PaulineRoozen
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Haarlem (Netherlands) - Santiago august 2018
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The yellow arrows start in Spain. In France the GR routes, all of them, are marked with red and white bars and arrows. At intersections you may need to use ingenuity!
The accommodations are called gites d'etape. There are not enough of them, so you also will need to use chambres d'hote and hotels on occasion.
Bon chemin.
We found we had to make our own route from Paris to Tours. After that it was easy to follow the GR.
You are choosing a tough route if you do not have any skills in French. There are no guidebooks in English, so you are left with some books in French from which to choose. I like the FFRP series, but they are written for the serious French wanderer. Information on accommodations is self-explanatory if you know the basic terms. The directions for twists and turns need a bit more French understanding. For example, the terms for "right" and "straight ahead" are pretty close -- droite and tout droit. Obviously, it is important that you pick the right one, or you are headed off to the hinterlands.Is the guide okay to use if you don't speak French?
You are choosing a tough route if you do not have any skills in French. There are no guidebooks in English, so you are left with some books in French from which to choose. I like the FFRP series, but they are written for the serious French wanderer. Information on accommodations is self-explanatory if you know the basic terms. The directions for twists and turns need a bit more French understanding. For example, the terms for "right" and "straight ahead" are pretty close -- droite and tout droit. Obviously, it is important that you pick the right one, or you are headed off to the hinterlands.
The explanations of where you are, what you are seeing, and the history require a good understanding of French.
Honestly, if you are completely flummoxed by French, only the route from Le Puy is suitable. You can always find a translator among the French, Belgian, German, and English pilgrims on it when you are desperate. If you are not on that route, you will never engage in a conversation in English, will find that no one understands even what you think is very simple English, and frustration will become your constant companion. Everywhere in France you need to call ahead to see if a place is open or the proprietors have decided to take a few days away. Your chosen route has low traffic, and hosts do not sit around waiting for a pilgrim that they do not know is coming. So, you need to be able to make a phone call, though on the Le Puy route, the host will do it for you. Bonne chance.
You are choosing a tough route if you do not have any skills in French. There are no guidebooks in English, so you are left with some books in French from which to choose. I like the FFRP series, but they are written for the serious French wanderer. Information on accommodations is self-explanatory if you know the basic terms. The directions for twists and turns need a bit more French understanding. For example, the terms for "right" and "straight ahead" are pretty close -- droite and tout droit. Obviously, it is important that you pick the right one, or you are headed off to the hinterlands.
The explanations of where you are, what you are seeing, and the history require a good understanding of French.
Honestly, if you are completely flummoxed by French, only the route from Le Puy is suitable. You can always find a translator among the French, Belgian, German, and English pilgrims on it when you are desperate. If you are not on that route, you will never engage in a conversation in English, will find that no one understands even what you think is very simple English, and frustration will become your constant companion. Everywhere in France you need to call ahead to see if a place is open or the proprietors have decided to take a few days away. Your chosen route has low traffic, and hosts do not sit around waiting for a pilgrim that they do not know is coming. So, you need to be able to make a phone call, though on the Le Puy route, the host will do it for you. Bonne chance.
Actually there is some marking from Paris to Tours, depending on which département you're in. If you search for compostelle<number of departement> you will find the website for the local pilgrims' associations, which usually have lists of accommodations. So "compostelle17" will bring up a link to the Charente-Maritime amis. Not all are kept up to date, unfortunately. I can tell you that Cher-et-Loir, for instance, still lists several places that were already closed back in 2015 when I was walking.
The advice I got from the people with whom I stayed was to ask your hosts about the next place to stop and let them call for you, or if you need, just contact the local parish if there doesn't seem to be anything available in the village you're heading for. I did meet a pilgrim from Antwerp in Chartres cathedral.
There is a LePere guide in French for this route, and I believe there's a Dutch or Flemish guide as well, but I've never seen that. Having seen and used LePere, I would opt for the other one if you can find it, but LePere was moderately helpful for places to stay, and it doesn't take a lot of French for that. In Paris, I would definitely get in touch with Compostelle2000:
http://www.compostelle2000.org
who should be able to help you with further contacts and info about the best routes out of Paris.
I envy you--such an adventure!
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