Le Puy - SJPdeP mid-April 2014 start

[irishgurrrl]

Hi Everyone!

I've decided to take some unpaid leave from work next year (about 6 weeks in total) and have just started looking into the possibility of walking the Le Puy route from mid April next year possibly with a Canadian camino buddy of mine joining me for most of it (she is available to walk with me for about 25 days or so).

I walked the Camino Frances from St Jean to Santiago and then walked on to Finisterre in Sept/Oct last year so was super fit after that (even if my poor ole feet were a little tender for a while after! ) Unfortunately I managed to get every flu/virus going the first half of this year so lost most if not all of the fitness I had gained.

Anyways, I am wondering how fit we need to be for Le Puy Route - I see from the other posts and from checking out the elevation profiles on http://www.godesalco.com it is definitely more hilly and challenging.
I've started training for it recently (i.e. regular walking during the week and longer walks at weekends with soon to be included hill walks) so I am hoping that with a bit of planning and dedication I can get my fitness and stamina up to the level needed. We don't mind taking it more slowly (covering less distance per day) on the steeper sections if needs be.

Any tips or recommendations about training needed for this and what level of fitness I would need to enjoy it (rather than suffer needlessly through it! ).

Also I will be travelling from Cork - is flying into Paris CDG and then getting connecting train(s) (TGV and then local train) to Le Puy the best option or does someone have another suggestion?

Lastly (for now ), alot of posts recommend booking ahead (at least a day in advance and sometimes a few days in advance) - is this usually needed for a mid-April start and into May walking? It would be Easter week (around the 15th April or so) when we start walking from Le Puy so I assume it might be a busy time given the religious significance? I have order the Miam Miam Dodo book and Alison Raju's guide book so hoping to help us find places to stay along the way).

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The first few days are a hard walk. Later on there are days of up and down. Toward the end, it is flatter, though the Pyrenees foothills are also up and down.

Calling ahead is the norm on the Chemin du Puy. In part it is to reserve a bed. In part it is to alert the host that you are coming. With less traffic on this route, accommodations are open on demand, as opposed to hospitaleros sitting around waiting for pilgrims.

The French are great walkers. Easter is the start of the walking season. With hundreds of GR (grande randonnee) routes, they do not all flock to the Santiago route (GR-65). Routes intersect and merge, and they all are marked the same, so you have to know where you are going.

 

[irishgurrrl]

Ah great - thanks Falcon. It's good to know we'll need to call ahead.

I've been playing with a rough itinerary based on the terrain/elevation gain (and whether there is available accommodation) each day and was thinking of doing short days to start as we are not in any particular rush... something like this maybe... :
Le Puy en Velay to Montbonnet (16.7km)
Montbonnet to Monistrol d'Allier (13.6km)
Monistrol to La Clauze (18.8km)
La Clauze to Saint Alban sure Limagnole (24.7km)
The elevation gain out of Monistrol looks a little intimidating it has to be said!

For our second camino, we're happy to take our time and enjoy it as much as possible. (Although, its easy to want to keep up with certain friends made along the way so we'll see how that goes! Can't believe I may be walking another camino Very excited it has to be said

 

[robertt]

Good advice to book ahead.

Your short stage itinerary looks great...but I would say that. Seriously, the Aubrac region being a highlight, it would be a shame not to linger and take it in. As for Monistrol, I found the descent hard, but the only difficulty ascending was with the weather. (It was early spring, and things were a bit blizzardy at times.)

Excited? You should be!

Bon chemin

Rob

 

[gittiharre]

So exciting that you will be walking this beautiful route, my husband walked with me in 2012, my second time and his first, aged 81. Happy to send you our itinerary and accommodation recommendations and reviews via email. just send me a pm. For some reason the doc with the details won't attach to this site, I tried it before. Regards, Gitti

 

[dalston999]

It us a wonderful route and i managed it without too much difficulty or major training. I did shortish days for the first few and then about 20-25 km per day. You may find bad weather or anow on the Aubrac plateau this early, but I think it it's the best part, and stay at Domaine de Sauvage, it's glorious.

I flew into Lyon and then took the train to Le Puy, frequent and just a few hours. It is a beautiful journey along the river gorge too.

 

[irishgurrrl]

Good advice to book ahead.

Your short stage itinerary looks great...but I would say that. Seriously, the Aubrac region being a highlight, it would be a shame not to linger and take it in. As for Monistrol, I found the descent hard, but the only difficulty ascending was with the weather. (It was early spring, and things were a bit blizzardy at times.)

Excited? You should be!

Bon chemin

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thank you Oh that was only a breakdown of the first few days to see what ye think - I'm planning to walk to SJPdeP! I might even head over into Spain if I've time (did the Camino Frances from St Jean last year).

I'll post a full break down once I have time to see what ye think - it's just to give me and my camino buddy an idea of the time it would take more than anything else.

Eilish

 

[irishgurrrl]

It us a wonderful route and i managed it without too much difficulty or major training. I did shortish days for the first few and then about 20-25 km per day. You may find bad weather or anow on the Aubrac plateau this early, but I think it it's the best part, and stay at Domaine de Sauvage, it's glorious.

I flew into Lyon and then took the train to Le Puy, frequent and just a few hours. It is a beautiful journey along the river gorge too.

It us a wonderful route and i managed it without too much difficulty or major training. I did shortish days for the first few and then about 20-25 km per day. You may find bad weather or anow on the Aubrac plateau this early, but I think it it's the best part, and stay at Domaine de Sauvage, it's glorious.

I flew into Lyon and then took the train to Le Puy, frequent and just a few hours. It is a beautiful journey along the river gorge too.

Thanks for that - I started looking at flights to Lyon from Dublin and that might work better for me because the Cork-Paris flight gets in too late for me to get to Le Puy that day... I can't wait for the train journey either - sounds fantastic I had intended to go at the end of April but my friend's work commitments meant we had to leave earlier if we wanted to walk together so I moved my dates forward. That was my concern too (the snow) so I'm hoping it would be safe to walk in these conditions assuming it did snow? Snow shoes anyone!?

 

[irishgurrrl]

So exciting that you will be walking this beautiful route, my husband walked with me in 2012, my second time and his first, aged 81. Happy to send you our itinerary and accommodation recommendations and reviews via email. just send me a pm. For some reason the doc with the details won't attach to this site, I tried it before. Regards, Gitti

Thanks Gitti

I would really appreciate that. Late for work here so I'll get a PM to you this evening hopefully

Eilish

 

[irishgurrrl]

The first few days are a hard walk. Later on there are days of up and down. Toward the end, it is flatter, though the Pyrenees foothills are also up and down.

Calling ahead is the norm on the Chemin du Puy. In part it is to reserve a bed. In part it is to alert the host that you are coming. With less traffic on this route, accommodations are open on demand, as opposed to hospitaleros sitting around waiting for pilgrims.

The French are great walkers. Easter is the start of the walking season. With hundreds of GR (grande randonnee) routes, they do not all flock to the Santiago route (GR-65). Routes intersect and merge, and they all are marked the same, so you have to know where you are going.

Ah great - thanks Falcon. It's good to know we'll need to call ahead.

I've been playing with a rough itinerary based on the terrain/elevation gain (and whether there is available accommodation) each day and was thinking of doing short days to start as we are not in any particular rush... something like this maybe... :
Le Puy en Velay to Montbonnet (16.7km)
Montbonnet to Monistrol d'Allier (13.6km)
Monistrol to La Clauze (18.8km)
La Clauze to Saint Alban sure Limagnole (24.7km)
The elevation gain out of Monistrol looks a little intimidating it has to be said!

For our second camino, we're happy to take our time and enjoy it as much as possible. (Although, its easy to want to keep up with certain friends made along the way so we'll see how that goes! attachFull6874 Can't believe I may be walking another camino attachFull6875Very excited it has to be said attachFull6876

 

[Green Tortuga]

One thing I'll say about hiking the route in France--you won't necessarily find a lot of English-speaking people there. I'm not sure how your French is, but if you have trouble calling ahead to make reservations (which is quite normal), I learned that the folks at the visitors centers in the middle of town can make the calls for you. They always spoke English and could help me with making reservations for finding lodging. They also have stamps for your credential. And a stamp in French is "tampon." Which still cracks me up. It's not often I can walk into a business and ask the cute girl at the desk for her tampon and not get slapped. =)

But I digress....

I consider the route more-or-less the same difficulty level as the Camino Frances. If you can do the Camino Frances, you can do the Le Puy route. There are parts that are more difficult than parts of the Camino Frances, and there are parts that are easier than parts of the Camino Frances. Start slow, take your time, and build up miles as you get stronger and can do more. But if you can do the Camino Frances, you can do the Le Puy route.

I did my hike on the Le Puy route in August/September so I'm certainly not an authority on what kind of weather conditions you might face, but I've heard it does rain a lot in April. Some of the higher elevations might even get snow for all I know. But know there's a good chance that you might have a lot of rain at that time of year. Not something to cancel or postpone your trip for--just have the clothes and gear to handle it. =)

Lodging around Easter.... I have no idea how difficult it might be, but as long as you have a reservation ahead of time, it shouldn't be a concern. It never hurts to have a reservation!

I took a fast train from Paris to Lyon, then a slow one from Lyon to Le Puy. If there's a faster or better way of getting to Le Puy, I don't know what it is, but the train wasn't a bad experience. =) Le Puy is a pretty neat place to visit, though. If time permits, it wouldn't be a bad thing to dedicate a whole day just to enjoy the sights and get your bearings. =)

-- Ryan

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is a hike out of Monistrol! You can ease the walk down by staying on the road. However, you will miss the Chapelle de Rochegude that starts the knee-killing descent! The baggage van that works the route also carries passengers, so you can hop a stretch if necessary.

If you have not been here, you can go to a route planner for Le Chemin du Puy:

http://www.godesalco.com/plan/podense

 

[Kitsambler]

Almost all the Le Puy route blogs (see blog section up at top) list day-by-day iteneraries with lodging details. That 24+ km into St Alban might be a stretch, as there's a pass crossing involved.

The French go walking in May; there are several holidays included, so there are three "long weekends" that bring people out in droves.

 

[irishgurrrl]

One thing I'll say about hiking the route in France--you won't necessarily find a lot of English-speaking people there. I'm not sure how your French is, but if you have trouble calling ahead to make reservations (which is quite normal), I learned that the folks at the visitors centers in the middle of town can make the calls for you. They always spoke English and could help me with making reservations for finding lodging. They also have stamps for your credential. And a stamp in French is "tampon." Which still cracks me up. It's not often I can walk into a business and ask the cute girl at the desk for her tampon and not get slapped. =)

But I digress....

Hahaha - I reckon I will be giggling at that one too as I hand over my credential

Luckily my french is ok albeit a biteen rusty. I was an au pair for a few months in La Clusaz (French Alps) many moons ago so I can still hold a conversation

I consider the route more-or-less the same difficulty level as the Camino Frances. If you can do the Camino Frances, you can do the Le Puy route. There are parts that are more difficult than parts of the Camino Frances, and there are parts that are easier than parts of the Camino Frances. Start slow, take your time, and build up miles as you get stronger and can do more. But if you can do the Camino Frances, you can do the Le Puy route.

That's really good to know. I still reckon I would need to be more fit than I was given its multiple days of steep sections at the start rather than just one (the Pyrenees) on the Camino Frances with most of the other hilly sections much further into that camino (much easier to deal with as my fitness had naturally increased over the intervening weeks of walking).

I did my hike on the Le Puy route in August/September so I'm certainly not an authority on what kind of weather conditions you might face, but I've heard it does rain a lot in April. Some of the higher elevations might even get snow for all I know. But know there's a good chance that you might have a lot of rain at that time of year. Not something to cancel or postpone your trip for--just have the clothes and gear to handle it. =)

Yep rain/snow is my main "concern". For that reason I had planned to start later (the last weekend in April), but with my friends work commitments it wasn't practical. These things always happen for a reason though so I'm ok with it. I don't mind a bit of rain (I'm used to it living in Ireland!) so long as its not cold driving rain for days on end ... We were so blessed on the Camino Frances - Sept/Oct is a lovely time to walk ...we only had about 1 day of heavy rain and then heavy showers a couple of other days in 5 weeks! The Camino Finisterre was a much wetter experience but even then it was mostly light drizzle (well apart from one day of really wild weather for our walk to Cee ... literally buckets and sheets of heavy rain for most of the day).

Lodging around Easter.... I have no idea how difficult it might be, but as long as you have a reservation ahead of time, it shouldn't be a concern. It never hurts to have a reservation!

I suspect it will be mad busy around Holy Week and into May with the French holidays so definitely we will take everyone's advice and book ahead. We still have to decide for certain whether we will do this camino but its looking very likely. (It was between this and the coastal walk in Brittany). Just need to get the ok from my camino buddy as I this is the one that's calling to me most

I took a fast train from Paris to Lyon, then a slow one from Lyon to Le Puy. If there's a faster or better way of getting to Le Puy, I don't know what it is, but the train wasn't a bad experience. =) Le Puy is a pretty neat place to visit, though. If time permits, it wouldn't be a bad thing to dedicate a whole day just to enjoy the sights and get your bearings. =)

I had originally intended to fly to Paris too and take the train as you did but I am now considering flying from Dublin to Lyon and then getting the train to Le Puy from there. The flight into Paris from Cork come in a little too late unfortunately.

Thanks Ryan for all the tips and info. Its all really useful and helping me make my decision and plan the trip

 

[irishgurrrl]

It is a hike out of Monistrol! You can ease the walk down by staying on the road. However, you will miss the Chapelle de Rochegude that starts the knee-killing descent! The baggage van that works the route also carries passengers, so you can hop a stretch if necessary.

If you have not been here, you can go to a route planner for Le Chemin du Puy:

http://www.godesalco.com/plan/podense

Thanks Falcon - will have a look at the distance covered that day then and maybe reduce it a little to make it more manageable. Thanks for the link too - I was using that to work out the distances versus elevations - its such a brilliant resource!

 

[irishgurrrl]

Almost all the Le Puy route blogs (see blog section up at top) list day-by-day iteneraries with lodging details. That 24+ km into St Alban might be a stretch, as there's a pass crossing involved.

The French go walking in May; there are several holidays included, so there are three "long weekends" that bring people out in droves.

Thanks Kitsambler -sounds like we picked a busy time then. I'll have a look at the blogs - hadn't spotted them so thank you for the heads up I'll have a look at that 24km+ stretch and maybe look at reducing it to something more manageable.

Such brilliant advice so thank you all for posting

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The French go walking in May

All of May seems to be a holiday in France.

In May of this year it rained so much that they went home, and returned in June. They wanted to walk on the long weekends, often four and five day weekends, but the weather did not cooperate. We found that most of the gites were booked in advance, so spent a fair amount of time in hotels, which are plentiful. Tourist offices found us some private homes, too, so check with them along the way if there is a problem finding a bed.

All the tourist offices were selling permethrin for bed bugs...

 

[irishgurrrl]

All of May seems to be a holiday in France.

In May of this year it rained so much that they went home, and returned in June. They wanted to walk on the long weekends, often four and five day weekends, but the weather did not cooperate. We found that most of the gites were booked in advance, so spent a fair amount of time in hotels, which are plentiful. Tourist offices found us some private homes, too, so check with them along the way if there is a problem finding a bed.

All the tourist offices were selling permethrin for bed bugs...

Eek, hope we get an unseasonably dry few months then!

I loved walking in September/October last year even though the temperatures were unseasonably high (38 deg. C!!!) for part of it! I'm trekking to Kilimanjaro next September for a fantastic local charity called The Girls Club (Cancer Support Centre)... hence the April May camino

Hope the weather Gods are kind to us on our trip is all I can say! I'd prefer to stay in cheaper accommodation if possible but we will take what we can get. Good tip with the Tourist Office... thanks!

 

[colinPeter]

...Miam Miam Dodo book ...

Hi Irishgurrrl,
The Miam Miam Dodo Edition 2014 is due for release in December.
Bon Chemin
Colin

 

[irishgurrrl]

Hi Irishgurrrl,
The Miam Miam Dodo Edition 2014 is due for release in December.
Bon Chemin
Colin

Thanks Colin for the heads up... have already ordered the 2013 version unfortunately

Another question for everyone.... my friend is only able to walk with me for about 25 days so it probably means she'll need to find a way of getting from whatever village we happen to be in at the time and get connections to Paris CDG (or Lyon Airport) depending on what airport she wants to fly in and out of...

Basically I'm just wondering how 'connected' the villages between Miradoux and Lamothe are (not sure exactly where we will be at that stage so just guessing for the moment)? I read somewhere that the baggage transfer companies are happy to take people too - do they serve all villages along the way or just some of them? I'll need to let her know before she books as that might determine which airport is best to fly out of (back to Toronto).... (looking most likely to be Paris CDG but Lyon is also a possibility)...

Thanks in advance

 

[billmclaughlin]

Some people use a taxi for a short leg rather than the baggage service.

Lectore has bus service to Auch and Agen, both of which have train service.

One warning: don't trust the icons in the Michelin map collection for this route. There are errors where they do or don't indicate bus or train service is available. Talk to your hosts for accurate info.

Bill

 

[Kitsambler]

I would think having your friend return from CDG would be the best bet. Depending on conditions in situ and how far you manage to get in her period of availability, she could take the TGV from Agen, or through Cahors, or via Bayonne. Then you can work backward from that decision, to make local transit hop arrangements for the train link-up.

 

[Green Tortuga]

I still reckon I would need to be more fit than I was given its multiple days of steep sections at the start rather than just one (the Pyrenees) on the Camino Frances

I walked from Le Puy to Santiago, and in my opinion, the single most difficult leg of the trail was the day I walked from Saint Jean to Roncesvalles. If you can do that, you can do anything found on the Le Puy route. =)

Well, okay, the Dragonte route on the Camino Frances is even more difficult than the Pyrenees (in my opinion, at least), but so few people do that, I'm assuming you aren't familiar with it. But it doesn't really matter--I still think the Pyrenees were more challenging than any part of the Le Puy route. =)

-- Ryan

 

[irishgurrrl]

I would think having your friend return from CDG would be the best bet. Depending on conditions in situ and how far you manage to get in her period of availability, she could take the TGV from Agen, or through Cahors, or via Bayonne. Then you can work backward from that decision, to make local transit hop arrangements for the train link-up.

Yes Paris is looking like the better option isn't it, particularly when nearing St Jean and when wanting to catch a TGV connection. Thanks for that

 

[irishgurrrl]

So exciting that you will be walking this beautiful route, my husband walked with me in 2012, my second time and his first, aged 81. Happy to send you our itinerary and accommodation recommendations and reviews via email. just send me a pm. For some reason the doc with the details won't attach to this site, I tried it before. Regards, Gitti

Thank you Gitti for your kindness - your list and itinerary will be very useful

 

[irishgurrrl]

Hey folks - found this and thought it might be of interest - its a free downloadable guide .... from Le Puy to Figeac with a detailed list of accommodation along the way...
http://www.lacroiseedeschemins.com/GR65-GB_HR.pdf

 

[Michelle_McA]

Pilgrims from centuries ago didn't 'train' for their pilgrimmages. It's a matter of heart and spirit in a lot of cases. Of course, it doesn't hurt, but you can literally drag your leg across an entire country and still arrive (I did). Bon courage! I also leave about April 8 or 10 from Le Puy. Hope to see you there! Bon Chemin!

 

[KiwiNomad06]

Mid-April you might encounter some snow- or certainly some very cold days- so make sure you take layers so you can keep warm if needed, especially across the Aubrac Plateau.
Margaret

 

[MVB63]

Hello, are you still planning on your Camino this year?

 

[irishgurrrl]

Hi MVB63 - yes we're heading in the next month or so