Detours and byways

[wichanee]

I am in Albi, France at the moment and followed the yellow arrow up to the cathedral where the camino sign promptly disappears. How I wish I could follow the trail to SdC one more time. Maybe next year or year after next when I will start from Paris and do it all, 2,000 km or so!

For all of you pergrinos out there, please do the detours if you have time.
The detour from Tricastela to Samos and then Sarria is the best detour we have done. It added on at least 7 kms on the walk but the sight of Samos monastery below when you emerged out of the wood was a sight you will remember for a long time. The first few kms out of Tricastela sucks as it winds on the main road but if you leave early enough, the traffic won't bother you very much and the little hamlets along the way more than make up for the unpleasant beginning.

There are more detours along the camino. Plan ahead and you will enjoy them all.

 

[Peter Robins]

Albi? That's an interesting one - must be the Conques-Toulouse link that has supposedly been 'en cours de finalisation' for quite some time. Be good if you could ask the tourist office what they can tell you about it - if anything.

 

[wichanee]

Auch!

Peter
Sorry I mixed towns up - too many places, so little time!
It is not Albi. It is AUCH where we followed the arrow up the hills to the cathedral. We left town before I had a chance to visit the local tourism office.
Today we are in Bordeaux and follow the bronze scallops on the sidewalk to the Porte l'AQuitaine where we saw the plaque on the ground telling us that the hospice there catered to the pilgrims until 1695. Bordeaux was just listed as Unesco's World heritage site in 2007. One of the reasons is that the city is the Camino's important point as way station on the way to SdC on the Aragon route:
Our trails in France are erratic as we don't really look for them.