Accommodation along the route - (I'm a first timer.)

[Maggie O]

Hi, I'm hoping to start the walk in June this year. I've never walked it before. Can anyone give me a guide as to what I might have to pay for accommodation along the way. Also, does anyone supply any meals where you stay or do you have to take your own food with you, including breakfast. As you can tell, I'm not very organised, but am looking forward tothe experience. Sounds like I'll have to brush up on my french also. Lots to do, not much time !! All the best, Maggie.

 

[ranthr]

Hei Maggie.
If you are walking the Le Puy route you should have to book places to sleep either before you leave or a day or two ahead. The tourist offices along the way is helpful, but they are mostly in the bigger villages or towns. I went from Le Puy in August 2009 and had booked places to sleep by mail before i started. I used http://www.chemindecompostelle.com to find places where I coyld send a mail in English. I met people that said it was difficult to find places to sleep between Le Puy and Conques.
If you speak French it is easier, I guess.
On long walkingdays it was good to know that a bed was waiting for you.
It is important to ask for media-pension, which means that you will get a hot meal in the evening and breakfast. The breakfast is most often white bread and confiture and coffee/tea. Sometimes a yougurt too. So if you need a sounder breakfast you will have to carry some. If you do not book media-pension it might be difficult to get an eveningmeal. In some of the gites you can cook, but not everywhere. Many days it was not possible to buy food on your way. I was a bit surprised about that. On the Camino in Spain you can buy something to eat in nearly every village. In France you often did not get food, not even a cake, unless you came to a restaurant/ bar at lunchtime 12-13.20 or at dinnertime 19.00-20.30. Saturday and Monday many shops or bars were closed.
So I was really hungry some days and had to carry a lot extra to be sure to have enough to eat. Because I am diabetic and cannot eat all the loaf and jam, I carried exstra breakfast, food for lunch and some vegetables.
I had read a lot of the excelent food along the pilgrimroad in France before I left but after 34 days I was happy to cross the border "to fatten up a bit".

There are a lot of beautiful places along the route,especially between Le Puy and Conques. I guess that the colours will be more beautiful in the spring. I am not a blogger, but I had great pleasure in my planning of the blog of Margareth(kiwinomade) that you will find on the page. There are also some list of sleepingplaces further down on the forum. Good luck in your plannings. Randi

 

[bjorgts]

Hello!
I walked part of the Le Puy route in June this year. Just to show you that one can do the camino in diferent ways: We never booked. I know that almost all people do, but last half of June was not top season, and we always got a place to sleep. Not planning to much is one of the important things on the camino for me. Prices differ very much. Hard to say. I am surpriced of what ranthr says about food. Of course you will have to search your most important meals at lunch- and dinnertime (as in Spain), but at those times we ate exelent meals all through the route! We never bring with us more food than what we may need for lunshtime during the walking.

As you can see: People do the walking in different ways and the experiences are different. Start with booking a day ahead- as almost everybody does. Do not wory about food. See and learn when you are there. It is more expensive than walking in Spain. Good luck! I will be there too, I think, at that time. Bjørg

 

[gittiharre]

HI, I walked the Le Puy route in September and if you have a look in the Le Puy Route part of this Forum you will find 2 or 3 consecutive postings from me with recommended places to stay and costs etc. Do get the Miam Miam Dodo guidebook from Amazon, it lists all accommodations. Regards, Gitti

 

[gittiharre]

My lists are under the Lists of Albergues section in this forum, Gitti

 

[irishpilgrim]

Hi
We have walked in two stages on this route, Le Puy to Conques and then Conques to Condom (via detour to Rocamadour) both years in the month of May/early June. I would suggest that if you are walking during the month of May it is necessary to book accommodation in advance, at least for your first couple of days and for the weekends, as May seems to be THE walking month in France because it has so many public holidays and long weekends. The thing about the Le Puy route is that it coincides with the GR65 which is a major popular walking route and while there are always pilgrims on the route there are also "weekend walkers" who always seem to book in advance. From all that I have read on this forum I think that at any other time of the year it is probably ok just to book one day in advance.
Regards, Anna

 

[Maggie O]

Thanks so much for that info. I'll be looking into it, and looking forward to it so much. I'm mainly doing the section from Conques to Cahors - to start with, so if anyone has any other specific hints for this section, that would be much appreciated.