Via Podiensis

The Via Podiensis is a long distance walk of approximately 475 miles from the trail head at Le Puy-en-Velay to the medieval town of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port near Biarritz in South West France. It is also referred to as the Chemin Du Puy or Le Puy Camino. In the world of walking it is fairly popular and reasonably well know to walkers either as a GR walking trail or as a segment in the Santiago de Compostela network of pilgrim routes. At the risk of getting bogged down with definitions, Europe's version of the UK's National Trails are known as "Sentiers de grandé randonnée" or GR routes and this stretch of the old pilgrim network has been formalised into the GR65 which attracts walkers and means it is well signposted and has the infrastructure to support walkers.  Having reached Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port you can continue on the most well known route, the Camino Frances, which crosses Spain but is so called as it carries the pilgrims coming down from France to the final pilgrim destination. 


The Via Podiensis is popular but as an English speaker I am not expecting to meet many pilgrims and very few English speakers. At the time of planning the best guide book was a Miam Miam Dodo title only available in French though Cicerone have recently published an English guide. Miam Miam Dodo is an odd name for a grown up series of books as it roughly translates to the childlike "Yummy Yummy Sleep".  I have scheduled 33 days walking with some flex days at the end to recover (or finish walking) before meeting my wife in Paris.

I will rely on pre-booked accommodation and will adjust that if I need to and will use the GR way markers for navigation with phone GPS and the komoot navigation app if I get lost. In Spain it is easy to rely on ad hoc accommodation but the practice in France is to book a day or more in advance as they often provide an evening meal and need to know numbers for catering. Though phone and WhatsApp are common booking methods for the gîte d'étape, my limited language skills meant email was a good way to make bookings. Most gîtes replied in three days and only a few gave no response. WhatsApp was a good way to follow-up where I did not get a reply or I simply tried another place. I prioritised the gîtes that provided half board. It took me two days to make the requests, within a week I had most booked then another two weeks to pin down the remaining dates so it was useful to start the booking process early enough.

I had got a travel card which I could load up with euros though I quickly learnt that the Via Podiensis is still mostly cash based. The card will still be good for drawing cash, as a back-up card and for doing easy bank transfers which I need to do for three of my bookings. Learning from an earlier France trip I made sure my on-line banking app was working to approve any bank transactions as my bank cannot text me when I am not in the UK. This is a fairly common problem with no absolute reliable solution so be warned.

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