Le Puy or Norte

[TangoBravo]

Hello Pilgrims,
My name is Tom and am training to do my second Camino this summer. I'm torn between two routes and looking for advice. I loved the whole experience but if I had to come up with my favorite part, it would be the evenings getting to meet and know the other pilgrims. Having said that which of the 2 routes should I take?
Le Puy into SJPP or Norte Bilbao into Santiago de Compostella? I'm 53 and in fair shape. I did the Frances route without problem in 2013...just some blisters. I'll be by myself this trip. Both routes have appeal to me and just can't decide. Ya'll let me know what you think.

 

[BShea]

My vote is for Le Puy... In fact, I'm starting it again the last weekend of April. I've never done the Norte, so I can't compare them. The real question is how's your French? On the Le Puy route, the communal meals at night feel like a big family dinner and the food is wonderful. But then, I speak French. I think it's challenging for non French speakers. Bon chemin.

 

[SusanReneGr65]

Hi Tom,
We've not done Norte, and we did modified Le Puy route.
That said, Le Puy to Conques was spectacular.
The 7am mass in Le Puy is a significant event to attend. We had spectacular weather crossing the Aubrac plateau and it was magical. Walking into Conques was uplifting.
We walked October 2015, with few others, so I can't comment on the conviviality of the evening meals.
I agree with BShea about ability to speak French. It makes day to day life easier and it allows you to speak to locals.
We put a blog together of our travels:
http://renesusan2015.blogspot.ca/
Enjoy decision-making!
Susan and Rene.

 

[Dave]

Tom, I'm lucky enough to have done both routes multiple times over the last few years. There isn't a wrong answer here.

It's just so darn hard to compare them, as they're really quite different. As the other two respondents have noted, the evening meals in gites on the Le Puy route can foster a great sense of community, but French language skills go a long way. When I walked it alone, I had some dinners that were fun and others that were really lonely. On the Norte in summer you can expect anywhere between 30 and 80 pilgrims around you on a nightly basis, and it's a much more diverse mix of nationalities. Lots of people on the route are Camino vets and hungry to rekindle a sense of community as well.

The geography is so different that it seems like it would be influential in your choice. On the Norte, you have the coast, lively beach towns (particularly in summer), and a number of bigger places (SanSeb, Bilbao, Santander, etc.) mixed in with smaller villages. On the GR-65, you have almost exclusively smaller spots (20,000 is about as high as the pop. ever gets), lots of farmland, and your water is largely limited to rivers. The GR-65 will be hotter in the summer.

Again, no wrong answer here. The "most right" answer is eventually making the time to do both!

 

[jsalt]

Hi Tom, my sister and I walked Le Puy route in May 2014, and I’d say the other walkers were 95% French, with only a few of them speaking English, so if you don’t speak French, and the other people in your gite that evening don’t speak any English, you might find it hard going when it comes to lively conversation. Having said that, after a couple of weeks we found ourselves part of a little camino family of French, UK, South African, Swiss, and Australian pilgrims, with English as a common language, and we had a great time. Jill

 

[C2G]

Hello Pilgrims,
My name is Tom and am training to do my second Camino this summer. I'm torn between two routes and looking for advice. I loved the whole experience but if I had to come up with my favorite part, it would be the evenings getting to meet and know the other pilgrims. Having said that which of the 2 routes should I take?
Le Puy into SJPP or Norte Bilbao into Santiago de Compostella? I'm 53 and in fair shape. I did the Frances route without problem in 2013...just some blisters. I'll be by myself this trip. Both routes have appeal to me and just can't decide. Ya'll let me know what you think.

Hi Tom,
We did the Le Puy to Santiago last year and the whole thing was fantastic. But my favorite part was the Le Puy to St Jean. Not as many people, fabulous food and wonderful places to stay. It is not an easy walk but well worth it. Haven't done the Norte so can't speak to that. Have a great trip either way.

 

[Kanga]

Hi Tom, I've done both routes too, and loved them both. As your favourite part was getting to meet and know your fellow pilgrim then I'm marginally inclined to the Norte. I agree that the Le Puy is heavily dominated by French speakers, and the language at dinner is always in French. I also think that couples and pre-set groups of friends are more common on the Le Puy, which can be rather isolating for a person walking alone. This is not to say there aren't plenty of other, solo, English speaking walkers - you might strike a great mix. But the Norte seems to attract many different nationalities; we came across many from the US, UK, Germany, Holland, and the Skandinavian countries, as well as Spaniards - the lingua franka tends to be English.

The landscape and food on both is equally beautiful (although very different), food on both is excellent (superb seafood on the Norte, great French cuisine on the Le Puy), shops and self supplies much easier on the Norte, gites in France are usually better than albergues (but also more expensive). More road walking on the Norte. Difficulty is about the same.

 

[TangoBravo]

Tom, I'm lucky enough to have done both routes multiple times over the last few years. There isn't a wrong answer here.

It's just so darn hard to compare them, as they're really quite different. As the other two respondents have noted, the evening meals in gites on the Le Puy route can foster a great sense of community, but French language skills go a long way. When I walked it alone, I had some dinners that were fun and others that were really lonely. On the Norte in summer you can expect anywhere between 30 and 80 pilgrims around you on a nightly basis, and it's a much more diverse mix of nationalities. Lots of people on the route are Camino vets and hungry to rekindle a sense of community as well.

The geography is so different that it seems like it would be influential in your choice. On the Norte, you have the coast, lively beach towns (particularly in summer), and a number of bigger places (SanSeb, Bilbao, Santander, etc.) mixed in with smaller villages. On the GR-65, you have almost exclusively smaller spots (20,000 is about as high as the pop. ever gets), lots of farmland, and your water is largely limited to rivers. The GR-65 will be hotter in the summer.

Again, no wrong answer here. The "most right" answer is eventually making the time to do both!

Thanks for this response. It's what I needed to hear. Starting Norte right after Father's Day!