Product Description

This is a walker's guide to the 740km Pilgrim Road from Le Puy-en-Velay in central France to the Pyrenees. It is the only original guide to this route in English. A companion volume by the same author, "The Way of St James" (Pyrenees-Santiago-Finisterre), continues the route through Spain from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella (or Finisterre). As well as giving directions for walking the route the book also provides information on places to visit along the way, the history of the pilgrimage and the availability of practical facilities such as shops, bars, restaurants and accommodation. This guide contains an outline of the route along the Cele valley (53km) as one appendix and, unlike existing guides (in any language), a comprehensive listing of St. James and other pilgrim references along the way as another. There is a list of suggestions for further reading and a glossary of geographical and other useful terms. It also contains a series of sketch maps covering the entire route to aid the user in planning his or her journey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344183 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 187 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781852843717
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Alison Raju is a former teacher of French, German and Spanish to adults and the author of four pilgrim guides for walkers published by Cicerone Press: Way of St. James: Le Puy to the Pyrenees, (2nd edition 2003) Way of St. James: Pyrenees-Santiago-Finisterre (3rd edition 2003), Via de la Plata: Seville/Granada-Santiago (2nd edition 2005) and the Pilgrim Road to Nidaros (Oslo-Trondheim, 2001.) A walker's guide to the Via Francigena, the classic pilgrim road from Canterbury to Rome, is in preparation. A chance viewing of a television programme in the early 1970's lead to Alison's interest in the Pilgrim Road to Santiago, at that time barely known in Britain. A walker most of her life she had the opportunity to walk the 1000 mile camino from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago all in one go in 1990, a time which coincided, fortuitously, with Cicerone Press seeking an author to write an original guide in English to the Spanish section of the route. Since then Alison has walked and explored many of the pilgrim roads through Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal) as well as those she has written about.

Customer Reviews

Terse, excellent guide from Le Puy to St. Jean
We've been using this guide for the last 3 years, finally reaching the Pyrenees in Sept. 2006. The route follows the French National Trail GR65. The author has put a lot of information in this little (4.5in by 6.75in) book. There is an entry for each town or point of interest along the GR65. For example, the entry for Cahors is: "5.5km Cahors 122m (350/390)" followed by detailed town information. The 5.5 is distance from last point, 122m is elevation, 350 is km from Le Puy, 390 is distance to St. Jean. There is no English language competition for this guide, except for a much briefer booklet by the same author done for the Confraternity of St. James. Originally the author published a guide to the entire pilgrimage route from Le Puy to Camino de Santiago. I much prefer having separate more current guides.

To squeeze in the max amount of information and still save weight, the author uses some abbreviations which take some getting used to, similar to text messaging. KSO continue straight on, L left, R right, etc. There are 22 small maps just showing routes and towns. It has several useful appendices including a glossary of French hiking terms.

This book should be used in combination with the French language topo guides for the GR65 and the current annually updated French language accomodation guide to the GR65 - Miam Miam Dodo. Both of these can be used without knowledge of French.

I haven't yet hiked the trail, but
I haven't yet hiked the trail, but the book appears to be a plausible trail guide, with clarity and good detail.