The real Tour de France

Being 60 is easy after walking 700 kilometres

There is nothing like a good long walk to put challenges or changes into perspective. It may not necessarily mean the bigger the challenge or change the longer the walk, but if that is the case, I must have considered turning 60 to be a big issue – I walked 700 kilometres through the south west of France to ‘confront’ turning 60 (Pamela wisely took some extra rest days but still walked 600 kilometres).

The idea for the walk came when we walked the Camino, the 800 kilometre Spanish pilgrim’s walk from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella as something special to do when Pamela turned 50. We met many people who had started with the French section and to me it sounded like a good thing to do when I turned 60.

So we did. Between 14 September and 18 October, we walked Le Chemin de St Jaques — the track of St James — from Le Puy to St Jean Pied de Port, from where we started the Camino in 2004.

Climb every mountain! St Michel of Aiguilhe rock, Le Puy.

Le Puy is long associated with pilgrimages. In 961, the Bishop of Le Puy did the pilgrimage to Santiago and afterwards, built a little chapel on a volcanic plug. There are 156 steps to get to the delightful chapel, which was extended in the 12th century to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims.

Our walk started with a pilgrim’s mass in the cathedral and despite the language barrier (neither of us speaks French), we found the service warm, comforting and we had a translation of the blessing which in part read “ …Remain with your servants on this holy pilgrimage and guide their way in accord with your will. Shelter them with your protection by day, give them the light of your grace by night and as their companion on the journey, bring them to their destination in safety. We ask this through Christ our Lord.”

After the Mass, we set off in the rain and ended up walking just 16 kilometres for the day, but that was enough. Already we found that many French people speak very good English and we had pleasant conversations along the way and at our accommodation in an old farm house that night. The next day proved to be a tough walk, we went down and up a steep valley that was about 500 metres from top to bottom and in all, walked 26 kilometres. The night of the third day, we stayed in an isolated farm house turned into a gite (hostel accommodation). We were cold, foot sore and tired when we arrived so anything was going to be good but this place was special. The stone walls of the main build were at least a metre thick and you could have placed a small car in the fire place it was so large. When we arrive some local men were chatting and drinking their aperitif, it was warm, cosy and very atmospheric.

We shared a simple dinner with a guy from Melbourne, Don, and two women from Quebec, and with some acceptable wine, we had a laughter filled evening.

From there on the walking was varied; over the Aubrac plateau, along the Lot River with the beautiful medieval towns of St Come D’Olt, Espalion and Estaing.

And when we thought we had seen some really special places, after 200 kilometres of walking we arrived at Conques and could hardly believe that a medieval village could still exist in such a preserved state.

Conques, a beautifully preserved medieval town to take your breath away.

The French people told us that Conques has a special place in their hearts and I could understand why. Most people were in awe of the place and many said “Even Hollywood could not create something as atmospheric as this.” I haven’t counted the number of photos I took, but it seemed every time I turned around I wanted to photograph the building or scene.

We stayed in the Abbey and were informed of the program at the large Romanesque church; Matins at 6.30, dinner at the Abbey at 7.00 pm (where we met Margaret Throsby from ABC FM), a pilgrims mass (which was packed) at 8.30 followed by a short piano recital, a description of the tympanum (the carving above the main doors depicting the last judgment) followed by an organ recital (it tickled my Lutheran sense of humour to hear JS Bach played in a significant Catholic church). The recital concluded just one second before the town o’clock bell rang. All of this made Conques a real highlight of the walk.

We never tired of the medieval towns and villages with their stone buildings and while they all had many elements in common, they all had some distinguishing feature about them, whether it be the layout of the town square, the size and shape of the church, a circular grain marketing building and the delightful red and white buildings in the Basque region near the Pyrenees.

Our daily routine was to have breakfast by about 7.30 and get on the road before 8.00 am (it was only getting light about 7.45am). We would walk for a couple of hours then have a short break then walk again till lunch time. Most days we got up to 18 to 20 kilometres by this time, usually about 12.30. The time we took for lunch depended on what distance we had left to walk. With a few kilometres to go, we would take a two hour break if we were in an interesting town, when we had 10 k to go, we would be quite focused on achieving our goal.

We never really adjusted to the French breakfast. They would have bread with butter and jam thickly spread and then dunk it in their coffee. Lunches were a lot better. We loved the fresh bread with cheese and either pate or ham or some other cured meat. It was always special.

The weather was generally good though it was cold on the Aubrac plateau and quite hot (high 20s) for much of the time down lower. On days with the temperature up around 28C, it was quite a challenge to do the distance and often we would count our blessings “we are on flat ground, the pathway is not rough, there is some shade and we have water” to help us through. Compared to the Spanish Camino, the accommodation was very good (we had a hot shower each day, for instance) and the food overall was very good and good value, even taking into account the exchange rate.

Journey's end: Stuart and Pamela at the gateway to St Jean Pied de Port.

So why does one do this? Despite the physical demand, these walks are hugely rewarding. It is a great way to see a country; for much of the last part of the journey, we walked through farmland and I remember thinking “My task for the day is just to walk through this wonderful countryside.” You get a chance to absorb how life is lived in the country; you get to know other people doing the walk and we have some very strong memories of some wonderful people; and probably most importantly, you get to live life in the present and forget about anything that may have concerned you in the past or worries you about the future. And while you have a destination in mind, you concentrate on the daily task and the destination takes care of itself.

I see a strong parallel with our Christian life. While we have the promise of heaven, it is not what we focus on, we focus on living each day as God’s children and in faith in Christ’s saving grace. A pilgrimage is a great metaphor for life.

Stuart Gray