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Advice Arles route September

nalod

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Frances 2011, Finnesterre 2011,Le Puy to SJPDP 2011& 2012,Via de la Plata,Sambrasa 2012, Mozarabe 2013, Portugees 2013.PartNorde 2011, VDPL 2014,St-Guilhem 2014.Espalion-Roncesvalles 2014.Levante2015
Hello, I will be finishing the gt 10 around the 8th Sept in Banylus sur Mer on Med coast. Arles is not very far away and have got a little over two weeks I could get as far as Toulouse. Any advice. I have ordered Miam Miam .......
Regards Nalod
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Hi Nalod

I walked the route from Montpellier earlier this year and loved it. I had quite a lot of rain, but even so they were offset by marvellous sunny days with stupendous scenery. I also used the CSJ guide which I found very useful for information.

I had few problems with way marking, but sometimes a proper map would have been useful. You could consider the Topo Guide. How far do you normally walk in a day? If you have done the GR10 probably longer than me. There is plenty of accommodation but best to book ahead as is usual in France. There are not so many pilgrims, but you will compete for a bed with tourists, cyclists etc. I can give you recommendations if you like.

I also learnt there is beautiful walking near Marseilles on the way to Cassis in the Calenques you could consider. It may not keep y busy for two weeks though.

Bon chemin
 
You may find the Arles route very quiet at that time of year. I walked in June a couple of years ago and there were often only 5 or 6 in the gite. You'll be free of public and school holidays so there probably won't be large groups filling up the gites but it's always wise to book just in case.

After the GR10, you'll find the beginning of the Arles route very tame - it's pretty flat but doesn't take long to move into some nice ascents/descents. The end of it is also easy walking if you go along the Canal. The signage is good most of the time but there had been a few recent route changes when I went so the route didn't agree with the guide I had. The Peter Robbins site has maps http://pilgrim.peterrobins.co.uk/routes/details/toulouse.html

It is a gorgeous route - but then aren't they all? You don't say exactly how much time you have but Arles is definitely worth spending a bit of time in. If you can't squeeze in a day, at least try to arrive early so you can have a bit of a look around. It is multi-layered and you can pick up a walking map from the tourist office. It has an historical walk, a Roman history one as well as sites connected with Van Gogh. All that and a pilgrimage as well!

There are so many beautiful, interesting places on this route that you may very well find yourself running out of time. Montpellier is also wonderful and then, of course, there's Toulouse.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Thank you Dalston and Julie. I have used the Topo guides on Gr10, so I will try to buy one in Arles for gr 653. I can walk anywhere between 25-35km a day. My problem with booking ahead is my French is non existant, but I have survived the gr10 and the Le Puy route with my few words. Yes I would plan to spend a day in Arles as there is a major photography exhibit there at present and of course Van Gough. I believe there is a Pilgrim Hostel in Arles (waiting for Miam Miam to arrive). I will prob fly back from Toulouse.
 
Thank you Falcon I have just ordered it. My original plan was to the Stevenson trail or the Spanish gr11, but now it looks like another Camino. Life is good, most of the time.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
The GR10...
I definitely envy you (I would so much walk this one - One day...)

The Via Tolosana is a rather quiet but charming way - I walked it last July from Montpellier to Castres. There were few people even in July. The Haut Languedoc are not the Pyrenees but you will come across nice mountaineous parts as well.

In Castres you should stay in the house oft Doctor Py (?), a great person.
The miam miam is detailled, it seemed the guide from the Ffrandonnée as well.

Btw, I was on the Stevenson trail this summer and liked it. Another one very nice I did is the sentier cathare (followed by the chemin des bonshommes).

Enjoy
 
The Arles route was very quiet in late August 2005, no idea if it's filled up at all since then.

Bit off-topic --- but Banyuls itself would be an odd place to start the Camino from !!! -- I'd likely go from there to Foix, and join the Piémont Way there towards Lourdes, as the Spanish way to Barcelona, Lleida, Zaragoza, Logroño > Francès takes a very long detour. Banyuls would basically be on the Way from Cataluña to Rome ...
 
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
Hello Jabba Papa Banyuls is where the gr10 finishes, I would then get a train to Arles. Indeed I could do a different Camino from Banyuls.
 
Hello FatamaG . I have noted Dr Py place will stay there. Got the miam miam today and have ordered the new topo guide.

The only slight concern I have is about my footware, because I will be completing the last 8 or 9 days of gr10 I will be wearing a strong pair of mid height leather boots called lowa sterling, I really have no choice, I can't carry a second pair, I wore them on the mozarabe and via de LA
Plata this Feb and march, it was very wet then.
 
Hello, I will be finishing the gt 10 around the 8th Sept in Banylus sur Mer on Med coast. Arles is not very far away and have got a little over two weeks I could get as far as Toulouse. Any advice. I have ordered Miam Miam .......
Regards Nalod
Just an update, I did not do Arles route after finishing gr 10, I then started the Stevenson tail and went as far as Florac, I then done Tarn Gorge Mont Augioul and went some of another pligrim tail the Regordane gr 700 and stayed for a night in the Monastery Notre Dame de Neiges with the kind monks. For full account see www.dermotdolan.blogspot.ie
 
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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Oh Nalod,
Just had a little glimpse on your pictures. Soon, I'll take more time for them.
You must be a photograph, aren't you?
In summer, I was on the Stevenson Trail (Puy en Velay till Ales), crossing at times "la Regordane"... (Regordane which is connecting to the Jacobean pathes at Arles, no?)
 
I was on the Arles Way in September. I really would suggest starting from Montpellier as Arles to Montpellier is pretty rubbish but is good from there. If you do take the tram to Euromedecin then the (24?) bus to Grabels Centre to avoid suburbia which is boring.
Ultreïa!
 
Fatama G Thank you. This is my first ever blog. I have walked a lot in last three years and taken a lot of photographs. Many years ago I worked for a little while at photography. Now I am trying to revive it. May have an Exhibition next year, will see. This blog is a work in progress and in time will feature a photographic summary of some of the previous walks.
 
New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
Hello Jabba Papa Banyuls is where the gr10 finishes, I would then get a train to Arles. Indeed I could do a different Camino from Banyuls.

Sure --- as I said, my comment was off-topic.

Actually, as a point of historical interest, the actual "starting point" of the Arles route is actually at Saint Gilles, 22 KM from Arles along the Way to Santiago. Arles is still "just", as it always has been, a convenient nearby city with better communication routes towards it, so that it became the "gathering point" for people to start the Arles Way from Saint-Gilles.

Arles itself is not very interesting pilgrim-wise, having no major sanctuary except the remains of one destroyed I believe during the French Revolution, and having no real religious or spiritual or hiking significance either for the modern pilgrim.

It's even a perfectly dismal place to resupply yourself in foodstuffs and other necessaries if not on Mon.-Sat., as a local corrupt political clique appears to have outsourced all shopping resources to hypermarkets located well away from the town centre, so that I wasted about 2 hours there trudging around til I finally found some scanty supply of foodstuffs at a petrol station.

I could not even find a Mass on a Sunday !!! Even the main Catholic parish, as I have since discovered, is located in the suburbs.
 
Hi Nalod

I walked the route from Montpellier earlier this year and loved it. I had quite a lot of rain, but even so they were offset by marvellous sunny days with stupendous scenery. I also used the CSJ guide which I found very useful for information.

I had few problems with way marking, but sometimes a proper map would have been useful. You could consider the Topo Guide. How far do you normally walk in a day? If you have done the GR10 probably longer than me. There is plenty of accommodation but best to book ahead as is usual in France. There are not so many pilgrims, but you will compete for a bed with tourists, cyclists etc. I can give you recommendations if you like.

I also learnt there is beautiful walking near Marseilles on the way to Cassis in the Calenques you could consider. It may not keep y busy for two weeks though.

Bon chemin
Hi, I walked as far as St Martin d'Orb last year and will pick up the route again next month and carry on to Toulouse. Where I stayed in Le Bousquet d'Orb was very nice but pricey - just wondering if you stayed there and, if so, where. I should book something up before I leave. Thanks for any suggestions - I prefer to stay in simple hostels where possible.
 

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