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Arles to Camino Catalan via Narbonne and Perpignan

Time of past OR future Camino
Aragon/CF 08, Arles 10, Le Puy 12, Geneva 14, VdlP 15, Norte/Primitivo 15, VF 17, Levante 18, Moz 19
Is there already a thread somewhere regarding the French part of the Camino which starts in Arles and connects with the Spanish Camino Girona (Cami Sant Jaume) to Montserrat and then the Camino Catalan to Logrono? I have the French Rando Guide Le Chemin Catalan: D'Arles a Logrono via Le Chemin de Le'Ebre (2013) which covers the route I am thinking of doing. It hugs the French coast initially, follows a bit of the Canal du Midi and then heads south to Narbonne and Perpignan continuing straight south before crossing the Col du Perthus and connecting with the Spanish Catalan camino route. I'm interested in getting more information on the French portion of this walk including up-to-date accomodation lists and pilgrim services. Are there accueil pelerin families on the French portion of this route?
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
... I'm interested in getting more information on the French portion of this walk including up-to-date accomodation lists and pilgrim services. Are there accueil pelerin families on the French portion of this route?

Bonjour @Sitkapilgrim

Here are a few links to follow, each with contact details. Someone here may be able to help you, too:

*Les amis de Saint Jacques, Perpignon + Roussillonnaise : http://pelerinsdecompostelle.com/le...-jacques-de-compostelle-roussillon-perpignan/

*An online guide to Le Chemin Catalan with accommodation suggestions. To access the guide click on the image situated below "De bonnes raisons de découvrir le pèlerinage autrement sur les chemins Catalans" :
http://amis-compostelle66.fr/

* ACIR. Contact details at the bottom of the home page
http://www.chemins-compostelle.com/nos-services-public
accueil@chemins-compostelle.com

Happy planning!
Cheers
Lovingkindness
 
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Salut, @Sitkapilgrim .

In France when following le chemin de st Jacques, If you find that you do not have anywhere to sleep for the night go to one of the following places, present your credential and asked for help in finding a bed for the night. The french are wonderfully kind:

Le presbytère
la mairie
la gendarmerie
la bibliothèque
le café
la pharmacie
la boulangerie
l'office de tourisme
people in the street

With a little help a pilgrim may find themselves a guest at the local maison de retraite; sheltered at the relais d'urgence; sleeping in a school hall or stadium or even an honoured guest of Monsieur/Madame le maire!

Bon courage!
 
Last edited:
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Thank you for the great information above. And yes, having walked the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome, through eastern France, I am well aware of the range of possibilities for unexpected lodging from wonderful small town people along the way! The Pergignan Association of Friends of Pilgrims has great online information on pilgrim lodging from Perpignan to Col du Perthus, though this only covers 2 or 3 stages of the route, but I have written the president to see if he knows of similar lists for the earlier part of this route.

Do you know of any English or French blogs on this Rando Guide route from Arles to the border with Spain at the Col du Perthus? There must be many folks who have used Le Chemin Catalan guide by Jean-Yves Gregoire, but I am not finding them on this forum or on French online walking sites. I enjoy reading blogs to get more information about the route and accomodations, but of course, the unknown is also fine....
 
T...Do you know of any English or French blogs on this Rando Guide route from Arles to the border with Spain at the Col du Perthus? There must be many folks who have used Le Chemin Catalan guide by Jean-Yves Gregoire, but I am not finding them on this forum or on French online walking sites. I enjoy reading blogs to get more information about the route and accomodations, but of course, the unknown is also fine....

Hi @Sitkapilgrim

re blogs, info and accommodation in english, have you thought of contacting the Confraternity of Saint James, UK ? I see they have a page devoted to Catalan Caminos.

https://www.csj.org.uk/

Cheers
 
The Confraternity website only addresses the Spanish portions of the Catalan Caminos, not the French portion.

I wonder if I should do a query on this website under Cami Catalan/Cami San Jaume? Maybe that audience would include a few who started in France before continuing on the Cami Girona (Cami San Jaume).
 
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I can help you with wikiloc tracks from my 2012 route.

pérols - frontignan (I took the tramway to montpellier and slept there, in frontignan I asked in the library and one of the librarians was kind enough to invite me to their home)
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino2012-071-perols-frontignan-21945542

frontignan - sete (slept in the youth hostel)
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino2012-072-frontignan-sete-21945889

sete - agde - saint-thibéry (asked in maire and slept in an empty room with a shower and toilet in house opposite the mairie)
https://www.wikiloc.com/outdoor-trails/camino2012-073a-sete-somewhere-on-d13-25100384

then I went inland to saint-thibéry and continued from there to bézier (slept in a hotel)
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino2012-074-saint-thibery-beziers-25102995

from bézier to narbonne (slept in a youth hostel, mjc narbonne)
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino2012-075-beziers-narbonne-25104489

and from narbonne to peyriac-de-mere (asked around and slept at a king lady)
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino2012-076-narbonne-peyriac-de-mer-21861321

at that time, there was research into inland route from montpellier to narbonne to connect with voie du piémont pyrenéen. some pilgrim accommodation was planned.
I heard of a pilgrim who followed the walking/biking lanes along the sea all the way to perpignan.

a quick search produced this: http://voiedomitia.e-monsite.com/pages/le-chemin-de-saint-jacques/. and this useful accommodation list from 2017: http://www.compostelle-paca-corse.i...331/hebergementspiemontpyreneen18-07-2017.pdf.
 
Hello Sitkapilgrim
Last Sept.-Oct I walked from Arles-Montpelier-Sete-Agda- Beziers-Carcassonne-St.JPdP. First of all thank you Caminka because I followed most of your route.
In Montpelier I met a young man headed the way you are proposing and he seemed to have printed sheets of all the accommodation along the way. He kindly took a photo of several accommodations listed in towns I planned to stop in and e-mailed the pics to me.
He indicated that the info was from the regional Amis de St. Jacques.
I will assume that you are more up-to-date telephonically than I. That you have a cell phone because what I soon discovered was that many of the names had only a telephone number but no address which meant I had to find someone with a phone to make the call. Never a problem but I will certainly have a phone for my next walk.
bon chemin
 
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Is there already a thread somewhere regarding the French part of the Camino which starts in Arles and connects with the Spanish Camino Girona (Cami Sant Jaume) to Montserrat and then the Camino Catalan to Logrono? I have the French Rando Guide Le Chemin Catalan: D'Arles a Logrono via Le Chemin de Le'Ebre (2013) which covers the route I am thinking of doing. It hugs the French coast initially, follows a bit of the Canal du Midi and then heads south to Narbonne and Perpignan continuing straight south before crossing the Col du Perthus and connecting with the Spanish Catalan camino route. I'm interested in getting more information on the French portion of this walk including up-to-date accomodation lists and pilgrim services. Are there accueil pelerin families on the French portion of this route?

I'm going to be following more or less this route myself on my current Camino, currently on hold from injury.

You head to Sète immediately after Montpellier, then follow a cycling route through Agde and Béziers, then either messily avoid Narbonne along the coast or head into town as you prefer (it seems a bit DIY 'round there), then strictly back along the coast until you get near to Perpignan.

For me after that, basically follow the Têt upriver to Pradès and onwards, bit of DIY needed, then either make your choice of hiking trail or continue on upriver or whatever (personally, I'll be going via the Llívia enclave just for fun), to Puigcerdà just on the other side of the main border.

That seems anyway more sensible to me than going down via the Col du Perthus -- though YMMV.

There are a few hiking trail choices out of Puigcerdà, and I think I'll make my choices when I arrive there -- but almost certainly I'll go down the valley to Urgell and etc, even though things get a bit messy, towards Ponts, then head for the Camí Catalan at Tarrega, then follow the variant via Lleída towards the Ebro Way.

------

The old traditional Pilgrim Way through there was of course via Andorra, but that's become pretty much unhikeable nowadays, at least up to the Principality itself, unless you're keen on several days spent hiking beside heavy traffic on a dual-carriageway.

But Andorra does still look like a decent starting point.

------

As for accommodations, I really don't know yet -- I've mostly been heading from Parish to Parish rather than waymark to waymark so far, and have been mostly lucky (only two nights outdoors so far), but each Camino through France seems to be its own beastie as far as such things are concerned.

One thing though -- I can recommend an app and associated website called mapy.cz for route planning.

Seems to exist for all platforms (even my Windows phone !!), and whilst on at least one version it has some interface stuff in Czech, at least on my phone version (the desktop PC version is all in English), it's intuitive and easy to use, detailed, and it shows all sorts of hiking routes, not just the Ways of Saint James and the principle GR routes.

Good luck, buen Camino, and Ultreia !!!
 
Last Sept.-Oct I walked from Arles-Montpelier-Sete-Agda- Beziers-Carcassonne-St.JPdP. First of all thank you Caminka because I followed most of your route.
😊
has the accommodation situation improved since 2012?
 
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Hello Caminka
I would say "Yes" as in each town/city there appeared to be a gite or chambre d'hotes which had a special rate for pilgrims if not an actual accueil pelerin.
Also another thing which I have done is depending on the circumstances. If I find myself in a situation where the pilgrim accommodation is still an hour or two away and I'm done, I ask in hotels if there is a special rate for pilgrims and have always been offered a discount. Maybe it's because they see an older white bearded fellow and take pity on me or they are just very accommodating.
 
Hello Caminka
I would say "Yes" as in each town/city there appeared to be a gite or chambre d'hotes which had a special rate for pilgrims if not an actual accueil pelerin.
Also another thing which I have done is depending on the circumstances. If I find myself in a situation where the pilgrim accommodation is still an hour or two away and I'm done, I ask in hotels if there is a special rate for pilgrims and have always been offered a discount. Maybe it's because they see an older white bearded fellow and take pity on me or they are just very accommodating.
that is wonderful news. hopefully I will return there one day - I have had an eye on the wonderful romanesque churches on the southern side of the pyrenees for a while now and this would be an excellent connecting route (again).
 
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Looks like I'm doing this route from Narbonne next week!!! Excited. It's been so long since I was last in The Way...
 
Looks like I'm doing this route from Narbonne next week!!! Excited. It's been so long since I was last in The Way...
futurefjp,
Good to read about your plans. Do post when you can to describe how it is now on the path.
Stay safe and Buen camino.
 
Salut, @Sitkapilgrim .

In France when following le chemin de st Jacques, If you find that you do not have anywhere to sleep for the night go to one of the following places, present your credential and asked for help in finding a bed for the night. The french are wonderfully kind:

Le presbytère
la mairie
la gendarmerie
la bibliothèque
le café
la pharmacie
la boulangerie
l'office de tourisme
people in the street

With a little help a pilgrim may find themselves a guest at the local maison de retraite; sheltered at the relais d'urgence; sleeping in a school hall or stadium or even an honoured guest of Monsieur/Madame le maire!

Bon courage!
On my first time out I didn't know this about France, but when, in 2014, I set out from Dieppe, I had everyone helping me along the way. Then I seem to have forgotten this in my complacency. Walking a Camino is an opportunity to experience the wonders of civility: especially during a time of plague (Covid) and war (Afghanistan)?
 
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futurefjp,
Good to read about your plans. Do post when you can to describe how it is now on the path.
Stay safe and Buen camino.
I know times are difficult - I am packing a tent 😉 even though I hate the thought of a bad night's sleep on a Camino.
 
C'è già un filo da qualche parte per quanto riguarda la parte francese del Camino che inizia ad Arles e si collega con il Camino spagnolo Girona (Cami Sant Jaume) a Montserrat e poi il Camino Catalan a Logrono? Ho la guida francese Rando Le Chemin Catalan: D'Arles a Logrono via Le Chemin de Le'Ebre (2013) che copre il percorso che sto pensando di fare. Inizialmente abbraccia la costa francese, segue un po' il Canal du Midi e poi si dirige a sud verso Narbonne e Perpignan proseguendo dritto verso sud prima di attraversare il Col du Perthus e collegarsi con il percorso del camino catalano spagnolo. Sono interessato a ottenere maggiori informazioni sulla parte francese di questa passeggiata, inclusi elenchi di alloggi aggiornati e servizi di pellegrinaggio. Ci sono famiglie accueil pelerin sulla parte francese di questo percorso?
Ciao. Sei riuscito alla fine a fare questo percorso???Anche io vorrei partire il prossimo anno da Arles fino a Perpignano, per dopo agganciarmi al Camino Catalan di Saint Jaume. Se mi puoi passare le tue informazioni sarò gratta....!!!!
 

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