Arles Route "Backwards"

[Former member 19626]

I have walked on the Camino Frances from SJPP to SDC twice and I've got this notion to walk from Puente la Reine on the Aragonés and the GR653 backward toward Arles over the Somport Pass. My first step was buy the Miam Miam Dodo guide. My second step is to ask here if the trail and the markings would be easy enough to follow backward. Thanks. I would appreciate some advice....

 

[Kanga]

@WineShoppe Guy it is always easier to walk backwards in France because the GR trails are marked in both directions. So I think you would be fine from where the GR starts. If you are following the Camino markers (don't recall what happens between the border and Punta La Reina) it will probably be difficult.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Through Toulouse, I found the markings obscure even in a forward direction. Remember that all GR markings are red and white, so intersections without additional markings are tough to negotiate. In many places roads on either side of the route make it obvious even when there is not marking present. Topographic maps will be a useful aid, but you need several for the length of the Arles route. Bon chemin.

 

[mikevasey]

Met a 70 year old Basque guy at the Mecle gite just before St Gervais who had walked from Pau last year. The previous year he had walked from San Sebastian to Lourdes and then Pau. Its doable , I would look for good maps 1:100000 at least from the French border. Entering Toulouse would be a problem but after the centre you are on the Canal du Midi, Montpellier would be a problem as well, people I met got lost coming in and leaving.
There is a few times I would switch off and would have to retrace my steps and see the opposite way markings to make sure, I wasn't off course, so they are there and well marked. The 25 km before Arles you can take the alternative route which follows the bank of the Rhone.