The fifth way through France – La Voie du Piémont Pyrénéen

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The fifth way through France – La Voie du Piémont Pyrénéen

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Setting out from Montpellier

In 2015, I walked from Arles to Col du Somport along the Via Tolosana. I broke the golden rule of walking, twice. I took side trips by train to Carcassonne and Lourdes. When I was in Lourdes, I realised it wasn’t just a pilgrimage site for the sanctuary and Saint Bernadette, but it also sat on a Chemin de Compostelle, known by its Grand Randonee number, GR78. I made a mental note.

Later in that walk, just before Oloron-Sainte-Marie I stopped for morning tea at a ‘petite pause pour pelerins’ in someone’s yard under a gorgeous oak tree. The woman returned home with fresh bread and offered me coffee and biscuits. When I explained how much I enjoyed Lacammonde and the ancient church and pilgrim hospital there, she raved about the ancient pilgrim stop of L’hopital Saint Blaise, once again on the GR78. My interest was really piqued now.

In 2018 when I walked the Le Puy route, just before St-Jean-Le-Vieux, there was a signpost to the left. GR78. “I wonder what that way would be like,” I mused. By this stage, I’d researched and decided I would definitely walk this route known as the Voie des Piemonts Pyrenees one day.

The plan finally came to fruition in May/June 2022, and I began in Montpellier. I’m the opposite of the ‘prepared pilgrim’: I tend to decide to leave, and then three weeks later I’m walking. So I didn’t know how I’d go, but luckily a great bookshop there stocked every book imaginable on walking in France, and I found the Lepere/Terrien Guidebook. Originally, I was thinking I’d walk to Beziers then to Narbonne Plage (beach), where it’s also possible to commence. This route goes past the abbey of Frontfroide, but by the time I’d started walking, a detour to the beach didn’t make much sense.

Roman waymarker

Instead, I left the bustling city of Montpellier with its fascinating old town streets, for a couple of weeks of vineyards, olive groves and some stretches of road built by the ancient Romans. It was dry and exposed and there was quite a lot of road walking. From Béziers to Carcassonne, stretches along the Canal du Midi brought a different character, where I waved at people on their canal boats and the path was flat and monotonous in parts. The Pyrenees are visible from Beziers: however, after Carcassonne, the way gets progressively hillier, and I caught glimpses more often. I also began walking through patches of forests, beech and oak, and the way became more wooded, and the farm tracks grassy.

One feature I came to expect was 12thC churches. I make it a habit of entering churches. Along the Le Puy route, many have visitors’ books, and part of the fun is following characters you are walking a few days behind. This time there weren’t so many of those, but the attraction was more that chapels of some sort had occupied these sites for a thousand years. It fascinates me to think of that amount of time, and the religious history it entails. The area around Carcassonne is known as a Cathar area, so in just about every town there is a ‘rue des Cathars’, then later on as you enter the Ariege region, there are templar sites such as Audressein. And, of course, when the sites are historically significant, you find the UNESCO world heritage badge. And there is no shortage of these on this route.

The Ariege region was my favourite walking and the hills started to get challenging. The stunning old town of Mirepoix, had me in awe as to how the huge wooden-beamed medieval houses perch above their arcades. Le Mas d’Azil, with its gaping cave mouths big enough for the road to go through, was the first cave on the route, except I had already broken the golden rule to go off route for one day to Foix and the prehistoric Grotte de Niaux cave just days before. After Saint Lizier the route took me up a valley for two days until I reached Portet d’Aspet, which at 900m felt like a mountain cul-de-sac. Deep in forests now, it was over the saddle into the Haute-Garonne region where more significant hill climbs followed and the UNESCO sites of L’eglise Saint-Just de Valcabrere and Saint-Bertrand de Comminges came into view.

Floating Office de Tourisme, Canal du Midi at Villeneuve-les-Béziers

Limestone moss rocks with damp forests seemed to signal more cave sites beneath the surface with Grotte de la Bastide (more for kids) and Esparros (absolutely stunning formations if you do the tour like I did) on either side of a steep hill. The tracks got slippery and dangerous. The Baronnies valley was the last relief before the terrain each day began to climb in steep sections. I made a mistake with my calculations between Esparros and Bagneres-de-Bigorre and ended up hitching or ‘stop-ping’ as the French call it, for the last 5 kilometres as I was exhausted by the 30-kilometre day. I was getting really tired of the hills.

Bagneres-de-Bigorre, in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, had a real spa-town feel (probably because it was), but it is not particularly pretty and I dodged the longer and steeper mountain way to Lourdes and instead took a shorter road route, that turned out to be just as steep. Despite the throngs of Bernadette pilgrims, I always find there is a holy calm in Lourdes, perhaps the millions of souls in prayerful contemplation does something to a place? Walking next to the Ousse river was stunning – a teal/aquamarine water that looked magical.

During the next stretch to Oloron-Sainte-Marie, accommodation was a challenge, and I ended up walking further each day than I’d wanted to, and diverted off the route by five kilometres to a small town, Arudy to find a place to stay. In the Presbytery, the earnest priest welcomed me by washing my feet, and it was a very special spiritual moment. Approaching Oloron, I was also nearing the Pays Basque area with the tell-tale pelota court in one of the small towns. It was great to stay at the Relais du Bastet gite in Oloron-Sainte-Marie for the second time – it is such a well-run establishment. A few short days, including the much-awaited L’Hopital-Saint-Blaise, and I was finished in St Jean Pied-de-Port after two more big climbs. But, what did I expect? It is the Pyrénées!

Cathedral de Saint-Nazaire de Béziers and la Vierge du jardin St Jacques

The Voie du Piémont Pyrénéen is resplendent with numerous UNESCO world heritage sites, 4 cave sites, Cathare, Huguenot, Templar and Roman history. And so many 12thC chapels, I lost count! It took me 34 days (with one rest day in Béziers and the one-day cheeky detour to Foix and Grotte de Niaux). I can’t help myself when there’s caves involved.

But this chemin is also magnificent for its natural beauty, if a little challenging vertically for the last third. At times the path feels a bit hairy with goat tracks on the sides of steep drops through the forest, so I walked very gingerly a couple of times, not daring to stop for even a photo.

It was especially beautiful in May, with the heady smells of honeysuckle, jasmine, and pretty wild orchids and other flowers in full bloom. The beech and oak forests are majestic and will always be my favourite thing about it (apart from the magnificent views of the Pyrénées which become huge and breathtaking when you’re walking through the Ariège). It wasn’t too wet with only a couple of days walking in drizzly weather.

I supplemented the Lepère guidebook with information from online because the first section to Carcassonne is not clearly signposted. There are many accommodation options listed in the Lepère, so I stayed in everything from a cheap hotel in Lourdes (€60/night), to communal gîtes where I was the only person there (for €12 a night), monasteries, chambres d’hotes, and donativo accommodation with Christian families.

The Confraternity of St James has a great web page summary of the route with the various French guidebooks listed. The Office de Tourisme along the way provide a wealth of knowledge and are très helpful. The Saint-Lizier staff have produced a printed accommodation list for the route from there on, and the monastery in Betharram had also collected contacts for the coming days rest places. It was my feeling that things are still returning to balance after the past three years of upheaval and the tourist establishments are keen to make it as easy as possible to encourage walkers back. I am always so impressed by the tiniest villages in France having amazing tourist offices.

And yes, for those who know me, I sketched. I posted a more detailed daily story with my sketches on Instagram @a_path_with_art if you would like to read about my trip in more detail. And you can buy your copy of my artworks from this route in a 2023 calendar available from my website.

And the best thing, in my opinion, is the solitude. J’adore!

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