Walking from France to Bilbao, España...ideas?

[ggilmer1@nc.rr.com]

Last summer I walked the Camino Frances from Pamplona to Santiago...Such a fantastic experience in every way. This summer I have 4 weeks to walk from somewhere to Bilbao, Spain. (I will meet a friend there and fly home from there.) I want to start in France, then end up in Bilbao. I speak no French, and as of yet have no guides or maps. Could any of you suggest a route and starting point for me based on your walks through France? This is for the last half of June and the first half of July. Thank You!

 

[grayland]

I am posting a reply without doing any research so take my thoughts as just that.
How about Starting in Paris. There is a Camino route from there so there should be some gites available along the way. Not sure of the distance to Bilbao.

We spent 6 months wandering (by car) around France several years ago and speak not a word of French.....well we thought we knew a couple of words but the French soon conviniced us that we could not even manage that. :?
You can get by without knowing French. Like always, it would make the experience better if you could talk with the local people....but you can easily get by and enjoy yourself.

 

[Caminando]

Last summer I walked the Camino Frances from Pamplona to Santiago...Such a fantastic experience in every way. This summer I have 4 weeks to walk from somewhere to Bilbao, Spain. (I will meet a friend there and fly home from there.) I want to start in France, then end up in Bilbao. I speak no French, and as of yet have no guides or maps. Could any of you suggest a route and starting point for me based on your walks through France? This is for the last half of June and the first half of July. Thank You!

You might consider a very fine route - the Chemin de St Jacques from Le Puy - St Jean Pied de Port and on to Bilbao. Take a phrase book. Look at what guidebooks the CSJ offers. It's hot in June/July so prepare well, but go...

Incidentally, the Guggenheim is closed on Mondays, or was when I last arrived there.

 

[jl]

Hi there, I doubt you would have enough time to walk all the way from Paris unless you were to run some of it. However you would have time to walk some of the Le Puy or Vezelay paths, or even part way along the Paris way. Looking at the map I would think that you would probably have enough time to walk from Poitiers or Saintes on the Paris Path and on the Vezelay one you could probably begin in Perigeux - maybe even the lovely city of Limoges. The only problem is that on either the Vezelay or the le Puy path you would then have to make you way out to the coast - whereas on the Path coming down from Paris you would be able to stick to the coast. The path is well marked down to Hendaye from Bayonne. Conques would probably be an OK place to begin on the le Puy path, but that would mean that you would miss out on the lovely Aubrac Plateau.

I don't speak French (other than please, thank you, hello and goodbye!) and have always managed thus far.

Hope this gives you something to think about, cheers, Janet