Via Francigena - Which route from Pontarlier to Orbe?

[jeanineonthecamino]

I have already planned the majority of my Via Francigena. But from Pontarlier - has anyone taken both routes (via Jougne and via St Croixe) to Orbe? Which did you prefer? And why? It looks like the both climb equally high... but the St Croix route stays at the top a bit longer and it looks like the Jougne route spends more time along a river. But whatabout the scenery and sites to visit (if any)? I am struggling to decide which I want to take and the Via Francigena has the SAME description for both routes.

Also - that is an expensive area for accommodations. Did anyone stealth camp at all between Jougne and Orbe? Looks like lots of treed areas where it seems like it might be doable to stay out of site. What about sometime after St Croix? I do have accommodation reserved in Pontarlier and on the Jougne route one campground is ridiculously overpriced for tent camping and the one in Orbe looks nice - but not reservable - plus I don't know if I want to walk quite that far. My next accommodation is a bungalow in the La Sarraz campground and Orbe is "too close" of a walk to La Sarraz. For the St Croix route - I do see one hotel/pension that is reasonably priced - but it is off the route a bit.

 

[Harington]

The 'historic' Jougne route is beautiful, and reasonably easy walking. From Pontarlier you walk along the old railway line, and then alongside a little tourist rail line. The path alongside the Orbe gorge is lovely, and very easy.

 

[Rex]

I hiked from Pontarlier to Jougne to Orbe over two days in July, 2022.
The route from Pontarlier does go through forests, but skirts them, rather than gets too deep into them. There is a fair amount of high pasture land I walked through and a couple of small villages where one might be able to ask if a pilgrim could pitch a tent. Once I started the descent into Jougne, there was not much hope of camping, as that area is built up for winter skiing excursions and there are a lot of farms along the route. The hotel there was one of the nicer ones, run by a family and next door to the old church. The evening meal was served only to guests who reserved, but was very good and a good value. Everything from this point on in my journey got substantially more expensive as I entered Switzerland. Even the monastery rooms, while nice, were much higher than comparable places in France or Spain or Portugal.
The route from Jougne to Orbe really has no options for camping, except for the spot in Orbe you mentioned above. The trail I followed was deep in a canyon along the river, but a lot of the time I was walking along virtual cliffsides where the path had been hewed from rock and there were occasional guardrails along the canyon side of the path (this was about a 4-5KM stretch that eventually led to the outskirts of Orbe. There are a few accommodations in Orbe, but I stayed in a hotel that was quite expensive by my standards and the room was not very clean. Disappointing, but that's hiker life sometimes.
Buen Camino

 

[Rex]

The 'historic' Jougne route is beautiful, and reasonably easy walking. From Pontarlier you walk along the old railway line, and then alongside a little tourist rail line. The path alongside the Orbe gorge is lovely, and very easy.

It is easy in terms of not much up and down, but the trail has had a couple of slides last year and there were a couple of spots that were a bit dicey to navigate when I was there this past July (2022). And it is beautiful. Also, the waymarking to find the trail has been overgrown by shrubs in several places or signs have been removed. I resorted to my compass and a GPS map to actually find the trail in the canyon there was recent road construction activity alongside the western side of the canyon and it apparently wiped out the waymarkers in that stretch where one descends into the canyon on the trail. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day.

 

[High Endeavours]

I walked the route late last August on my way to Rome and if you are going to walk the lower route from Pontarlier as Harington suggests, you first have to initially climb on the historic route because a bridge before Le Franbourge was damaged and closed last summer . You might check to see if the bridge is open now. The views from above are wonderful. At Le Franbourge you can return to the lower route and I suspect that you would find a place to wild camp off the old rail line, but you should be prepared to need to stay in town if that doesn't work out. As Rex says, the next stage to Orbe has no real camping options, but the walk is pleasant and the canyon section is very beautiful. Have fun planning. The way to Rome is quite brilliant! I enjoyed the Swiss/Italian section so much that I'm retuning in a couple of months to walk the Way of St. Francis from Florence to Rome and then I'll jump north to Switzerland to walk for a short while before heading home. Switzerland is really expensive!

 

[Corned Beef]

Switzerland is really expensive!

There should be a whole thread on how to keep costs down in Switzerland.

Beautiful though the walk is, there will be a large hole in any budget by dawdling in Switzerland. Even a hostel will cost CHF70 a night. If you want to, there is a train from Pontarlier station to Neuchatel or Lausanne which will miss out that section if you wish to make a saving but otherwise you'll just have to pay. On the plus side, the buses in Montreux are free.

 

[Bradypus]

There should be a whole thread on how to keep costs down in Switzerland.

It is a problem for those of us with shallow pockets or congenital tight-fistedness. I wild camped for a couple of nights and spent one memorable night lost in woodland and hiding from monsoon rains in a wooden dustbin shelter! I also had two relatively cheap nights in youth hostels in Lausanne and Montreux and one night in the parish albergue in Orsieres. To save on food costs almost all my food and drink was bought in supermarkets. Restaurants are painfully pricey.

 

[jeanineonthecamino]

Thanks everyone! Especially Rex for the great description of the route in regards to potential camping spots. I am really going to have to figure out where to stay the one night.

There should be a whole thread on how to keep costs down in Switzerland.

Beautiful though the walk is, there will be a large hole in any budget by dawdling in Switzerland. Even a hostel will cost CHF70 a night. If you want to, there is a train from Pontarlier station to Neuchatel or Lausanne which will miss out that section if you wish to make a saving but otherwise you'll just have to pay. On the plus side, the buses in Montreux are free.

It is a problem for those of us with shallow pockets or congenital tight-fistedness. I wild camped for a couple of nights and spent one memorable night lost in woodland and hiding from monsoon rains in a wooden dustbin shelter! I also had two relatively cheap nights in youth hostels in Lausanne and Montreux and one night in the parish albergue in Orsieres. To save on food costs almost all my food and drink was bought in supermarkets. Restaurants are painfully pricey.

YES, it was quite the challenge! The youth hostels in Lausanne and Montreux were even very expensive for the dates I was trying to book. It was quite frustrating. So far - the "by far most expensive" area for me is the one I am considering stealth camping in. Also very expensive was Vevey - but I found a room in an airbnb that I was willing to pay a bit extra for. Lausanne - I cancelled my youth hostel beds in favor of bungalows at the nearby campground. Did you know they give a pilgrim discount? 40CHF for BOTH of us for a 2 bed bungalow! Then I cancelled my booking at the Montreux youth hostel and instead in Villeneuve I am tent camping in the campground. Just beyond Aigle I found a reasonably priced airbnb in Ollon. In Martigny I am staying at the campground in dorm beds - 20CHF each. It also has a kitchen that I think they charge an extra CHF for. Orsieres - don't have a bed yet but am hoping to get a pilgrims bed last minute. St Maurice I am staying at the Abbey - also reasonably priced. As I already said - I am staying in a reasonably priced bungalow in La Sarraz, then I have the dorm beds in Bourg St Pierre and Grand St Bernard. Boy is that place expensive with the meals! But - somehow I don't mind paying there since it is in such a great location.

And I will definitely be eating from supermarkets when I can - even the restaurants at the campgrounds are pretty pricey.

I really should have planned to walk longer distances in Switzerland to save money - but Switzerland is just so beautiful and there is so much to do around the Lake that I just decided to take it very slow.

Anyhow - the prices in Switzerland wouldn't be so bad if I was JUST going to Switzerland for a week or so and not the VF for 7 weeks!

 

[Anna&Michael]

I have already planned the majority of my Via Francigena. But from Pontarlier - has anyone taken both routes (via Jougne and via St Croixe) to Orbe? Which did you prefer? And why? It looks like the both climb equally high... but the St Croix route stays at the top a bit longer and it looks like the Jougne route spends more time along a river. But whatabout the scenery and sites to visit (if any)? I am struggling to decide which I want to take and the Via Francigena has the SAME description for both routes.

Also - that is an expensive area for accommodations. Did anyone stealth camp at all between Jougne and Orbe? Looks like lots of treed areas where it seems like it might be doable to stay out of site. What about sometime after St Croix? I do have accommodation reserved in Pontarlier and on the Jougne route one campground is ridiculously overpriced for tent camping and the one in Orbe looks nice - but not reservable - plus I don't know if I want to walk quite that far. My next accommodation is a bungalow in the La Sarraz campground and Orbe is "too close" of a walk to La Sarraz. For the St Croix route - I do see one hotel/pension that is reasonably priced - but it is off the route a bit.

We walked Pontarlier to Orbe, a big day at 37 km. Beautiful walking, especially leaving Pontarlier at daybreak with mist surrounding the Chateau de Joux and then through the Orbe Gorge.
We stayed at TCS Camping Orbe in a little camping pod (photo attached), very cosy (68 euros for two). They were very helpful e.g. because we were pilgrims they didn't charge extra us for linen. If you are thinking of staying there, it would be worth contacting them and asking if a pilgrim can book a campsite. We also had free access to the attached swimming pool and the restaurant at the pool was excellent, the camp office/shop looked to have only basic supplies (ask if you are relying on it).
There might be places where you could stealth camp in or at the end of the gorge, but it's also pretty popular for fishing, dog walking, etc, so you would need to set up late.

 

[jeanineonthecamino]

We walked Pontarlier to Orbe, a big day at 37 km. Beautiful walking, especially leaving Pontarlier at daybreak with mist surrounding the Chateau de Joux and then through the Orbe Gorge.
We stayed at TCS Camping Orbe in a little camping pod (photo attached), very cosy (68 euros for two).

Thanks! I have to check my emails - but I think they are one of the places I emailed that never responded. Could be because it is off season (or maybe I just THINK I emailed them but did t?). I will have to check and maybe reach out to them again.

I did reserve a tent site at (Vallorbe? Sorry - not looking at my notes so might have the town name wrong). But it is 40CHF for a TENT site which is a bit ridiculous. And it is a little ways off trail. Would love to stay in a pod in Orbe instead. It is a bit too close to LaSarraz where I am stopping the next night (in a bungalow), but if I were in a pod in Orbe I could hang out a little longer than I would in my bivy, and Orbe looks like a cute village to explore.

And we wouldn’t need linens.