• For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.

Search 69,459 Camino Questions

Miam-Miam Dodo or Don't?

Sagalouts

RIP 2015
it seems the miam miam dodo guide is the bible for the Le Puy route,but if the only use for it for non French speakers is a list of Accommodation and telephone numbers which can be got elsewhere ((xacobeo)-would it not be better for me to get the CSJ guide"le puy to the pyrenees" by alison raju for a third of the price-has anyone used this guide I can find no mention of it on the forum?
Ian ( i start from Le Puy 1st April)
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
The Miam Miam Dodo guide also has maps in it. I am not the best of map-readers, but I find the small maps in the Alison Raju guide too small for me to easily understand.
MMD has prices for accommodation as well, which helps make choices, and it has distances between places which helps with planning days.
Margaret

sagalouts said:
it seems the miam miam dodo guide is the bible for the Le Puy route,but if the only use for it for non French speakers is a list of Accommodation and telephone numbers which can be got elsewhere ((xacobeo)-would it not be better for me to get the CSJ guide"le puy to the pyrenees" by alison raju for a third of the price-has anyone used this guide I can find no mention of it on the forum?
Ian ( i start from Le Puy 1st April)
 
The FFRP Topo Guide to GR 65 has good maps and nice text and tales, even if your French is limited. Nice pictures too.

The only reason I'd take a Miam miam would be if it were a busy time and you wanted to call lots of places about lodging.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Oh yeah---The Alison Raju guide really is not very useful. I bought it and was so unimpressed I left it home. No worth the weight of the paper. I'm sure she is a very nice person
 
Here are a few bits scanned from the Miam Miam Dodo so you can see what it is like. On the map it has green dots for the main route, and orange dots for some variant routes.

Where the gite and chambre d'hote are listed, you can get an idea of prices (though my page is scanned from a 2007 book so it is out of date now.) You won't be able to see on the small page probably, but it gives months/days when things are open, eg some of the bars/gites along the route are only open May to October. The municipal camping ground is listed as being open from May until October- and in fact many camping grounds in France are seasonal.

I was walking at a busy time (mid-April to late May) and personally, I wouldn't have been without the Miam Miam Dodo guide. It helped me plan days of a distance I thought I could manage, and helped me know there was affordable accommodation where I was planning to stop. There are not as many cheap beds on the Le Puy route as you will find in Spain, so if you miss out on a bed in a gite, you might end up paying for a more expensive option.
Margaret
 

Attachments

  • MMD 1.jpg
    MMD 1.jpg
    83.9 KB · Views: 7,005
  • gite - chambre.jpg
    gite - chambre.jpg
    54.3 KB · Views: 6,961
  • camping.jpg
    camping.jpg
    25.8 KB · Views: 6,937
Hi, when I recently walked the Le Puy route I started off with the Miam Miam Dodo. It is bulky, has got all the accommodations listed, but no elevations profiles or historical/cultural info. I soon found that copies were around as a reference guides in just about every hostel/refuge/gite/ tourist office en route. I bought a Rother guide, which is available in German and French and has lots of historic and cultural info, maps, elevations and limited list of accommodations. I is about half the size of the Miam Miam Dodo guide. I would look at the Miam Miam Dodo whenever I came across one and write appropriate numbers/addresses down in my Rother Guide, supplementing the info there. This worked really well.
Regards, Gitti
 
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Well, it should be noted that , in French jargon, MIAM MIAM stands for eating and DODO stands for sleeping....so i guess title and content of the book do match pretty well.
Having walked LePuy a while ago, and knowing how busy this trail is nowadays from april to august (with walkers booking one year in advance) , i would say you could hardly do without it....especially considering that you'll be on the busy part of it (Le puy-Conques) during Easter week.....i'd say it would be wise to call NOW to book during that week...
Enjoy this beautiful walk...
Giorgio
 
thanks for all your imput,lots of food for thought,just now starting to realize what I'm taking on but as Giorgio says and Margaret shows in her blog it seems a beautiful walk,just going to have to get organised,its going to be so differant to the Camino I did in Spain last year. but as the lightest thing I will be carrying will be my wallet the plan is to carry a lightweight tent and micro stove Margarets blog notes on vipers and tics frighten me a bit though,but for the first few days I will try a mix of online booking and phoning, till Conques at least,thanks for your links in your blog Margaret and Gitti for your accommodation lists in the forum.
it seems that all this phoning ahead is a bit like the "Galician gallop" was heartened to read that some places keep beds available for walkers that just turn, up-don't like the idea of a fixed finishing point-hence the tent,
again thanks for the info.
Ian
 
sagalouts said:
it seems that all this phoning ahead is a bit like the "Galician gallop" was heartened to read that some places keep beds available for walkers that just turn, up-don't like the idea of a fixed finishing point-hence the tent,
Ian
Ian, honestly it isn't like the "Galician gallop' in the least, it's just that there are sometimes not quite enough beds in busy times, in the gites. But the flip side of that is that on the Le Puy route there are places like the tourist offices and the mairie (Mayor's office) where people willingly help you find a place to stay if you don't have one. Occasionally that might mean a more expensive chambre d'hote, but it might also be a private home that isn't ordinarily listed. In Aire sur l'Adour a woman in the Tourist Office spent twenty minutes of her lunchtime willingly ringing around to find a place for my friends who hadn't managed to make a booking. The French lunchtime is 'sacred', so she really did go beyond the call of duty!
Margaret
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
We left LePuy August 24 with absolutely no plans or reservations. We had no problems finding a place when we decided to stop. Sometimes we stumbled across a place, sometimes we went to the tourist office. I saw this on another thread:

Hello!
I walked part of the Le Puy route in June this year. Just to show you that one can do the camino in diferent ways: We never booked. I know that almost all people do, but last half of June was not top season, and we always got a place to sleep. Not planning to much is one of the important things on the camino for me.
 
I really would not bother with a tent. Carrying extra stuff is miserable. I walked in September which is also really busy and I had no trouble with accommodation, just booking a couple of days or even a day in advance. There would have been beds in my second or third preferred places, but I tried to get into what looked like really special places as much as possible. Figeac was a bit difficult and so was the first night in Le Puy as there were festivals on. In Figeac though a gite owner who had a gite 5 km out of town came with a van and took the overflow pilgrims to his gite. You really don't need to worry.
Cheers Gitti.
 
gittiharre said:
I really would not bother with a tent. Carrying extra stuff is miserable
an't got an option Gitti, at an average spend of 50 euro's per day 40 days to SJPP thats 2000 euro's and maybe another 1000 to Santiago,but I'm not masochistic-the weight will be kept to just over 10kilo's-well below the 10% of my 6ft frame.
plus nothing I carry can't be disgarded if need be.
Ian
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Hi again, sorry, I did not realise the tent was a cost saving thing, I thought you were just worried you had nowhere to sleep. I did manage well on 37 Euros per day average on the Le Puy route. I kept exact records every day, because my budget was tight. In Spain I averaged 30 Euros per day in 2006. Regards, Gitti
 
sagalouts said:
an't got an option Gitti, at an average spend of 50 euro's per day 40 days to SJPP thats 2000 euro's
Ian
Ian, I never spent anywhere near 50 Euros per day on the Le Puy route, except for the night I ended up in a chambre d'hote. If it cost me around 28-30 Euro for demi-pension, that meant I had paid for bed, dinner and breakfast. My only other cost on a 'normal' day was then to buy something suitable to eat for lunch. (And if it was a Monday or one of the string of public holidays in May in France, or if I was somewhere 'rural' without a store, I had to have planned ahead, unless there was a loose tin of sardines still rolling around in the bottom of my pack.....otherwise it was a long wait between breakfast and dinner, but no cost! )

The other thing budget-wise is that you probably walk faster than me. I would be surprised if it took you 40 days to reach SJPP. You might get there in not much more than 30...
Margaret
 
yea well maybe I rounded the figures up a bit to take into account those small things that add to the cost painkillers, wine more painkillers.compeed......
but there is no getting away from the fact its an expensive Camino.
what I find strange is that nowhere in the Le Puy forum is mention of anyone staying at the 15 Pilgrim lodgings ( not Gite d Etape) or the 33 official camping places between Le Puy and SJPP (godesalco) one of the two pilgrim lodgings "St Georges" in Le Puy can house 200 people??? (xacobeo) but no-one seems to stay there
but all this is just online and maybe I should listen more to people who have done the walk.
well its time for me to find out-just booked my train under the channel to Paris March 30th (my birthday) wish me luck and cheap lodgings!
Ian
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
sagalouts said:
what I find strange is that nowhere in the Le Puy forum is mention of anyone staying at the 15 Pilgrim lodgings ( not Gite d Etape) or the 33 official camping places between Le Puy and SJPP (godesalco)
Ian, I stayed at the 'pilgrim lodgings' in Estaing run by a Christian community, and also several other places exclusively for pilgrims. I guess I never ever see those kind of lodgings as 'cheap'. They are sometimes 'donativo', and I expect to give at least as much in those situations as I would elsewhere.

I also stayed in two camping grounds, but in a chalet as I did not have a tent. The thing about official camping grounds is that they tend to be 'seasonal' in France, and although there might be 33 camping grounds many of them might only be open in the height of summer, and they might also require a detour off the walking route.

The gite d'etapes in France differ from the albergues in Spain in that they are intended for walkers, but are not often limited just to those with a pilgrim credential. Not all of those you will meet are intending to eventually reach Santiago: some are just walking on one of the extensive network of GR routes for long distance walkers in France.

It's a great route Ian. Not long now until you go. Enjoy!
Margaret
 
My 37 euros included aperitifs, wine comes with dinner anyway, it also included the odd pharmacy item and a flash haircut, regards, Gitti
 
Ian ,
If you can carry the extra kilo of gear take the tent and cooker mate, you will have a wonderful camino.
Once you are in Spain you will be very surprised how many camp out and there are some wonderful spots for this throughout the mesata.
Many years ago [10] we were in Concots , having a pot and found a couple from Holland looking for a camping site.
It was underwater.
They ended up staying with us in a home in Escazauls . That year they introduced us to the Camino.
If you find some young Australians camping join them , laugh how they survive on the one minute noodles unless they find an older compatriot with bananas and enjoy tales about their past life at uni.
Take what comes , put up with it and enjoy.You will hava a wonderful time.
Bon Camino and Buen Camino Ian,
David
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Thornley said:
Take what comes , put up with it and enjoy.You will hava a wonderful time.
thanks David
just got the Confraternity of Saint James booklet-pilgrim guides to the roads through France to Santiago de Compostela 3.Le Puy to the Pyrenees cost £5 its 48 pages are full of information and lists accommodation for each town along the way-seems good value.and in English too!!
starting to come together-just 6 weeks away now. :D
Ian
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
robmc said:
is it possible to buy the Miam Miam Dodo guide in London?
CSJ carry it in London. Not sure where you are planning to start in France, but you can buy it in the sacristy in Le-Puy-en-Velay where you also get your credential.
I have an (old) list (2008) of places it is sold along the route in France, and could tell you the nearest place if you are starting somewhere other than Le Puy.
Margaret
 
Thanks for the advice

I am leaving from le Puy on 8 May which is I think is a public holiday and I am concerned that I will not be able to buy it in Le Puy. I am travelling generally from 30 March including London that's why I was hoping there is an old fashioned bookshop I can walk into and buy it in London where I will be visiting on my travels rather than online. If not I will buy it from Amazon and have it sent to friends address in London.

I am having difficulty booking the second nights accommodation. I have booked Capucin in le Puy on the 7th. Tried La Cabournne in St Privat d Allier for the 8th however they are booked out.
This is no doubt due to the public holidays. Am awaiting a reply from Lescole in Montbonnet. After that I will take my chances.


Getting pretty excited as my start day approaches. I would be interesested in hearing from anyone else starting then?I do have a very useful (though in French)guide from the website of the tourist offices of Puy en velay which covers from le Puy to Conques. This site has also been a great inspiration particularly the photos.
 
Hi Rob,
Not long until you leave home then! CSJ would also post a Miam Miam Dodo to your friend's place in London, and they have always posted things I ordered very quickly. However, at the Cathedral in Le Puy, I know they do credentials for pilgrims in the morning after the blessing after the 7am Mass: I am not sure if they also would sell a MMD then or not. But perhaps you could buy one from the sacristy there on the afternoon of the 7th?

I stayed in L'Escole on my first night out of Le Puy and I loved the atmosphere there. I don't know if you have e-mailed in French or not though..... as I don't think they speak any English.

8 May is a public holiday and the French do take their public holidays seriously! Ascension Day is also treated like a public holiday on May 13th, and Pentecost brings a long weekend (with May 24th being Whit Monday). So all the days around those dates need a bit of prior booking if possible.
All the best!
Margaret
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
hi rob
I have seen the odd copy of dodo on e-bay
I leave London for Le-puy 30th march and will where poss be blogging or posting live from the camino.
Margaret knows best but I think there is a gite-acceuill in saint-privat d'allier that does not take bookings first come first served (gite-acceuil pelerin) 04.71.57.21.56 --6-7 places donation,also in Saugues large overspill at a centre d'accuel-will try and find link.http://www.lamargeride.com/
I am going with just the CSJ guide £5 and a small tent and try not to spend my time worrying over accommodation-lets see how we go, if you find me in a ditch please wake me up :D
Ian
 
sagalouts said:
I leave London for Le-puy 30th march and will where poss be blogging or posting live from the camino. Ian
Ian, Internet is not as easily available on the Le Puy route as on the Camino Frances. But you sometimes find it in libraries, tourist offices, and in one place someone even left his desk in the Mairie so we could use the internet... Sometimes stationery shops will have a computer in a corner.
Margaret
 
The place is called Chemin de bonheur. Marie and Jean-Marc Lucien. No booking. One of my best memories from last june. Not because of beds og room (one!) or other things like that, but because of the family, their christian attitude, the people we stayed together with and things like that.
 
New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
robmc said:
Thanks for the advice

I am leaving from le Puy on 8 May which is I think is a public holiday and I am concerned that I will not be able to buy it in Le Puy. I am travelling generally from 30 March including London that's why I was hoping there is an old fashioned bookshop I can walk into and buy it in London where I will be visiting on my travels rather than online. If not I will buy it from Amazon and have it sent to friends address in London.

I am having difficulty booking the second nights accommodation. I have booked Capucin in le Puy on the 7th. Tried La Cabournne in St Privat d Allier for the 8th however they are booked out.
This is no doubt due to the public holidays. Am awaiting a reply from Lescole in Montbonnet. After that I will take my chances.


Getting pretty excited as my start day approaches. I would be interesested in hearing from anyone else starting then?I do have a very useful (though in French)guide from the website of the tourist offices of Puy en velay which covers from le Puy to Conques. This site has also been a great inspiration particularly the photos.
Hello! Why not try a visit to Standford bookshop in London in one of the streets around Covent Garden. I have been there a couple of times buying maps to use on the Le Puy route. They have a lot of different guidebooks for the camino and I would guess there were some a Miam- Miam Dodo books too. Randi
 
Hello all potential Le Puy walkers,

I feel I must leap in here in defence of the Alison Raju guide. I carried it (often in my pocket - because it is a convenient size) for the Le Puy leg that I did in 2007. I found the guide very reliable in terms of directions. If I found myself in a spot where I was uncertain as to which way to go, which did happen from time to time, I would refer to the guide and invariably things were EXACTLY as described, and I was able to sort out the dilemmas I had. In addition to that, as a non French speaker, I found that the historical / cultural tips that Alison provides about the villages and towns I was passing through were also very helpful. At first glance it might appear a dry and dull tome, but in my experience it accomplishes exactly what it purports to! To compensate for the lack of maps I carried some photo copied "cut and pasted" road maps (double sided to save weight) and this helped with naming towns in the distance etc.

Also, in relation to the gites along the way that especially fulfill the needs of pilgrims, there is a substanial list on a website (beginning with "Les Herbergment ..... chemin Compostelle"). I marked these in the guide and where possible I stayed in them. However, it will depend on the length of your walking day as to whether it is possible to stop there or not.

Another comment with regard to cost is that the Vezelay path is the cheapest of all the french paths that I have walked thus far. In seven and a half weeks walking from Troyes (a week north of Vezelay) to Irun (via St Jean Pied de Port) I only spent $3,400 AUD (excluding air ticket and health insurance), but this included train travel to Troyes, postage, all food and accomodation, museum entrances etc etc.

Nonetheless - the Vezelay, the Le Puy and the Arles paths are very beautiful - but each are very different. regards, Janet
 
Kowabunga! That seems like a lot of money to me!

I spent 3 MONTHS walking portions of the VDLP, the Frances, the Aragonese and the Norte and only spent a little over $3,000
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Hi there Annie, at the risk of sounding argumentative I will just point out that living expenses are recognized as being considerably more expensive in France than in Spain. I also said that it was in Australian currency, which at the time was worth about $1.00american to 70cents Aud. I also said that this covered everything - including a TGV train ride to Troyes, purchasing of postage stamps - sometimes as much as $20 a week, and even new boots! It also included about 8 nights of hotels (I always stay in hotels for a rest day). I did find though that the Le Puy route is a little more expensive as there is not the same opportunity for self catering as there is on the Voie de Vezelay.

Accomodation at pilgrim places ranged in price from anywhere between 5 Euros to about 12 Euros, and then in some private gites it was in the vicinity of about 15 - 18 euros (Compared to about 17 Euros - 35 Euros on the Le Puy route). This accomodation consistently outstripped - in price and quality - anything that I have stayed in on either the Camino Frances, Camino del Norte, Camino Primitivo, the Le Puy route or the Arles route. There were a number of albergues on the Camino Aragonese that were of the same consistently high value as those on the Voie de Vezelay. Please don't get me wrong though - I have loved staying in every one of the Gites / refuges / albergues along the various Camino's I have made, and very much appreciate all that has been provided.

I found it quite astonishing to see the detail and care that local people had put into the establishment of the pilgrim refuges on the Voie de Vezelay - comfortable beds - sometimes with real sheets to sleep between, well equpipped kitchens - and in some cases delicious food availbale for purchase, and clean bathrooms, and all in a very convenient location. The friendliness, and the kindness and generosity of these people will stay with me for a very long time.

Cheers, Janet
 
Janet, that's what I was saying... not well, I guess :)

I was actually agreeing with you and saying I felt the French sections of the Camino were much more expensive than the sections in Spain.

Sorry... sometimes I don't express myself very well in writing...
 
A couple of thoughts on MMD in Spain. I'm a big fan of the guide and have used it most recently on the GR 65 in France. It's not a trail guide per se, but about facilities, etc. I think it's designed to be consumed as you walk along, so it's weight decreases to zero. They even give the weight on the back as a full book and after you've torn out the 30 intro pages. I tore the covers off as well.

No guide I've ever seen has all the facilities, so if you want the most info at hand, it may well be worth your while. For a fuller description there's this page: http://www.longwalking.com/trail-guides-the-miam-miam-dodo/

As for costs, when I walked the camino in 2007, there was a Spanish newspaper article I read that said Spanish youth who were walking it (it's sort of a rite of passage for many of them) spent 1 euro per kilometer. Last year when I walked the French (mostly) and Silver (partly) in June, there were plenty of 3 to 5 euro beds along the way.

Have fun!
 
Very light, comfortable and compressible poncho. Specially designed for protection against water for any activity.

Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
Paper is the heaviest substance known to man, isn't it? On my walk from Le Puy to Cahors, I took the applicable pages from the current MMD (just razored them out of the binding). And when I was through with that page, I tossed it. The weight of the collection went steadily down.

Although I originally only intended to use the lodging info, I discovered the maps were terrific, especially for sussing out the several variants and other slightly off-beat routes. (This was one of the major epiphanies of my trip: maps in your pocket where you can access them readily are even better than maps safely in the bottom of the pack.)
 
Does anyone know when the 2011 MMDD guides are likely to come out? I will be walking in spring, I hope, and wonder whether a new edition will be available or whether I should just buy a 2010 guide now. Thanks, Laurie
 
Hi Laurie

According to Amazon.fr, in previous years the annually updated MMDs to the Chemin du Puy and the Camino Frances have appeared in late November/early December of the preceding year. So I would have thought you'd be fine if you wait a little while before purchasing, and then get the 2011 version.

Mike
 
New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
I got mine from Amazon UK on 13 April this year (2010), which was plenty of time for my September trip. With your schedule though, you might be more comfortable with the 2010 edition, at least for initial planning. Then you could consult the 2011 at the last minute, or in various tourist offices/gites along the way.
 
There were always plenty of MMD available to consult - either at the tourist office, most gites, and fellow pilgrims along the way too. I had the Raju guide with me.
 
I did the Camino in 2014 and used Miam Miam Dodo to book accommodation each day. I travelled through France during April & May so was worried about accommodation on the Religious Holiday weekends and booked ahead several times. I would highly recommend it.
Each day I would rip out the pages for the previous day to lighten the load since the book would never be reused.
I had bought the Raju guide but it was too wordy (on the trail) to be useful and I purchased and would readily recommend the Michelin guides as being light and having just enough map details to suffice.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
I'm near Cahors now, not doing the Camino but on holiday and doing short circular walks each day. The MMD has been great with maps and distances for me in planning each day. The 2017 edition is in two parts now. There are a lot of walkers here and at the cafes at lunchtime more than half are consulting their MMD.

I also have an App on my phone Samsung health. Its a free app I use at home to track food and exercise. I'm finding it brillant here as it connects to Google maps and tracks exactly were you are, every teeny farm track is on it and you can set it to call out to you at set distances, for example every km. Ive walked through random woods and tracks every day and always known where I am.
 
great that your phone will know where you are, even if you don't! those apps are a hoot. They nearly tell you how many there are in the queue for coffee ahead...
 

Most read last week in this forum

I am fine tuning my packing and I pre package my vitamins/supplements to take daily, which I have done for about 15 years. Do you all take them with you, or leave them home? 36 days of vitamins...
Dear fellow pilgrims! :) I hope to walk from Le Puy to Santiago later this year. I was thinking about starting at some point in august so that I manage to reach Santiago before it gets too cold...
Hey! Thinking about walking Le Puy this year. I am a solo female traveller. On my previous Camino (Spain) I stayed in municipal albergues, but this time I would like to try something...

❓How to ask a question

How to post a new question on the Camino Forum.

Forum Rules

Forum Rules

Camino Updates on YouTube

Camino Conversations

Most downloaded Resources

This site is run by Ivar at

in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon
Official Camino Passport (Credential) | 2024 Camino Guides
Back
Top