I walked from Le Puy-en-Velay to Roncevaux (Roncesvalles in Spanish) in April - May of 2024, the best-known French leg of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage pounded by pilgrims for well over a thousand years. This is my account of my experiences.
I focus on what it was like, more than what I did. There are guide books galore, there is plentiful accommodation, and you won’t go hungry; so this is not my province. But what is less easy to find is what it’s like in the wider aspects beyond simple hiking: what challenges the weather creates, what it’s like in the pilgrim community, what’s the range of experiences in the accommodation options. What causes you to reflect and think differently about things, and what do you learn about yourself, others or the walk itself?
Some highlights if you’d rather dip in than read in sequence: Day 1 was a baptism of fire with both challenging terrain and hugely strong winds. Day 5 was the culmination of four days of nonstop heavy rain. Day 8 was the worst accommodation experience I had. Day 11 was spent half in vehicles with some splendid fellow pilgrims I met. On day 12 my wife joined me for a few days, and we experienced the first sunshine of the trip. Day 16 I started to notice a degree of “walking fitness” and also had the least pleasant fellow-guests in an accommodation environment. Day 18 the mud came hard, and later I was able to stay at La Petite Lumière in Moissac (my third time) with the wonderful hostess Anne. On day 21 I saw a quirky museum curated by the owner of the “chambres d’hôtes” I’d stayed at the previous evening. Day 22 saw the nadir of over a week of mud, which affected the mentality of all the pilgrims this year. Day 24 was the worst walk for me, dead straight, flat, viewless and boring, for nearly twenty miles. Day 27 was a nice one for chatting with and meeting other pilgrims, for overcoming the mud fever, and for a splendiferous dinner in the company of a German and a Frenchman. The afternoon and evening on day 29 in a mediaeval walled town, at which many pilgrims gather and mingle, was super, and I cemented one of the best friendships I made in the latter part of the walk. On day 32 I arrived at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the destination of the French leg, and on day 33 I took the plunge and did the challenging walk over the mountains to Roncevaux, the first staging post on the Spanish pilgrimage to Santiago (the Camino Frances). And upon my return I wrote up my reflections, which were wide-ranging and somewhat philosophical.
I composed a daily 4-line poem stanza to reflect the events and experiences of the day, which I hope evokes an occasional smile or knowing nod. I've also created a single blog post with full resulting poem "My Chemin".
I wore a sports watch to track some stats and I summarise these on each day's entry with the distance hiked and the total ascent (this being how much up-hill I did, not the difference between the highest and lowest elevations, so 100m up then 100 down and 200 up and 200 down equals 300m ascent). More detailed summary of these statistics, and my equipment list, are found in the entry Stats and Stuff.
The day-to-day entries in this journal were written as they occurred, sometimes grouping a few days up when time didn’t permit messing around on a phone keyboard. I later provided an editing overview and some notes that link events and people over time. It’s a record of the encounters and experiences I had, and of my reflections as they occurred to me.