The Tours Route

[obinjatoo]

I am considering pedaling this route. Has anyone done this route in a while? I have read different things about it. Also I had come across a set of guidebooks online written in French for this route but I can't seem to find them again. Anybody have any info on this route or these guide books?
Thanks,
Robin

 

[mspath]

Robin,

What a wonderful Camino you are considering!

Be sure to check out the Forum section ‹ Routes in France ‹ The Tours route which covers the Camino from Paris to SJPdP. Scanning these posts you will find much useful information including a handy list of all Parisian locations relevant to the medieval Camino.

Also posted there is news of the brand new 2012 guide to this French route La Via Turonensis from Paris to Spain - on Kindle. Written by fellow Forum member Sillydoll this is a MUST for anyone seeking an up to date English guide for following this historic route.

See also this French site http://viaturonensis.pagesperso-orange.fr/

I wish you Bon Chemin and Buen Camino,

Margaret

 

[obinjatoo]

Thank you for your help. And a quick response as well. I am brand new here and I'll try to find your suggestion. I wasn't sure if I even posted in the appropriate location.
Robin

 

[newfydog]

Don't forget the traditional start for many on that route was leave from the Tour St Jacques in Paris.

 

[ilovelife]

Is it realistic to do the Tours route and the Camino Frances in two months?

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Is it realistic to do the Tours route and the Camino Frances in two months?

That would be ambitious! It depends on your physical capabilities or your willingness to take transportation occasionally.

 

[ilovelife]

That would be ambitious! It depends on your physical capabilities or your willingness to take transportation occasionally.

I'd like to walk the entire Camino Frances but am thinking the Tours route would require a bus ride here and there.

 

[Sraaen]

I did the Tours - Santiago route leaving Tours on Sept. 10th 2013 and arrived in Santiago on Nov. 9th. I took two full rest days (in Bordeaux and Burgos) and bypassed two stages.

Even better than the occasional bus, for the most part the route parallels the regional train line. The SNCF stations are centrally located and trains run several times/day.

Beware as well that a new high speed train line is under construction from Paris to Bordeaux which caused me some grief, especially just south of Poitiers.

It's a very flat route all the way to St. Palais. The route is far more developed than the Le Puy route. I took a train from Paris to Orleans and originally planned to start there but I wasn't able to find anyone there who was at all familiar with the Chemin St Jacques so I continued by train to Tours.

It's not the most beautiful route but there is a lot of history. It's not very well marked and I dk what I would have done without Google Maps. I was warned that pilgrims pretty much had to "roll their own" route and I was blown away by how good Google Maps was. It seemed that every path through the woods & between corn fields has an official designation and GM knew them all. It burned a lot of battery but very little data and the turn-by-turn directions was tremendous (stay on the same path until your phone vibrates!)

Les Landes seems to go on forever. The route is flat as a pancake and straight as an arrow. It's all "big timber" and took me about a week to slog through. Once you get out of Les Landes and into Dax it becomes very pretty and pretty hilly - a nice warm up for SJPdP - Roncesvalles.

Aside from maybe the Meseta, the leg between St. Palais and Ostabat (the day before reaching SJPdP) gave me the greatest sense of the history of the Camino.

Anyhow, I hope there's something useful in the post. I'm jealous. Bon Chemin!!

 

[ilovelife]

I did the Tours - Santiago route leaving Tours on Sept. 10th 2013 and arrived in Santiago on Nov. 9th. I took two full rest days (in Bordeaux and Burgos) and bypassed two stages.

Even better than the occasional bus, for the most part the route parallels the regional train line. The SNCF stations are centrally located and trains run several times/day.

Beware as well that a new high speed train line is under construction from Paris to Bordeaux which caused me some grief, especially just south of Poitiers.

It's a very flat route all the way to St. Palais. The route is far more developed than the Le Puy route. I took a train from Paris to Orleans and originally planned to start there but I wasn't able to find anyone there who was at all familiar with the Chemin St Jacques so I continued by train to Tours.

It's not the most beautiful route but there is a lot of history. It's not very well marked and I dk what I would have done without Google Maps. I was warned that pilgrims pretty much had to "roll their own" route and I was blown away by how good Google Maps was. It seemed that every path through the woods & between corn fields has an official designation and GM knew them all. It burned a lot of battery but very little data and the turn-by-turn directions was tremendous (stay on the same path until your phone vibrates!)

Les Landes seems to go on forever. The route is flat as a pancake and straight as an arrow. It's all "big timber" and took me about a week to slog through. Once you get out of Les Landes and into Dax it becomes very pretty and pretty hilly - a nice warm up for SJPdP - Roncesvalles.

Aside from maybe the Meseta, the leg between St. Palais and Ostabat (the day before reaching SJPdP) gave me the greatest sense of the history of the Camino.

Anyhow, I hope there's something useful in the post. I'm jealous. Bon Chemin!!

Thank you for such great information! I'm not incredibly familiar with Google Maps. Do I just input a starting address and a final destination address and it'll spit out a route? How would Google Maps distinguish between roads and hiking paths?

Where did you stay? I hear there aren't many albergues on this route. Any idea how much the Tours route cost you in the end?

 

[mspath]

For comprehensive mapping information on the Tours route, ie the Via Turonensis, see this informative entry from the Walking Pilgrim site by fellow Forum member Peter Robins. At the bottom of his post you can select to view the route on either
IGN (France), OpenStreetMap, Bing maps or Google maps. Hit the middle view button to see the entire route.





,

 

[Kanga]

We started at Orleans and had no trouble following GRs and local paths through the Loire Valley. We deliberately planned our route to include some of the most beautiful chateaux - including a long detour off the route to see the unmissable gardens at Villandry. Best part of the walk was from Orleans to Tours!

 

[ilovelife]

For comprehensive mapping information on the Tours route, ie the Via Turonensis, see this informative entry from the Walking Pilgrim site by fellow Forum member Peter Robins. At the bottom of his post you can select to view the route on either
IGN (France), OpenStreetMap, Bing maps or Google maps. Hit the middle view button to see the entire route
,

Thanks you so much mspath.

I was able to open and view the Google Maps version. Very helpful. Now the question is: if my phone does not have internet in France can I save those maps directly to my phone for viewing as I hike or do I always need an internet connection in order to view them?

I apologize for my naivety with this techno stuff. I have never used GPS or Google Maps for something such as this.

Antonio.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

can I save those maps directly to my phone for viewing as I hike or do I always need an internet connection in order to view them?

My experience is that you need an internet connection. It can burn up a lot of data!

 

[mspath]

Check out this page from from Peter Robins blog describing mapping for mobile phones.

 

[Sraaen]

Thank you for such great information! I'm not incredibly familiar with Google Maps. Do I just input a starting address and a final destination address and it'll spit out a route? How would Google Maps distinguish between roads and hiking paths?

Where did you stay? I hear there aren't many albergues on this route. Any idea how much the Tours route cost you in the end?

Google Maps: My most common use of GM was when I either got lost en route or needed help getting out of big cities. I may be especially directionally challenged but it took me two days to get out of Poitiers! I had a French guidebook (I don't speak French) and would enter the next village into GM from wherever I was and would usually pick up the markers, at least for awhile.

I'm from the US and added an international data plan (AT&T 300mb) for $60/mo.

You're right about accommodations. In the interest of full disclosure I'll admit to doing almost no planning. That, combined with my directional disfunction hurt me budget-wise. I stayed in more hotels than I would have liked. Some of them are quirky - like being closed on Sunday or not opening until 6pm. There weren't any Demi-pensiones (room, breakfast and dinner), like there is on the Le Puy route so it was expensive. The Tours route doesn't cater to pilgrims like the more well traveled routes. There are some municipal Gites but (of course) I had trouble finding them. More than once I slept in the town's Marie.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

I'm from the US and added an international data plan (AT&T 300mb) for $60/mo.

My brother had a $600 bill after signing on for that international data plan. The data limit will last about a day using Google maps. After that, the overage charges mount rapidly.

 

[Sraaen]

Thank you for such great information! I'm not incredibly familiar with Google Maps. Do I just input a starting address and a final destination address and it'll spit out a route? How would Google Maps distinguish between roads and hiking paths?

Where did you stay? I hear there aren't many albergues on this route. Any idea how much the Tours route cost you in the end?

I'm so sorry I didn't see this question til now.

Yes, I would just enter the name of a town - either the destination or one on the way. Apparently France is well know for being incredibly well mapped. I didn't need it most of the time but when I did it was fabtastic. I'm guessing that there are more rural foot byways and farm tracks in France, so that's why GM returns them. Usually GM lets you pick a different route id their first result isn't appealing.

Most villages are quite accommodating. There are some nice private gites and I stayed in a couple of municipal ones as well. The French routes are all more expensive than the Spanish ones. As I recall private gites were 30-50E and the municipal ones 10-15. I stayed in a few hotels as well. Landes was the toughest place to find accommodations.

 

[Sraaen]

My brother had a $600 bill after signing on for that international data plan. The data limit will last about a day using Google maps. After that, the overage charges mount rapidly.

Hmm. I made do with the 300mb plan. I was meticulous about turning off all notifications etc. But Google Maps only used 25mb of data for the month - when I used turn-by-turn directions. I think I had to reset my offline area 3 times (using wifi) and if Bordeaux wasn't so big it would have been twice. It still showed me the small tracks, just didn't do the turn-by-turn part.

That said, the Google App (not Chrome) screwed me royally. I apparently mistakenly hit the voice search icon and 3 hours later my battery was almost dead and I was 100mb poorer.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

3 hours later my battery was almost dead and I was 100mb poorer

On a cruise, I ran up a $250 bill in fifteen minutes when the data switched from shore internet to the cellular at sea at two in the morning! Don't forget to turn off data roaming...

I took AT&T to arbitration, and they gave me back my money (by the way). Fight or pay.

 

[domigee]

Robin,

What a wonderful Camino you are considering!

Be sure to check out the Forum section ‹ Routes in France ‹ The Tours route which covers the Camino from Paris to SJPdP. Scanning these posts you will find much useful information including a handy list of all Parisian locations relevant to the medieval Camino.

Also posted there is news of the brand new 2012 guide to this French route La Via Turonensis from Paris to Spain - on Kindle. Written by fellow Forum member Sillydoll this is a MUST for anyone seeking an up to date English guide for following this historic route.

See also this French site http://viaturonensis.pagesperso-orange.fr/

I wish you Bon Chemin and Buen Camino,

Margaret

I know this is a post from 5 years ago but thanks anyway. I'm looking into this for next Summer.