Finistere (FR) to Fisterra (ES)

Hi everyone

I am currently planning out my first camino, the CF. In trying to plan how I would get to SJP from Ireland, I considered the ferry to Roscoff, and from there started thinking about going from Finistere to Fisterra as a nice way to bookend things, first by public transport but then by walking at least some of it. I've been reading these threads on this website:



And these websites:


And I thought I the best way to get more advice on this might be to try to recompile the information from these into 1 route.

The Route



There seem to 5 variations of the breton route, all but 1 of them finish in Clisson. The southern routes and the one from MSM (which looks to be the most popular) seem to have bits in common with the Tro Brezh. There doesn't seem to be much in common with the GR network of French long distance paths:



@Kevin Considine linked in another thread another map for the eastern route from MSM:
https://www.santiago.nl/downloads



I'm not sure about where to go from clisson; I know there is a route from Tours that at some point you would need to link up with, is there a recommended point? According to the Dutch website, it's due south to Saintes, and hence to Bordeaux and SJP on the GR route.



Accommodation
Broadly speaking, it seems to be an ad hoc combination of B&Bs, gites, hostels, camping sites, and private homes. The breton camino website helpfully includes contact detail of several options. I'm guessing this is more expensive than the camino in Spain, but by how much?

This is as far as I've gotten, and I would be grateful if anyone could contribute their knowledge of this route, or of following one of the less popular camino routes in France in general.

Thanks

roving_rufus said:

I have a route planned (i completed the Irish part this summer from home to Dublin). From Dublin the plan is ferry to cherbourg. Then from cherbourg a marked route to Mont St Michel http://www.lescheminsdumontsaintmichel.com/spip/spip.php?article54
Then following the Breton route Via Rennes and Nantes to Clisson. The route is then marked by another pilgrim association https://www.vendeecompostelle.org/blg/wp/
From Saintes there is a choice of route. Saintes is on the Tours route. This has more pilgrim infrastructure. Pilgrim gites are available on this route but generally are more expensive than Spanish albergues.
Alternatively there is a route across to Royan and the Voie Littoral which is marked down the coast to Bayonne. This has less pilgrims and less pilgrim infrastructure but is marked by two more local pilgrim associations who also have accommodation lists.
I am planning on taking a tent to reduce costs. But having walked the Via Francigena in France I am using it as a basis for costs. I am working with €40 as a lower estimate of my daily costs, as some days will be less and others more. With an extra kitty in case I get stuck with more expensive accommodation. I also tend to cook for myself rather than restaurant meals. As for people who welcome pilgrims into their homes with meals then it is suggested a donation is at least €30.

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I was thinking the same thing r.e. tenting, but the problem was that the tent then became unnecessary weight for the CF or CdN.

Thanks for the links and info!

roving_rufus said:

There is always the possibility of posting a tent either back to Ireland or once reaching Spain (eg Irun on the Norte) to Casa Ivar in SdeC which the details can be found here on the forum

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Didn't consider this as a tent seemed like a bulky thing to post, speaks to my inexperience on tenting I guess. Was your €40 estimate based on tenting or on pilgrim infrastructure?

roving_rufus said:

My €40 came from on Via Francigena when I used a mix of camping and pilgrim infrastructure. I am also aware that many coastal campsites can be more pricey as they tend to have facilities for holidays eg pools, kids clubs etc

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Hi again Rufus

I was reading over this thread again and I didn't register that you had walked the Irish home-to-port part. I was thinking about doing something similar (I also live in Ireland), could you please tell me a little about how you found it? There doesn't seem to be much in the way of walking paths around my part of the country, what kind of routes did you use?

roving_rufus said:

I did quite well as I live reasonably close to cavan way, so it was a road walk to Blacklion. Then onto Cavan Way and Leitrim Way which are a mix of open ground, paths, tracks and quiet back roads (borreens). Then I had about 35km of road walking to reach the start of Royal Canal at Cloondara, and the Canal has paths, track, road the whole way into Dublin. It added extra kilometres but the other options involved crazy busy roads!
The Canal did get very monotonous, but was easy walking and made getting into Dublin much more pleasant! (Though I did veer off it getting closer into city)

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The canal is a good idea; it's mainly the bohereens I'm wary of. I would have to cross Connacht and some of those Roscommon roads I would not like to be on foot on. Did you have any guides or resources on how to find the quieter ones or did you just decide yourself which ones looked alright?