Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[Peter Robins]

not strictly speaking anything to do with Santiago, but forum members may be interested in participating in the 1300-year celebrations at Le Mont Saint Michel, where the church was founded in 708 and consecrated in 709. 2008 is also the tenth anniversary of the Association "Les Chemins du Mont-Saint-Michel" who've now waymarked some 2000km of pilgrim routes to the shrine. As a celebration of this, walkers will be converging on the Mont from Brittany, Le Mans, Tours, Paris, Chartres, Rouen, Winchester (and probably other places as well), for special events on Michaelmas, September 29. Each route will have its own blog.

The culmination of the walks will be firstly events organised jointly by the Association and various Amis de St Jacques at the village of Saint-James September 27, and secondly the walk, or rather wade, across the sands from Genets September 28.

Two new guidebooks are being published to coincide with this: a revamp of the GR22 from Paris to be published next year, and one for the new route through Anjou, the Chemin des Plantagenets, from Saint-Jean-d'Angély.

Further details on the Association website or from a somewhat more detailed pdf file at the Union Jacquaire de France

[sillydoll]

Peter - it is interesting to see that the route to/from Santiago goes along the coast to St Jean de Angely and then west to Mont St Michel. Does it cross at Roncesvalles?

carte_europp.jpg (29.78 KB) Viewed 559 times

[Peter Robins]

yes, meant to be the Camino Francés (tho not particularly accurately drawn) and then the standard Tours route to St Jean d'Angély via Bordeaux. It's not really along the coast. There's a better map of the Breton routes on the Breton Amis site
http://www.saint-jacques-compostelle-br ... s-bret.htm

More on the Bay crossing in (sort of) English at http://www.baie-mont-saint-michel.fr/en ... ssings.php

[sillydoll]

Interesting routes. Some of them seem to follow the paths of the
Tro - Breiz, 7 saints way.

http://www.tro-breiz.com/

TroBreiz.gif (13.04 KB) Viewed 542 times

[Theo]

Not at all, Sil

For more information about the ways of Saint-James in Brittany you can click on this link :

http://www.saint-jacques-compostelle-bretagne.fr/santjakez-accueil-en.htm

... to open an English page on the web site of the Breton Association of the friends of Saint-James of Compostela. There, you’ll find a map of the Breton routes.

The eastern ones are waymarked and used as St-James ways by walking from north to the Via Turonensis and as St-Michel ways, from south to The Mont-Saint-Michel.

Best regards.

Théo

[sillydoll]

Thank you - this is a wonderful website! I have added it to my list of St James Associations and websites.

[Theo]

Hi,

A new guide, about the St James way from Mont-Saint-Michel to Via Turonensis through Angers, has been published (in French) some days ago : "The way of Plantagenets / La voie des Plantagenets"

http://www.editions-sudouest.com/nos-editions/rando-editions/1255-le-chemin-du-mont-saint-michel-voie-des-plantagenets.html

http://www.saint-jacques-compostelle-bretagne.fr/santjakez-accueil-en.htm

http://www.saint-jacques-compostelle-bretagne.fr/santjakez-chemins-bret.htm

Théo

[Peter Robins]

how far does the new guide go, Theo? it's not clear from the publisher's blurb

[Theo]

Peter, I put the detail of the guide book stages on this web page :

http://www.saint-jacques-compostelle-bretagne.fr/santjakez-chemins-bret.htm

They're :

>>> St-James, Fougères, Vitré, La Guerche-de-Bretagne, Pouancé, Misengrain, Segré, Le Lion-d'Angers and Angers

... with 2 descriptions of the way -- "towards Saint-James" and "towards The Mont-Saint-Michel",

>>> Les Ponts-de-Cé, Saulgé-L'Hôpital, Doué-la-Fontaine, Le Puy-Notre-Dame, Thouars, St-Généroux, St-Loup-sur-Thouet, Parthenay, Champdeniers, Niort, Clairias, Villiers-en-Bois and Aulnay where the "Way of Plantagenets" meets the "Via Turonensis",

... with only the description towards Saint-James.

Théo

[Peter Robins]

c'est bien, merci. I will update my webpage accordingly

[sillydoll]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iF1 ... zi5BKDEfNg

"All sorts of people are using the pilgrim routes today. There are of course those who do it for reasons of faith, but we also see agnostics and atheists. The routes are a place where people can meet and talk," Juliane Hervieu of "The Routes to Mont-Saint-Michel" group told AFP.

"We are open to all walkers, whatever their beliefs," added the group's president Marie-Paul Labey .

For 75 year old Englishman John Cawley, enjoying his ninth walk from Winchester in Britain to the Mont in as many years, there is no such thing as a typical trail walker.