Please advice me, 1 week on Piémont (or Arles or Geneva)!

[Tiran]

Hi!

This may seem very last minute and spontaneous, and it is, but also not. I've been thinking about it for some time, but then I twisted my ankle a few weeks back and thought it wouldn't be possible. But now I've decided that I will do it anyway. I want to walk a week on a camino in France, starting in just a few days. And I need help finding a route.

Six years ago a walked the last part of Via Gebennensis from Clonas-sur-Varèze to Le Puy-en-Velay, and I really liked it. I'm looking for something similar. I don't mind meeting people along the way (that was one of the things I loved with Via Gebennensis, the hospitality and friendliness of the French I stayed with or met on my walk), but I don't want a crowded camino. I've been looking at The Piémont Route, The Arles Route or (the first part of) Via Gebennensis. My problem is finding an accessible and suitable part for a week (or maybe six days) of walking. Here are some things to consider:

- My ankle is still not fully recovered, so I need to keep it at maximum 15-20 km/day.

- Because of my ankle I also want to carry as little as possible. So I'm not bringing a tent. I need to find accomodation for every night.

- The starting point and the end point need to be accessible by train or bus.

- There seems to be a heat wave coming, timing my walk very badly. Any advice on which route I should choose based on that?

- Since I would be leaving in just a few days, I don't have time to order a guidebook or anything online, i probably wouldn't get it delivered in time. But when I walked Via Gebennensis I just printed good maps (from Peter Robins, but his page seems to be down?) and had a list of pilgrim accomodations to call a day ahead. This worked good enough for me then. But I need to be able to find at least this, somewhere. Any advices? The accomodation part has been the hardest to find information about, and that, off course, causes a planning problem...

I would be so grateful if someone could help me find a route to walk! Quickly, if possible. I've been searching and reading but the there are still too many question marks in my head...

Thank you!
Maria

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Research the Lourdes to Oloron-Ste.-Marie section. You can get to Lourdes by train from Toulouse, and you can stop at Oloron or continue on to Canfranc Estacion depending on time. The only steep part would be up to Somport, but you can take a bus through the tunnel to Canfranc. From there you can get transportation to Pamplona or Zaragoza.

 

[intrepidtraveler]

Why not go back to LePuy and continue on the Chemin LePuy. Looking at gronze.com for planning my LePuy walk in August there seems to be a lot of places to stop without having to go a long distance. It's also busy enough to support a backpack transfer service. There's a wonderful FB group for this route where there' s a lot of good plannin info. Check out, if interested, The Way of St. James-Via Podiensis.

 

[Tiran]

Hi!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your help! Sorry for getting back to you so late. Just had some really busy days so I couldn't find the time to write. (And sorry for reposting something I just posted in the Arles forum, I've just had this going in both forums, hoping to reach different kinds of experts.) After researching possible parts regarding transportation to/from, I have found to the following routes:

On the Pièmont Route:

Start: Pamiers
End: Razecueillé (with a last walking day of walking from Razecueillé to the train station in Saint Gaudens)

Start: Saint-Pé-d'Ardet or Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (found a bus to the vicinity)
End: Lourdes

Start: Lourdes
End: Somport (or earlier if my ankle protests)

On the Arles Route:

Start: Pau
End: Somport (or earlier if my ankle protests)

On Via Gebennensis:

Start: Geneva
End: Les Abrets (or actually to Le-Pont-de-Beauvoisin, to take the train from there)


Any recommendations regarding this? Which one is the... best? Most scenic, rewarding, friendliest accomodations, whatever qualifies "best".

My problem for Piémont is still an uppdated accomodation list. Now I have looked at this, last updated 2 years ago. Don't know if it is accurate. For Arles I hope Gronze is enough. For Via Gebennensis I hope to pick up the yellow guide in Geneva.

And I want to find good maps that I can print! :/

 

[Tiran]

Ok so I have decided for...

Start: Saint-Pé-d'Ardet or Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (found a bus to the vicinity)
End: Lourdes

Flying to Toulouse tonight to start walking tomorrow.

Best (detailed) map I have found is opentopomap.org, then I found the route on traildino and will put that over on screenshots from opentopomap.

Best accomodation list is this (was supposed to post in my last post, but forgot to copy+paste the link): http://www.compostelle-paca-corse.i...331/hebergementspiemontpyreneen18-07-2017.pdf
It's from 2017 though. If anyone has an updated list that would be great!