Guide for the Vezelay Route.

[giorgio]

The well-known guide from Monique Chassain not being available any more one of the problems for pilgrims willing to walk this beautiful route is an updated guide.
Have found that a new guide just came to light by the Lepere Editions.
It's in French but ,as usual, maps and basic indications on lodging are probably not to hard to understand.
Check here
http://www.chemin-compostelle.fr/bo...vezelay/?PHPSESSID=jqcflmmmnv8d4i5juidh090lc5

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The sample pages look very much like the format of Chassain, which may be its inspiration! Chassain provided annual updates; it will be good if this one does, too.

 

[newfydog]

So, that would be a guide to the Chassain route, not the GR route?

 

[LesBrass]

I think I may buy that... very useful. I've walked most of the route in the Dordogne now and maybe next year I'll start at the begining and see if I can join my tracks all the way along the route.

 

[robertt]

Thank you, Giorgio. Could come in very handy. (I'm always plotting caminos. Really should go again, I suppose.)

 

[scruffy1]

I've written this before but it is worth putting up again, the Monique Chassain guide has wonderful maps and historical/spiritual explanations and may be trusted except for lodging and food where it is sadly outdated and in all probability will not be updated in the near future - it cannot be trusted on these issues. Lepere Editions is written for hikers not pilgrims, the explanations are adequate the maps are excellent, and lodging and food may be trusted. However, the authors will re-route one in order to avoid asphalt or a town always seeking another country lane, another muddy forest track, another cow pasture in order to increase your enjoyment. When using the Lepere Editions a day's march between the same two villages may require another 5-10 kilometers in order to complete-not bad now and then but over a month it is a considerable bit of additional kilometerage.. Thus, the two chemins do not always overlap; M. Chassain and the local confraternities will rely on the Red/white stripes of the GR route and not put up their own when both cover the same stretch-confusing at first but when the GR forks off for yet another meadow, the Chassain shell reappears. I used them both, consulting both daily and choosing according to my personal whims, the addition time required, the beauty of the longer way, and by how much I was tired, a daily responsibility. Not as difficult as it sounds but indeed a worry.

 

[billmclaughlin]

The problem then becomes the one that forms the premise to the post that launched this discussion: "The well-known guide from Monique Chassain not being available any more..."

How can I get my hands on a copy of the Chassain gudie? No hurry, since I'm planning for 2015, but it's frustrating that my local French library is closed for August.

Bill

 

[Deleted member 3000]

How can I get my hands on a copy of the Chassain gudie?

Its primary virtue was up to date accommodation information. Many stops rely on volunteers providing room and board for pilgrims. That list of volunteers was always in flux. An old copy would not be too useful. The route information is not that good! (And the route changes, too, from road construction and rails to trails additions.)

 

[giorgio]

I completely share Falcon's point. The evenings we spent as guests at homes of CDV volunteers remain unmatched by any other ...
If you click on the sample pages of the guide you will have a detailed idea of the description and the map of each stage , similar to the FFRP guides you can find for each walking route in France.

 

[billmclaughlin]

I fully understand the advantages of the Lepere guide for current lodging and route info.

I'd still like to get a copy of Chassain.

 

[Metropolly]

There may be copyright issues, but as the guide has been out of print for some time perhaps your best hope is that some helpful soul on this forum could lend you their guide or send you a photocopy (I've no idea if this is legal). I'd have sent you mine, but I discarded it blithely en route to save pack weight, not realising it was irreplaceable!