elisabethfarre
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- September 2016
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I would like to walk from Lourdres down to the CSJ Arles route, through Somport/Canfranc Estacion. I would like to know if there is a "route" and a way, with room/food options. Thank you very much!!!
Elisabeth
Kanga, I am not familiar with
Miam Miam Dodo. Could you please tell me what this is? I don't have a smart phone. I would like to walk from Lourdres down to the CSJ Arles route, through Somport/Canfranc Estacion. I would like to know if there is a "route" and a way, with room/food options. Thank you very much!!!
Elisabeth
There is a route:Lourdes, Saint-Pe-de-Bigorre,Bruges, Buzy, Oloron Sainte-Marie.
You join the Arles route at Oloron. I used the Lepere guide between Lourdes and Oloron (La Voie des Piemonts) and the CSJ guide after that.
Its a beautiful camino from Lourdes, the nicest people I have ever met was at Lourdes albergue I think its called La Ruche, I walked in 2013 I got lost a few times between Lourdes and Oloron Sainte-Marie due to conflicting markings and since I speak almost no French was not easy either but overall was great, do it
Zzotte
There is a route:Lourdes, Saint-Pe-de-Bigorre,Bruges, Buzy, Oloron Sainte-Marie.
You join the Arles route at Oloron. I used the Lepere guide between Lourdes and Oloron (La Voie des Piemonts) and the CSJ guide after that.
@elisabethfarre there is a Miam Miam Dodo guide published for the Arles route. It is quite a solitary camino, not much travelled. You could have a browse through the threads in the Arles section of the forum - Lourdes is not on the route but there is a detour. See, for example this thread
Edited - posts moved to aporopriate section of the forum
@Albertagirl the easiest is to fly into Pau and catch a train to Oloron Ste Marie. The train takes about half an hour. Or you could walk from Pau - the Arles route goes through Pau to Oloron Ste Marie.
The route to the Somport Pass is the Route from Arles - it is one of the four historic Camino routes mentioned by Amery Picard in the Codex Calixtius (the via Tolosane). It is not mountaineering, it is today a well marked trail and one of France's Grand Randonees - the GR653. There are guidebooks for it, in French, but with good maps - Topo and Sentier . There is a dedicated Miam Miam Dodo book for the GR653 which tells you every bit of accommodation with 5 km of the trail. You will not have to camp.
The Arles route becomes the Camino Aragones once it crosses the border into Spain.
This thread should help: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/michelin-guide-for-the-arles-route.32060/
I am not sure why you are finding it frustrating to be put in the correct section of the forum!
Hi @Albertagirl
You asked for recent experience of the walk to Somport, and I' sorry I don't have that, having walked it in 2008. But there may be a couple of things you can use.
I flew from Paris to Pau, which is a big city and has regular flights from Paris. I walked from Pau airport to Lescar [about 12 km] and through the tourist bureau got a credential and directions to the albergue. Next day walked 34 km to Oloron [a very big town]. Then 22 km to Sarrance, and the next day [including backtracking] something over 40 km to Somport Pass. I walked on the main road and stayed off the tracks [which were wet and slippery] in order to do better time, and the only place where the road was narrow and dangerous was closer to Somport after the turn-off from the tunnel under the mountain.
Somport Pass is higher than the crossing over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles but don't be taken in by the romance of the name - the road up to it is long and continuous but rarely if ever very steep. There are not big mountains either side of the pass itself - the photo on the left is of the scene on the morning of April 7th, and the little figure in the centre is a metal statue of a pilgrim looking west toward Santiago.
I bought the Confraternity of St. James guide of Arles to Puenta la Reina [ Part 2 -Toulouse to Puenta la Reina] which I was going to use if I walked from Arles - it covers this route - the edition I have is 2011 and may be updated by now. In any case I am sure lots of other people will have more recent news than mine.
P.S. I loved the albergue at Arres, after you get past Jaca.
Alan
Be brave. Life is joyous.
How could I get to Oloron Ste Marie?
I am considering the information given on one post indicating that there is a bus from Spain going to Somport.
From Madrid, you can take a train to Zaragoza, another one from Zaragoza to Canfranc (Estación) and the SNCF bus from Canfranc (Estación) to Oloron ST Marie. It may require an overnight stay along the route though. Zaragoza could be a good place to stay overnight if you couldn't make all the route from Madrid in a single day.
Yes, there are buses to Somport from Jaca and Canfranc Estación (same bus. It starts the route in Jaca and stops in Canfranc Estación along the route). You can reach Jaca from Zaragoza by bus or train and you can reach Canfranc Estación from Zaragoza by train.
However, Air Canada has no connection to Santiago and the flight back from Madrid leaves at 6:10 am, which means being at the airport at least two hours ahead and could be very inconvenient.
Look for Air Canada's connections out of Porto.
Another option you may consider is to fly from A Coruña to London with Vueling and from London to Canada with Air Canada although that may mean an overnight stay in London to play it safe with connections (being two separate bookings you would need to look for expensive alternatives on the spot if you miss your flight to Canada due to a late arrival of your Vueling flight)... To fly out of Porto with a single ticket would be a better option if it isn't too expensive, IMHO.
As Bilbao is closer to Santiago than Madrid and is a major city, I do not anticipate any travel difficulties.
No travel difficulties from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao but:
P.S.: If you want a single change of planes, take a look at the option of flying from A Coruña to London with Vueling and from London to Calgary with Air Canada that I quoted on my previous post. Don't overlook the caveats I also quoted though.
- Buses from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid take less time than buses from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao so no saving on time.
- Porto airport is even closer to Santiago de Compostela and you can find flights with Air Canada back home. They'll mean two change of planes along the route (Frankfurt and a Canadian airport; most likely Toronto) too. As I said above, probably the best bet if fares are reasonable.
Air Canada does not currently list any flights from Porto
I guess where's the problem: they don't call it Porto but Oporto so you have to look for flights out of Oporto (airport code: OPO) on their web and you shouldn't have problems to find them.
P.S.: Funnily enough, I was using the Portuguese name of the city (that it's also the most used one in English) when Air Canada uses in their web the same name that we give to the city in Spanish: Oporto (that it's less frequently used in English).
That didn't work either. Oporto came up on the listing of cities where Air Canada flies in Portugal, but when I tried to search flights I got the message: "No flights found." I don't know why.
I can, however, try getting in contact with Air Canada Reservations and perhaps they will be able to help me.
That is exactly what I was doing. I wondered if the problem with the return flight had to do with scheduling. Perhaps there is no flight from Oporto which connects to a flight to Calgary. In any case, I cannot go any further at present except by getting in touch with their reservations staff. Thank you for giving so much time to this.I don't know either because I didn't have any problem to find flights out of Oporto on the web of Air Canada (both in the booking area and in the timetable area). You must be looking at a different area of the web of Air Canada because I didn't get any listing of cities in Portugal... Try this link: www.aircanada.com/en/home.html Click on multi-city where it says "Book a flight" and type the relevant data.
I wondered if the problem with the return flight had to do with scheduling. Perhaps there is no flight from Oporto which connects to a flight to Calgary.
I don't know your travel date but I don't think schedule is the problem because I saw connections from Oporto to Calgary on several different months... Anyway, best of luck with your travel plans. And if you finally know why you don't see the flights, please, let me know because I'm really curious about it.
@Albertagirl if you do fly in through Pau, give yourself a night there and a day to explore - it's a beautiful city, with a wonderful chateau (and a guided tour), a great undercover food market, and glorious views of the Pyrenees sitting in the boulevard near the chateau.
the flight leaves Porto at 6:00 am, which is 10 minutes earlier than the flight from Madrid,
I think that I shall return to looking at a flight out of Bilbao. I might spend a night or two there to get over the 11 hour bus ride.
I hope I'm not late with my reply.
Yes, but there's a nuance. Mainland Portugal is an hour behind Mainland Spain so when it's 07:00 a.m. in Santiago de Compostela (or in Madrid), it's 06:00 a.m. in Porto. Anyway, it's a pity there aren't connections on your travel date with the 12:20 p.m. flight out of Porto.
If you are fine spending a night or two somewhere along your route, I would consider the option of flying to London from Galicia once again. A night or two in London wouldn't be a bad thing for you (and you wouldn't have language problems). And the flight from London to Calgary would be non-stop...
Anyway, pick your choice and book whatever flights work better for you. Best of luck with your travel plans and enjoy every step and every stop of your camino.
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