Today was 11 miles walked and 1,000′ climbed. The running totals are 148 miles walked in this trip and 17,400′ climbed.

We are certainly hearing of the hot, hot weather back home.  Our hearts go out to those of you suffering through that.

Here, the weather is transitioning, from Summer to Fall. The rain storms have been mostly reserved for evening hours, but are extending more and more into daytime, hiking hours.  It still can be beautiful, as this photo from our place last night shows:

Today, the rain started just after we arrived at our current place!  Tomorrow,  we will likely start out in rain.

At one point, we needed to cross under the TGV  high-speed train tracks that run from Avignon to Lyon.

(You can see the train in the center of the photo, above).

It occurred to us that we had actually taken that train, on these tracks, 4 years ago! We had just finished language lessons near Nice and took this train as part of our trip to Le Puy en Velay… the continuation of this hike which we did in 2018! Who’d of thunk we would hike under those tracks, 4 years later?

Tomorrow we finish at the Rhone … after 6 days away from it.  It continues to be a fascinating journey!

Stay cool!

Today was 13 miles and 1,000′ of climbing. Totals are:  161 miles walked and 18,400′ climbed.

Last night, our stay was at a farm; sheep, horses, dogs, the whole bit. It was beautiful,

And we even watched as the owner was training a new sheepdog!

So today we walked back to and across the Rhone, which is now about 160 miles from its source at Lake Geneva!

And at this point, it truly is a mighty river

And now for strange trails!

The path needed to cross another high-speed train track.  The only convenient crossing was a well congested highway overcrossing … not a super- safe option.

So, the path led us through an orchard, right up to the highway embankment, that we needed to scramble up … with backpacks.

Once up to the highway, or job was to walk inside of the guardrail to the overpass.

Once we arrived at the overpass itself, we needed to climb over the guardrail towards the street-side and use the small sidewalk that exists, but only for the overpass itself.

Once across that overpass, you need to climb back inside the guardrail (because there’s no longer a sidewalk)  and continue down.

And thus, we cross the train tracks!

Actually, they used the self- same method to get us up to and across the bridge crossing the Rhone.

Always an adventure 😁!

Au Revoir

18 miles hiked today, with 3,200′ of climbing. Totals are:  179 miles hiked and 21, 600′ climbed.

Yesterday was “over the river” and today was certainly “through the woods”! (and orchards and streams, etc!)

We left Chavanay and began climbing immediately. In short order, the view of the Rhone, far below, was fantastic!

We also met the seventh Pilgrim we’ve seen on these 170+ miles of hiking.  He’s an Austrian, going from Geneva to Le Puy.

We also met multiple day hikers, couples and single hikers, all French, who were very friendly and allowed us to work our simple French with them!  It’s really a great way to get to know a people, with these easy, unrushed conversations.

On multiple occasions, we found ourselves (as Daniel Boone used to say)  “mighty misplaced”! Actually, not bad, but … As we walked along, there would be places where  fire roads, or farm roads, or goat paths, etc would intersect.  One of these paths was the one  you arrived on, one  would be the correct path to leave on, and two or three others that are just plain “there”, the wrong path. This intersecting situation happens with some frequency, and the correct choice is usually well marked. Today, not so much.

On several occasions we had to “pick a path” commit to it for about a 1/4 mile and search for trail marks. If no success, go back and try another approach. 2 or 3 times today, we had to use that approach!

So, about 1/2 way through today’s stage was saw this sign:

It’s a sign indicating “only 1,600 km to Santiago”. That’s 1,000 miles for us Yanks. It also says “100 km to Le Puy” (62 miles) . So what’s interesting is that we have walked all of that 1,000 miles (less the 62 mi) on prior hikes!  Plus the 170 miles back to Geneva!

After a long day of hiking, we arrived in Bourg-Argental, our rest for TWO nights.

We arrived a bit late, but our host was gracious. He occupied himself by working on his toy!

Laundry, showers and searching for food await.

Toute a l’heure!

Today is the second rest day of our journey.  Our chief planner (Diane) artfully scheduled this after a long stage (18 miles, 3200′ of climbing)  and our next shorter, but steep climbing stage (probably 11 miles and 3000′ of climbing). Well done, Diane!

Miam miam dodo? It is French “child-speak” (and also the title of a French guidebook). Miam miam is how the French spell “Yum-yum” and means “food”.

Dodo is a contraction of “dormir”, to sleep.  Thus,  dodo means sleeping!

So, how do we eat and sleep on this Camino?

On the more popular walks, places to eat and sleep are easily found. Because there are more hikers, there are more services. Because there are more services, there are more hikers.

This trail (Geneva to Le Puy) is stunningly beautiful, but sparce in hikers and services. We noted that we’ve seen only 7 other Pilgrims (hikers) in 2 weeks of  walking.  For comparison, on the Camino Frances we would see 50 – 250/day. On the Del Norte Camino, maybe 20 – 25 a day.  Here, it’s less than 1/day. That means services will NOT be geared to Pilgrims.

A couple of other notes.  This trail goes through a remote section of France, with lots of very small villages that have no boulangerie or store or restaurant. Nothing.  That has to be part of your planning.

Also, given that we are hikers (no car) who probably just did 6 or more hours of hiking that day, we are likely NOT going to walk 5 miles to an open restaurant in another town!

The other challenge,  which we’ve heard from multiple French people, is the social/ employment effects of the pandemic.  The first is getting your employees back.  The second is getting services back.  Benefits for unemployment and business support are still available here in France, so getting workers (and even some businesses)  back can be a challenge.

All that really matters to us is that services are currently harder to come by on this journey than pre-pandemic.

What is clear is that you can’t solve the “Dodo” problem without considering the “Miam miam” problem.

So let’s talk about the options available, then we’ll talk about how those played out on our hiking, so far.

As we are typing this on a phone (very tedious) , it won’t have all the nice details, links or pictures, but hopefully will help. If you look up the location and name of the places we list below on Google maps, you will see lots of photos of those places. Maybe at a later date, we’ll pull photos and insert them into this post.

Dodo: So,  what are the options?

Hotel: In bigger villages, that is possible. Ideally, there is a restaurant at that hotel (that’s open … not always the case! ) or a nearby restaurant (that’s open).

Apartment/ house to rent:  Very comfortable, but a food source is needed.

B&B: Nice room, with bedroom, bathroom and breakfast. Sometimes dinner is available.

Gite: Sort of a hostel, but can have private bedroom or shared bathroom. These are actually well distributed throughout our journey, but we prefer to have our own “space” (bathroom, bedroom).

Accueille Jacquaire: These are rooms in a private home made available to Pilgrims on a “donation” basis. Dinner and breakfast are included.  We’ve never stayed in one, but our French friends have and thoroughly enjoyed them!

Camping: Sort of.  There are campgrounds with permanent RV’s, Yurts or tents available to rent. Again, we’ve never done that, but our friends have.

While there are more options, that covers 99% of them.

Miam Miam: What about eating?

First, some background. In France, most (almost all) businesses close on Sunday and Monday. You really have to think through your food plans on Friday and Saturday or you will find yourself rather hungry for a couple days!

Restaurant: Always a good choice, if they are open and close enough to walk to.  Another consideration is price. Usually, the restaurants are fairly priced, but sometimes they can be pricey. Given that we are “eating out” three meals a day for a month or so … it better be an outstanding restaurant to justify a high price.

Bar: Bars here are like Diners or cafe shops back home.

Grocery Stores: Most of our breakfasts and lunches come from this route. Some dinners come from this source.

Demi-Pension: Many of the above types of Dodo’s can provide a Demi-pension. That means dinner plus breakfast. On this route, there were far fewer that provided the demi-pension than we’ve seen in the past.

Freeze-dried backpacker food! Yes, you read that right! We carried two evening’s worth of backpacking food … and have used them both!  There are some places where it is very difficult to find a good supply.

With that as background, let’s walk through our stays, so far:

Geneva: We stayed in a hotel,  Les Tournelles. Great location on the Rhone, close to downtown and the start of the Camino. Food came from restaurants and a nearby grocery store with a fantastic delicatessen.  We stocked up there on snacks (energy bars, etc).

Mt Sion:  We stayed in a hotel, Hotel The Originals,  next to “Santa’s village”. Seriously!  They had a restaurant which provided dinner and breakfast, but not lunch. As there was no store or restaurant on the way, we used our Geneva supplies for lunch the next day.

Chaumont: A rented home (450 sq ft). “La Famile Revillon”. Remote location. We purchased an abbreviated dinner (lots of which had just been picked from the garden.  Diane was in heaven as there were lots of tomatoes.) from the proprietors, but were on our own for breakfast.

Seyssel: Nice hotel (Logis Hotel du Rhone), with local restaurants and stores.  We had to take a trail variant to reach this place and follow the Rhone to the main trail 3 km further down the river.

Chanaz: Restaurant/ B&B (Le Doux Nid). Dinner and breakfast at restaurant, a local store for lunch supplies.

Yenne: Another hotel (Hotel de Fer a Cheval).  The proprietor wasn’t there when we arrived, they were out playing since WE would be the only guests that night. Dinner and breakfast were at the hotel, lunch from a store.

St Genix. B&B (Le Maison Fleure de Frangipanier) . Christophe, the proprietor,  was an eccentric, but kind and extremely talented host.  He has worked as a sommelier at a 3 star Michelin restaurant and works winters as restaurant director at a Swiss Alps ski resort.  Very good food!

St Ondras: B&B … very nice (Le Pas de l’Ane).  No dinner anywhere nearby. We used the first of our backpack meals here!

La Grande Lampe ( Le Mas Dauphinois): B&B without the second “B”. Really nice hosts.  Room was a converted garage with silk sheets! No restaurants open, anywhere. Host took us to a “pizza vending machine” for our dinner. 😒

St. Andres: A hotel (Hotel de l’Europe) straight out of “the Shining”. It was the only game in town, seriously.  The other hotel actually closed on Sunday and Monday.! The proprietors were very nice though.

Primerette: Gite (private room, shared bathroom) (Chambres au Grand Calme). As there were no other guests, the bathroom was all ours. Dinner and breakfast included.

St Romain: Cottage rental on farm (Une Pause Sur la Coline). Nice location,  on a working farm,  but no services,  and a lot of farm flies!  We used our second freeze-dried meals here.

Chavanay: Another Gite .(Le Pigeonnier) Dinner and breakfast provided.

Bourg-Argental: Two- bedroom apartment (Le Square) in the downtown of a beautiful village with lots of resources and a super host! We hit the jackpot with this stopover!

Booking: About half of these were booked on Booking.com, and the rest using guidebooks and the internet (and Google Translate!)  Diane does research, looking at ratings and reviews.  Most times, we are content, but on occasion we get a unique surprise or two.  And that’s part of the adventure!

Americans in France: It’s probably worth noting that on this trail, in this part of France, there aren’t many Americans. While we met one American woman hiker early on,  we’ve been told by our hosts and others that they don’t often see Americans. Their reception of us, however, has been phenomenal! Americans are well liked in this area (we’ve even heard the “thank you for helping France out in WWII” story).  We have been introduced to neighbors, friends and even had others call friends/ family to say “they’ve met Americans”. It’s actually pretty heartwarming!

All for now,  Bill and Diane.

Today was 12 miles of hiking and 2,700′ of climbing. Totals for the journey are:  191 mi hiked and 24,300′ climbed.

We’re starting to get up in elevation! Two days ago, we were at the Rhone, 500′ above sea level. Today, we hit 4,000′ of elevation!

And the views? Top of the world!

The journey, while definitely uphill, was also spectacular!

Our stay in Bourg-Argental was perfect, a medium sized village with enough supplies for us to restock, while still remaining charming.

And, of course, like all the villages we’ve visited in France, they had their war memorial.

Two things:  For us in the United States, the World Wars were tragic and many of our citizens died. But the war was never in our backyards or fields or towns. Here in France (like the Ukraine today), the war was in your face, in your 24 hour-a-day life.

The other thing to notice is that All of the names on the 3 vertical plaques are deceased from World War I. The small horizontal plaque in the foreground lists all the deceased from World War II. I asked about that in s previous trip and was told that, in WWI, there was a battleline between Germany and France for years and so many French (and German) soldiers died defending that line.

In WWII, Germany was much more ‘efficient’ and rolled through France before any defense could be mustered. From that point on, the French losses were only those in the “underground” resistance.

Enough for now … time for chores.

Bonjour! Today was another 12 miles and 1,500′ of climbing. Our totals are now 203 miles walked on this Camino and 25,800′ climbed!

Beautiful: Yes, we keep saying that!  Last night, our B&B was at nearly 4,000′. The blue sky was perhaps bluer than we’ve ever seen. The greens, vibrant green.  Stunning!

Tough: The distance wasn’t bad (12 miles), nor the climb (1,500′). The challenge today was the descent (2,400′), and most significantly, the grade and the surface!  This may have been our toughest day, to date!

Today’s hike was a series of steep ups and steep downs, as:

The challenge was the pitch (grade), which was consistently in the 15-20% range, but mostly the surface!

The trails are primarily fire/tractor  dirt paths. Very steep! With the rain (it rains a lot here), these paths get severely rutted. To keep these paths workable, they will dump a lot of broken rock onto the path.  That works for the tractor.

Not so much for the hiker!

Particularly going downhill, these broken rocks slip out from your feet. You slip. You slide! On a 20% grade with a backpack on, it can be challenging!

Nearly all of our descents today were on these types of surfaces.

Bathrooms: Okay, everybody has to go sometimes!  With few villages, and few resources open in villages, most often “going to the bathroom” is a rustic experience!

Imagine our surprise when we found a village with a “WC” … that was open!

Imagine our surprise when we opened the door and found this!

For those wondering,  “what”, it’s a Middle East style toilet! For those wondering “how”, well, you place your feet on the pads, left and right,  facing towards the camera, then  you drop your drawers. Leaning slightly backwards, you use your best golfing skills to get a “hole in one”!  Enough said!

The things you can learn on this blog!

And a Post Script; We saw 5 new Pilgrims today! One guy left his home in the Czech Republic and is on his way to Muxia … with his dog! The others?  We just saw them but didn’t talk to them.

Ça suffit!

Today is our sixteenth day of walking. We covered 13 miles and climbed 1,800′. The trip totals are:  216 miles and 27,600′ .

Today was mostly an up and down day, though not nearly as severe as yesterday! The grades were not as steep and the surfaces, generally very good.  And the views? Wonderful!

Weather: We started this journey in late August, with daytime highs around 90⁰ F.  The morning lows were around 70⁰. The last few days, the morning lows are in the high 40⁰’s, and we’re starting the mornings with sweaters or wind breakers. Tomorrow, it will likely rain most of the day, with a high in the mid-60’s. Fall is falling!

Signs:  At Montfauçon, our departure town, there was a sign showing the whole of the Geneva to Le Puy route.  I added a “start” point (green line), an “end” point (red line) and a BLUE “you are here arrow. Kind of cool to see the progress!

A little further along, another sign told us how far to Santiago  (in case we decided to keep going! ).

Okay, and another sign helped us figure where to go!  First, some background:  We were following a small dirt trail that bordered woods on one side and a field on another. We approached the back of a farm house. Once at that farm house, we walked (basically) on that home’s driveway, around to the front yard. As we cleared the front yard, we found ourselves in the middle of a small village, at an intersection, with 5+ possible options!  Which is the right one?

We kept looking for the small “scallop shell” sign that would indicate the correct path. Diane finally spotted it!  It was right below the HUGE sign saying “Chemin de Pelerins”! (The Pilgrim’s Path)! Duh!

Mushrooms:  Hunting mushrooms is a very popular pastime in these areas. On several occasions, we’ve seen couples out searching. Our proprietress from Les Herbs Sauvage actually made a dish of wild mushrooms for us that night.

Today, we saw possibly the biggest one we’ve ever seen! Bill’s foot is in the photo to show a size perspective!

As the French would say, TTFN! (Ta Ta For Now!)

12 miles walked, 1500′ climbed. Totals are 228 miles and 29,100′ climbed for this journey.

We stayed last evening in a Gite, kind of a mix of hostel and B&B. This is the 3rd Gite we’ve stayed in, and typically we’re the only ones there. Not this time!

As we came down for dinner, there were 7 other guests! The real surprise was to see our French friends,  Theirry and Eliane at the table! We thought they were a day ahead of us because we took a “day off” back in Bourg-Argental.

The conversation at the table was lively and totally French (no surprises). It was rapid fire! We were able to follow what the topic was, and on occasion, what someone’s opinion was, but rarely were we able to add our own comments. The conversation was just too fast. It was, however, excellent listening practice! We can use a lot more of that!

We also learned why we’ve seen so many additional hikers. It seems there’s a shorter loop hike that leaves out of Le Puy and returns to Le Puy. All of the new hikers that we’ve seen are from this shorter hike.

We left this morning to rain

The hike took us up over the mountains (4,200′) and into a whole new region.

The Le Puy area is loaded with the remnants of old volcanoes, which just added to the already majestic view.

And the highlight? We spent the day walking with Theirry and Eliane, working on our French and enjoying the company!

Tomorrow is our last day of walking. This journey has gone fast!

Today was 14 miles walked,  1,000′ climbed.  We arrived!

The journey had far more traffic than we’re used to …

But still had the beauty we’ve come to expect

And, we crossed the Loire River!

We’ve now traveled from the Rhone-Alps, to the Massif Pilat and on to the Loire valley! For us, amazing!

The total for this journey was 242 miles and 30,100′ of climbing.  We have now walked, in three Caminos,  from Geneva to Muxia/Finnesterre  … a distance of 1,320 miles. Among our 5 European walks, we’ve now walked at bit over 2,100 miles … approaching a length similar to the whole of the Pacific Crest Trail ( from Mexico to Canada).

So, how did this hike compare?

Beauty- wise:  This was, hands down,  the most “every day jaw dropping” beautiful! The Del Norte? The ocean views were the best. The other walks? Wonderful! But this one takes it.

Remote-wise: For someone without local language skills, this would be a tough one!  Such limited resources and consistently closed businesses; you really needed to be able to get information from locals who probably don’t speak English.  Probably the sister walk to this one (Le Puy to St Jean Pied de Port) would be the next most difficult … but there were more resources consistent available to the hiker.

This was also remote for the lack of fellow Pilgrims. We’re going to keep our count at 7 “through-hikers”. As we approached Le Puy, the numbers grew, but we’ve found that there are a lot of 3 – 10 day hikes in and around Le Puy that draw the numbers.

Toughness of stages: Probably this journey is the toughest, yet, but a close tie with the Del Norte. The Del Norte had longer average stages (15 mi/day) vs this one (13.4 mi/day), lasted much longer (41 days vs 18),  with roughly (1,600’/day of climbing vs 1,700′ avg for this one). This Geneva to Le Puy journey, however, had some consistently difficult surfaces to walk on, particularly with the steep grades. We’re probably just getting older and don’t remember the Del Norte pain, but this one seemed tougher.

So what’s next?  We’re still working on what we will do with the rest of this trip (more to come later).  We are sure that,  God willing and our health allows,  we will walk, in the next few years, through Switzerland, through the Alps and in to Italy to connect up with the 2019 walk we did from Lucca to Rome.

More later. Thank you for reading and being a part of our adventure.

We’re still walking about 10 miles a day,  but as tourists! It’s hard to sit!

Changes: We arrived in Le Puy, France on Thursday and quickly celebrated, but unpacked nothing! We had shipped our one suitcase to Carcassone, France, and had a reservation at that B&B for Friday night … one night only.

Why were we moving so quickly? Our original plan was to finish our hike and then do a canal boat on the Canal du Midi, which typically requires starting on Saturdays.

It is an extraordinarily fun and relaxing thing to do … except after 3 weeks of hiking, our backs needed a break. Even though relaxing,  the canal boat line handling, the smaller bunks, etc,  seemed like more than our backs were willing to deliver, so we canceled that plan.

But, what to do with that 7 or 8 new- found days?  Too many choices …

We thought about spending a couple more nights in Carcassone, a beautiful town with a walled city,

And excellent dining (duck breast)!

Unfortunately, our host B&B was sold out! We had to move the next morning!

Staying at another place in Carcassone didn’t look promising, so we finally decided to head on to the third thing on our original list of “to do’s” on this trip:  Go to Girona,  Spain!

Girona is a Spanish community north of Barcelona and has become the European home for most non-European professional cyclists. As cycling junkies, we had to go there!  (The food and the history are also excellent! )

Staying in Girona bought us a couple of days to pull together our plans for our remaining 2 weeks. And it was beautiful!

What we knew was that we had plane tickets home, departing from Malaga, Spain (South of Spain, almost to Gibraltar) on the 3rd of October. What to do until then?

We have decided to spend about a week in Valencia, Spain, on the coast very close to town, then spend the final week in Malaga, again on the coast.

We will enjoy visiting the towns, relaxing and eating too much.

If you know us well, you know that we NEVER leave planning to the last minute. We usually have things nailed down a year in advance. Not this time.

The upside was that last-minute bookings, late September, were really reduced in price! The downside … too many choices/decisions to make in too little time!

We feel good about the plans we have but will very likely go back to our old way … plans on hand in advance.

We hope all are doing well. We miss family and friends.