave end of April to try and get ahead of the crowd, or wait until later in May when maybe the busyness has subsided? I see that there's a holiday on May 20. Is there a sweet spot? Does it matter at all if we are booking ahead?

Booking ahead will help. I would start trying to book now and that way you should be fine even with all the May holidays.

 

[Tincatinker]

I'm sure this question has been asked before but I'm not finding the exact answer

That’s because there isn’t an exact answer. Too many variables; too little precision.

If you can settle your travel dates and pre-book your accommodations you do not have a problem. If you can’t nail down the accommodation string you’ll have to decide whether to wing it or not.

A couple of stressful days on the internet should crack it

 

[CTLawGal]

I am also walking that route in May 2025 - starting in Geneva in mid April, reaching Le Puy May 2, I've booked my route (I'm that kind of person too, even if it means less spontaneity, it also means less anxiety - particularly during May when there are lots of "bridge" holidays (I.e., holidays that are 1-2 days near weekends that cause many French to take advantage of getting a full week (or even 9 days) while only using 2-3 vacation days).

I was thinking that more people might be more interesting on some parts of my 50 day walking plan, especially since I expect the first 3 weeks to be fairly solitary walking from Geneva - a nice mix of solitary at first then meeting more people. My French is good, so I also thought it would be a nice opportunity to use it while walking through a part of France I don't know at all, and also might make evenings more interesting I also prefer walking in colder weather, so that was a motivating factor, to finish before it gets deep into June.

So if you can make your bookings now, I would say do it and hope for glorious spring weather with a blooming countryside (but be prepared for spring rains). That's what I'm hoping for anyway! (I had originally thought to walk this route in fall, but in an earlier post somewhere on this forum, a pilgrim had shared pictures that inspired me to reconsider and pick spring instead.)