Geneva towards Le-Puy

[Steffan]

Hello,
I just rather spontaneously booked a train ticket from Wuppertal (Germany), where I will be visiting family, to Geneva, hoping to walk towards Le-Puy.
I will arrive in Geneva on Wednesday morning the 29th of August, which probably means that i will stay in Geneva until Thursday morning 30.9.
I probably won't be able to make the entire walk, as I have to be back in London for work on the 14th of September.

I have already seen in other posts, that the via gebennensis isn't really part of the chemin de St. Jackques, and hence I should create my own camino passport. If I do so, who would provide me with the stamps? The local parish? Are they used to giving way stamps to St. Jacques pilgrims?

Also, what kind of accommodations do I have to calculate for my budget? I assume there won't be pilgrim hostels along that way, or are there?

I also found the following schedule on caminoways.com, does anybody have experience with the suggested sections:


Geneva
1 Col du Mont Sion 20km
2 Chaumont 19km
3 Motz 19km
4 St-Pierre-de-Curtille 21km
5 Yenne 18km
6 St Genix-sur-Guiers 23km
7 Valencogne 22km
8 Le Grand Lemps 19km
9 Ornacieux 20km
10 Bellegarde-Poussieu 26km
11 St Clair-du-Rhône 19km
12 St Julien-Molin-Molette 23km
13 Les Sétoux 24km
14 Montfaucon 17km
15 St Jeures 18km
16 St Pierre-Eynac 17km
17 Le Puy-en-Velay

As realistically I only have 14 walking days until the 12.9., I need to either skip certain legs by bus or taxi, or cut the journey short.
Could anybody suggest how I would best arrange this?
For example if anybody has walked this way, are there any particular sections worth skipping rather than others?
I am not even yet sure from which airport to travel back home to London from? I guess Lyon will be my best bet....

I am getting a little bit cold feet now, after I realise, that the Jacobsweg may be less organised than other camimo's, and I wonder if I should better, cancel the train ticket and go to Toulouse instead and walk from there to Lourdes. But then the uncertainty of starting from Geneva charms me.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Steffan

 

[robertt]

Steffan I can give no advice or reassurance, but I find this project of yours quite thrilling.

Best

Rob

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Steffan, there is a booklet put out by the local Amis group that lists accommodation and where you can buy food etc- the yellow one in the middle of this page. http://chemins.amis-st-jacques.org/?page_id=6 You can obtain it from the online bookshop of CSJ, though I don't know if they have the most up-to-date version there.

I haven't walked this route, but have walked the Cluny route which is 'similar' in some ways. There will be 'accueil jacquaires' along the way in some places that will be listed in the guide- private homes where you might be welcomed. There will also be some gites, though they will not be as frequent as what you get after Le Puy. I was expecting that walking the Cluny route might cost me a lot more than the route after Le Puy, but in fact it didn't. You will probably need to think ahead more about food supplies, as food shops/restaurants are not as frequent, and you may strike the unpredictable days they are closed.

Generally on the Cluny route, people did want to stamp my credential, though if you had made an alternative I imagine it would have been acceptable also.
Margaret

PS If you search for gititharre on the forum, she has walked the Geneva route.

 

[gittiharre]

Hi Steffan, I have sent you my itinerary, I am sure you could do it in fewer days by adding a few kms onto each stage, I had a rest day in my 17 days from memory and got to Le Puy a day earlier than planned. The route is well served with accommodation and pilgrim friendly, even though on average about one pilgrim passes through per day. There are the occasional groups of walkers you come across.
I was nervous too before I started on this route and it turned out to be one of the best experiences I have had. Do make sure you get the booklet which contains the accueil jacquaires, you should be able to buy it from the CSJ bookshop. Enjoy! You can always email me or post here if you have issues on the way. You have my email address, regards, Gitti

 

[newfydog]

In a bookstore in Geneva I found FFRP Ref. 650, Sentier vers St Jacques de Compostelle (de Geneva au Puy en Velay).

It is a super guide, in French, but even if you don't read French well, the maps and symbols for stores hostels, hotels etc. are very good.

 

[mspath]

In a bookstore in Geneva I found FFRP Ref. 650, Sentier vers St Jacques de Compostelle (de Geneva au Puy en Velay).

It is a super guide, in French, but even if you don't read French well, the maps and symbols for stores hostels, hotels etc. are very good.

You can see the FFRandonnée guide mentioned by newfydog at their web site >> http://www.ffrandonnee.fr/boutique/topo-guide.aspx?ref=650 as well as puchase it in their boutique.

Bon chemin,

Margaret

 

[backpack45scb]

Steffan, we walked 10 days of this route in June. It is well marked, but you should have the TopoGuide for GR65 Geneva to Le Puy, as well as the German French guide Chemin de St-Jacques-de-Compostelle de Genève au Puy-en-Velay. We got it from the Confraternity of St. James. That little yellow book has all the private accomodations, which are usually donativo. It is a beautiful route. We had to stop due to a physical problem unrelated to the walk.

 

[Kitsambler]

It may be a well-marked route, but one does actually have to pay attention to the marks, as they are not as frequent as on the post-Le Puy GR65. Friends of mine walked in June this year and were so busy conversing that they missed turns on several consecutive days, resulting in tens of extra km walking. (Self-inflicted wounds hurt the most!)

 

[caminka]

I plan to incorporate geneve - lyon - le puy section into my next long project.
is there a (direct) link between geneve and lyon?
I found a route, apparently already waymarked from lyon to le puy (here: http://www.lyon-compostelle.com/) but nothing on the geneve - lyon section. I would like to visit lyon because it was an important medieval centre.
thanks!

 

[KiwiNomad06]

The route from Lyon to Le Puy joins in with the route that is coming south from Cluny- and that is included in the orange Amis handbook available from CSJ. I looked on a map to the main GR paths, but couldn't find anything that looked close to Lyon. (If you enlarge this pdf you get a better view: http://www.ffrandonnee.fr/data/Boutiques/files/Carte-de-France-des-itineraires.pdf )
Margaret

 

[caminka]

that's a lovely map, margaret. thanks!
it does look like I will have to combine several GRPs and PRs and some hopping in between.
does cluny - le puy section have GR status?

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Hi caminka,
The answer for the Cluny-Le Puy route is 'yes and no' as far as GR status goes. Quite a bit of the route coincides with the GR3 route, but there are some significant divergences where the Chemin de Compostelle deviates from the GR3. The largest of these differences occurs just after the mountaintop village of Montarcher. At that point the GR3 takes a longer and much harder mountainous route, with longer stages between accommodation, until you reach Polignac, a few kilometres before Le Puy.

You can follow the marked route from Lyon- marked by the Association of the Amis of St Jacques- to Saint-Georges-Haute-Ville, where it joins the Cluny route. I met a Frenchman at the gite in La-Chapelle-en-Lafaye who had taken this route from his home in Lyon. Details of this route are in an orange guide put out by the Amis. You can buy this via the CSJ bookshop, though I am not sure if they have the latest version.
Margaret

 

[caminka]

aha, that is as I suspected. strangely, there is pretty little info on GR3 (and it's offspring GR3F) that I could find. no FFRP guide yet, either. and of course, the lyon-cluny route peters out just before la chapelle-en-lafaye and montarcher on IGN maps. I'll see what I can do about the amis guide, and if there is an update. I suppose it can be bought in lyon from the amis, right?
thanks!

 

[KiwiNomad06]

There is a Chamina guide that covers the route from Cluny to Le Puy, and it also has a section from Lyon to St-Georges-Haute-Ville. (I ripped the Lyon bits out from both guides though to save weight, so can't give you any info from them!) The Chamina guide follows the GR3 from Montarcher though, so I put it away in my pack at that point and just used the orange Amis guide. The Chamina guide has much better maps, whereas the Amis guide just has very basic blackline sketches.

The route that departs from Cluny also has the red and white GR markers, as well as the Coquille for the Amis route. I can't recall if it is the GR3 at this stage though.

I'm honestly not sure if you can get the Amis guide in Lyon. There seemed to be a postal address for it that I have kept somewhere but can't quickly find now.
Margaret

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Found some addresses. Seems like the Amis office in Lyon has very limited set hours. - http://www.amis-st-jacques.org/pages/contacts.php#delegations Open 5-7pm the first Thursday of the month, except August. ARA - Maison des associations 5, place Saint-Jean 69005 - LYON.

If you don't live in France, the address for obtaining a guide is: http://chemins.amis-st-jacques.org/?page_id=104
Dominique Montvenoux
7, rue Bernard Vallot
69500 Bron
I am not sure how you pay for it easily though- as I know a bank draft from here in NZ would cost as much as the booklet itself. It gives details for "Virement en Euros" but I don't think we have access to that. There is a new guide published each year, and it is fairly essential to have one, as the accommodation along the route is much more limited than that further south after Le Puy. I guess it would be worth asking CSJ what year their guide is- but I imagine they don't need to hold many copies of these particular guides as there are not many walkers on the route, and even fewer English speaking walkers...

And on further reading, I think it is the GR3 that passes via Cluny.
Margaret

 

[Kitsambler]

You can make international payments in Euros via PayPal. There is a small fee, but nothing as grievous as a bank draft (I feel your pain on that one, did it by mistake one time!).

 

[KiwiNomad06]

This didn't have a PayPal button though-it had "Virement en Euros" and an account number- I presume it was some kind of European interbank payment via the internet. I think when the time comes for me to try and buy this, I might seek help from some friends in France, and repay them later.
Margaret

 

[caminka]

thanks for all the info, margaret!
I'll be ordering the guide about 3-4 monts prior to the start, then, to get the latest possible version. sometimes it works, for us in europe, so that you send the money directly and they send you back the guide. although it's a bit weird that there is no email adress nor a phone number of the guy that dispatches the guides.

caminka (just back from some very nice mountain hopping)

 

[caminka]

aha! found an email and a telephone of mr montvenoux on one of the info sheets for foreign pilgrims starting from the airport or various train stations around lyon: guides@amis-st-jacques.org, 06 71 97 41 17.
there is also an address for a bookshop in lyon where it's possible to buy the guides: librarie st Paul, 8 place Bellecour, 69002 Lyon. that's on the same square as the tourist office, so maybe they have them in the TO as well.

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Thank you- that might be very useful. I found the website for that 'librarie'- which is a bookshop in French- in this case, run by a religious congregation. http://www.librairiestpaul.fr/
If they or the TO don't have them, they are likely to be able to tell you how to obtain one.
Margaret

 

[caminka]

oops, it is a bookshop indeed, these similar french-english words get the better of me sometimes.