France – Page 2 – Following your feet

Day 113: Mouries to Pelissanne

It rained heavily yesterday evening and I was prepared for some flooded paths as I left after breakfast. It turned out not to be too bad, although there was a puddle here and there. Today was one of the longest stages on my trip along Via Aurelia, 36km with a modest elevation gain of 440m.…

Pictures from Uzes and Arles

After a couple of days in Nimes, we drove to Uzes and Arles. Uze is a beautiful small town with an historic centre, a large square, which I am sure is packed during summer, a cathedral and a palace. The town attracts many visitors due to its proximity to Pont du Gard, the most famous…

Pictures from Nîmes

After walking between St. Gilles and Arles, we spent a couple of days in Nîmes, where we had briefly visited in the early 90’s. Nîmes is an old Roman town, often called the most roman town outside Italy and even “France’s Rome”. It is famous for many historical buildings, most notably the Arena and the…

Day 88: Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle to Hondarribia

My last day in France, as I head towards the Atlantic and the French-Spanish border. A 31km day, with 3 initial climbs with a total elevation of 650m, and thereafter, it was pretty much flat all the way. Leaving after breakfast, the day started with a pleasant walk along the Nivelle river before starting the…

Day 87: Louhossoa to Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle

A shorter and relatively flat day, as the terrain become flatter as I near the coast. Only 22km and despite some fairly strenuous climbs, a total elevation of 650m. The climbs were steep but fairly short. It’s still fairly muddy, with the puddles the full width of the path in several places. The day started…

Day 86: Saint-Palais to Louhossoa

A day of many ups and downs, six climbs and descents, with a long descent into the pretty Basque village of Louhossoa with is characteristic red and white houses. All in all 36km and almost 1.000m in elevation. At Saint-Palais other walkers walk to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and the Camino Frances, whilst I will follow a so…

Day 85: Navarrenx to Saint-Palais

Today I’m tired, both because of walking, but equally because I have spoken French all day. Another day primarily along roads, 28km and 600m elevation. My day of speaking French started at breakfast, with the owner of the hostel. We talked about many things, but what he stressed as being most important was that I…

Day 84: Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Navarrenx

Another rainy day and another day downhill towards the Atlantic coast. A 22km walk, 300m elevation and a 120m fall in elevation from Oloron to Navarrenx. It was raining and 13 degrees when I went for breakfast and never reached over 20 degrees the whole day. Not even comparable to back home in Copenhagen where…

Day 83: Arudy to Oloron-Sainte-Marie

It’s downhill from the Pyrenees foothills towards the Atlantic coast. Whilst today had an overall elevation of over 500m, I walked downhill pretty much all day, from 420m in Audry to 220m in Orolon. Over the past few days, the scenery has barely changed – lots of forest, farmland, corn fields and a few villages…

Day 82: Lestelle-Betharram to Arudy

It rained all night. It rained all morning. It rained most of the afternoon. 30mm in 24 hours and on a day where I walked 29km and an elevation of 850m. Luckily I didn’t have to check-out before 12 o’clock, but I hoped that the rain at least eased up before that, given the length…

Day 81: Lourdes to Lestelle-Betharram

After yesterdays marathon 12 hour effort, today was a short day, only 17km and 380m in elevation. I slept late, and the lady at breakfast took a pity on me, and gave me two of everything at the French breakfast (2 coffee, 2 croissant and 2 pieces of baguette). I spent the morning walking around…

Day 80: Bagneres-du-Bigore to Lourdes

Today I experienced the great and worst of walking. Spectacular (an understatement) views, good walkable paths and clear signage. But also paths so overgrown and often muddy that one could discuss whether they can be considered paths at all, and worse, paths in the middle of nowhere that were closed – without warning and without…

Day 79: La-Barthe-du-Neste to Bagneres-du-Bigore

It was a wet start to a long stage, 34km (of which 1km was following wrong paths) with almost 1000m of elevation and a highest point today at 850m. It had rained all night, and rained, albeit lightly, for a couple of hours after leaving the B&B. As La-Barthe-du-Neste isn’t on the official route, I…

Day 78: Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges to La-Barthe-de-Neste

Van Morison sang “There will be days like this” and Paul Simon “Slip sliding away”. They pretty much sum up my day. Although a short day, 24km with 650m elevation, it was a day of challenges. It rained through the night with lightening every 5-10 seconds. Even the French had never seen anything quite like…

Day 77: Saint-Gaudens to Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

I am my own worst enemy. I was supposed to walk 22km, but ended up doing almost 30km, as I chose a different route that added 5km, and then walked a 3km diversion for lunch (which is the positive way of saying that I missed a turn and didn’t realise before I was close to…

Day 76: Boussens to Saint-Gaudens

A longer walk than expected after I made a rookie error, but otherwise a pleasant day walking mostly along paths; 29km and 730m elevation. As I was staying on Boussens, I’m not on the official path that goes north of the town. Instead of tracking back to the path I took the main road out…

Day 74: Muret to Carbonne

Today it was hot. 11C when I left at 8.00, 33C when I arrived at the hotel at 16.30 after 34km and over 1.000m elevation – before even reaching the Pyrenees. I left Muret without seeing a statue for Clement Ader, despite seeing several other statues of (very) historic people (men). Walking back towards the…

Day 39: Laghet to Menton

Nostalgic in Menton, great views over the rich and famous in Monaco and Cap-Martin and rain. Today we said goodbye to Maggie and Göran and their fantastic hospitality over the past six days. Lene drove me to Laghet and the Sanctuaire Notre Dame de Laghet. Today’s destination was Menton, on the border between France and…

Day 37: Roquefort to Gattiers, La Manda

We were staying with our Swedish friends, Maggie and Göran, from our time in France – our first return to the Cote d’Azur since 2014. After a good breakfast, Maggie, Göran, Lene and I drove to the La Manda bridge in Gattiers, walking this stage in reverse. It was a glorious day for walking. We…