French Compostela routes

With a few days before departure I felt some closer inspection of the route was required. This is a subtle way of saying that I'd booked trains and accommodation with some consideration of daily mileage but with no thought to terrain. This is perhaps excusable as the 475 mile walk is the equivalent of walking from Plymouth to Edinburgh. 

As shown on the map the Via Podiensis runs through the Massif Central for the first 120 miles. Starting at an elevation of 669m the route gets up to 1,100m after 10 miles of walking and stays at this altitude for another 90 miles before you start your decent from the mountains and plateaus of France's central highland area. Unlike Cumbria where you are forced up and over passes to make progress the Massif Central has plateaus and the ascents and descents are gradual as far as I can see from the elevation charts in my guide. 

Navigation either means a kilo worth of maps or relying on the signs. The GR routes are governed by the white over red horizontal signs.

This is fine until you encounter the following which means change direction; but which way?

As usual, I will rely on trial and error. Or should that be trail error? 


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