Peter Robins, his website

Off at short notice to walk sections of the Tours route. 3 days south from the centre of Bordeaux as far as Labouheyre, a break of a couple of days, finishing off with a 2-day section south from Saintes to Mirambeau. The Saintes-Mirambeau section has long been waymarked by the departement (Charente Maritime), but now also forms part of the GR655. A topoguide for the GR655 from Tours to Mirambeau was published after my return, so was not available, but the route was marked on IGN maps.

Decided on trip at short notice looking at sections of the Tours route. Thought about flying to Paris, but the timings were poor, so to Bordeaux instead, flying bmibaby from Manchester.

Cloud pretty well whole flight, so no views. Flight 40 minutes late and slow getting through customs, but still just in time for 16.00 bus into city centre. To tourist office for list of hotels (which also includes a reasonable map of the city centre), and then headed south for Gradignan and Cayac.

The city council had recently waymarked a Compostelan route along the rue St James (see Wednesday), but I was unaware of this and just headed south along the main rue Ste Catherine, now one of the main shopping thoroughfares, though my progress was impeded somewhat by a small ‘manifestation’ by a group of Kurds. Once past the pedestrianised area, the obvious route is straight along the main road, but I detoured along parallel side-streets, roughly following the route of bus line G. This was quieter but still not very interesting or attractive: town centres can be attractive walking, but suburbs rarely are. There are no waymarks here.

I passed a restaurant called the Relais de Compostelle, and at Gradignan there is also a Clos St Jacques old folks home. It was getting dark when I got to Cayac (where there is supposed to be a pilgrim refuge) and there was no sign of life, so I returned to the centre of Gradignan and took a room in a hotel there.

Dinner in a Spanish restaurant up the road: tapas and lamb - which seemed vaguely appropriate.

12km

Dawn chorus through open window, and another grey cloudy day but clouds high. Had thought I was the only person in the hotel, but there was also a minibus-load of Belgians.

Off again to Cayac, where examined what remains of the medieval priory plus the modern pilgrim sculpture, but again there was no sign of life at what was supposed to be the accueil pèlerin - I have to admit I did not really expect anything else at 8.30 on Easter Sunday morning. [Update 2005: the refuge has now reverted to the municipality, so may now be available again.]

I was however very pleased to discover waymarks here: our old friends, yellow arrows. So I followed them. They led firstly along a cycle-path by the side of the main road, then off at Beausoleil (where there is another hotel) into the classic Landes country: pine-trees, sand, bracken, more pine-trees, more sand, more pine-trees . . .

The waymarking deteriorated after a bit but it’s easy enough to find an off-road route along the many tracks which run largely straight through the endless pine forests. Some people dislike the Landes scenery, the monotony of walking on wide straight tracks for mile after mile, but I quite like it as long as I’m not walking on tarmac.

After the hamlet of Peyon I took a short break sitting on a log and heard barking dogs and hunting horns in the distance, though didn’t actually see any huntsmen. Warblers were tuning up, as were cuckoos, and I even saw a swallow.

On a tarmac road stretch further on, where the pine trees gave way to enormous fields of tulips, the sun came out and it even became warm. This did not last though, as it later started to drizzle and there was even a bit of hail, and I decided to stop for the night at the nice little hotel in Le Barp, even though it was still only 14.30. One of the problems with the Landes (apart from the monotonous scenery) is that there are few settlements, most of those are small, and so there is little accommodation. There are a few hotels, and some chambres d’hôte dotted about, but you have to tailor your stops to what is available, which may not be optimal from the distance point of view.

After taking a shower, I went out to look at the sights of Le Barp - which didn’t take very long, as it’s basically just a linear settlement along the main road - now largely bypassed by the autoroute further west. Quite a good selection of shops, but all closed of course on Easter Sunday. I did find a small bar open, with the usual gaggle of bored teenagers making desultory conversation and staring vacantly into their coca-cola. I stared vacantly into my beer, but soon left, deciding my hotel room was more interesting.

The hotel’s restaurant was closed in the evening, but fortunately there was a pizzeria nearby with a very friendly proprietress. So, 2 meals in France: 1 Spanish, 1 pizza - hmmm.

29km

Weather forecast for cloud, but woke to clear skies which remained for most of the day.

Had breakfast in the hotel - good but expensive, and quite a few other guests around. Not until 9 on this jour de fête. Then over the road to the newsagent to buy maps for the trip, which I had not been able to find in Gradignan. Curious: the 1:25000 and 1:100000 IGN maps used to be easy to distinguish by colour; now they are both blue, which seems an odd piece of marketing by the IGN, though no doubt they have their reasons.

The marked route starts along a lane but soon converts to nice sandy tracks through, yes, pine forest more of less the whole way to Belin. I met 3 cyclists out for a spin, though they seemed to be having difficulty spinning on the sandy surface. Jacket on to start, but soon off as the sun got going. Just before Belin, a lady in one of the attractive villas shouted ‘Vous faîtes le sentier de St-Jacques? N’êtes pas trop fatigué?’ so the route appears to be well-known to the locals.

Belin is, of course, mentioned in LSJ as a must-visit where the bodies of many of Charlemagne’s companions were buried. Not a very convincing story and there is nothing to see nowadays anyway.

By now it was time for a little something and, though there are a couple of chambres d’hôte in Belin, no bar was open. So I opted to leave the waymarked route, which goes to the west of the village, and head for the other half of this dual village, Belier, along the main road. This meant I also did not make the detour to the old church of Lugo. Rather a tedious 2km with no bars until I got to Belier, where there was a substantial brasserie, where I had a ham sandwich - marred by a throat-grabbing smoky atmosphere.

I then followed the lanes to the attractive C11 church of Mons, which was, as I half expected, closed, as was the ‘exposition’ next door. Swallows nesting in the porch fled in panic at my approach - maybe not such a good place to nest. A quiet, peaceful place on this Easter weekend.

Just south of Mons is the border between the departments of Gironde and Landes, and at Mons the yellow arrows of the Gironde give way to the stylised scallop-shell markings of the Landes Amis. Unfortunately the route to the next settlement, Le Muret, is very tedious, first along the N10 (wide with little traffic, but still tarmac), then along a lane by the side of the motorway.

Le Muret has a nice Landes chapel of St Roch on entry. A circular churchyard, a holy well at the back, set in an oak grove: in Wales, I would say this was an ancient site, but in the Landes? None of the oaks is particularly old. Butterflies fluttering around here: brimstones and even an orange-tip.

Opposite the church is a manoir with chambres d’hôte, and there are a couple of hotels, in one of which I stopped. Good dinner in the hotel, French for a change.

26km

Clouds back today, even if high again.

The historical route would have gone along the main road via Liposthey, but the marked route takes a much longer but more attractive route to the east via Moustey and Pissos. This starts by heading E under the motorway via a waterlogged underpass and then more sandy tracks and lanes with wide verges via Saugnacq to Moustey. Again, the knowledge of the route among the locals illustrated by a sign for a chambre d’hôte with not only a waymark but also a scallop shell.

Moustey has the oddity of 2 churches next to each other, one of which now contains an ‘exposition’, closed at this time of year, of course. There is also a plinth outside inscribed ‘1000km to Santiago’ - though of course that depends rather on which route you take. Again, warming up and jacket off.

More verges to the next village, Pissos, though I cut a corner off the official route. Route into P. through a leisure park sort of thing with lots of chalets. Rest in the square in front of the not very interesting church.

Back to typical Landes sandy track through the forest to Escoursolles, a picturesque scattered hamlet of maisons landaises. 10km straight stretch into Labouheyre, which I envisaged as another sandy track, but really disappointed to find the IGN map out-of-date, as much of this is now a road: very tedious, the tedium only relieved by a passing cyclist waving and calling ’salut St Jacques’.

Train out of L. for interlude in La Rochelle. See May 2005 trip for continuation of this route.

36km

Spent time in Bordeaux en route to La Rochelle, where discovered that the city council have marked a route through the city centre by adding the scallop motif to the street signs, and setting bronze plaques into the pavement. Followed a lengthy section of this, not only along the obvious rue St James (which name apparently comes not from English but from a Gascon form of Latin ‘Jacomus’) through the Grosse Horloge and past the site of the former Hôpital St Jacques, but also from the Porte Cailhau, and past the church of St-Pierre with a statue of St James in the portal, St-Michel, and the cathedral, which not only has a statue of St James in the portal, but also a chapel with a C14 wall-painting of St J.

Update: the city now publishes a free booklet on this route, and is talking of opening a pilgrim refuge as well.

After nostalgia trip to La Rochelle (where I lived for a while many years ago), arrived in Saintes at 10.30 to sample a section of the route in Charente Maritime. The department produces a very good free map to the route in their area (which I got from the tourist office) and have marked it with concrete plinths with scallop shells, similar to those in Galicia. Although this section is now part of an official GR - GR655 - there were no red/white stripe waymarks that I saw. The Tours-Mirambeau section is however now marked on the IGN maps.

Quite a warm day Thursday in La Rochelle, and still quite warm when I set off from Saintes around lunch time, though it later clouded over and there were even a few spots of rain. River path to start with (the Charente, in fact), and then a short section along the main road, though with wide verges, past a base of the armée de l’air. However, soon off on to grassy field tracks most of the way to Pons, passing the remains of a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre just after the airbase. As a change from the sand of the Landes, this is limestone country, just on the edge of the Cognac wine area. A clear day, with views back to Saintes most of the way; wind got up as over the tops of this undulating country. Lots of birdsong - larks, corn buntings.

To Pons just after 4, an easy walk, 23km officially. The GR takes a wandering course down to the river (Seugne) and up into the old town via some picturesque alleys. I however continued along the road, and into one of the ** hotels in the centre. Later, went for a walk, exploring the GR, marked ‘Chemin de St Jacques’, in the lower town, which has a C12 church, and up little alleyways, past a fountain called the Font-Pissotte, to the centre, which has a medieval dungeon and a rue St Jacques.

Another excellent dinner in the hotel, this time with a large group of Flemings at a neighbouring table.

24km

The interest in Pons for pilgrims lies on the way out of town, where you pass firstly a modern pilgrim sculpture, set rather incongruously on a roundabout, and then the famous C12 pilgrim hostel, where the route passes under the vaulted arch and where the large hall is being restored - perhaps some pilgrim accommodation here in future?

Again, the route shadows the main road, but the tracks aren’t nearly as conveniently placed as the previous section, and the rather zigzagging GR at 32.5km officially is considerably longer than the road at 23km. Also more tarmac than the previous section, but still lots of nice grassy tracks, and one nice bit through woodland with lilies of some sort just coming into bloom. One short section was waymarked as a GR besides the departmental plinths.

Went into the village of St Genis for refreshments, but not a great deal in the way of facilities en route. Not much of historical interest either, apart from the chateau at the former abbey of La Tenaille, which looked unoccupied with the large domaine all overgrown.

Further on, a young couple driving out of their house offered me water if I needed it; as the day was cool, I didn’t, but the offer was appreciated.

Arrived mid-afternoon in Mirambeau, past a very grand (and very expensive) **** hotel in the chateau on the hill, and then pondered where to spend the night. There is a tourist office, but it was closed. There are 2 ** hotels, one of which was closed and the other right on the main road; there are also a couple of chambres d’hôte, and I opted for one in a manoir: not a cheap option at €80 for B&B. A typical old-fashioned large room with high ceiling and antique furniture, but a large modern bathroom. There were also substantial grounds to wander in.

After a bath, took a look at the town, though couldn’t find much of interest. A bar on the main square is run by an English/Scots couple, with a few expats dropping in - though this is not really my scene.

33km

Very civilised breakfast in the library - in fact, a very civilised place all round.

Spent quite some time deciding what to do. Mirambeau is, at least for the moment, the ‘end of the line’ as far as the official route is concerned: once it leaves Charente Maritime, there is no marking, in fact, no official route at all as far as Bordeaux. There is a new cyclepath between Etauliers and Blaye which is an obvious route to use; it is easy enough to follow the lanes from the departmental border to Etauliers. So I did think of continuing on to Blaye, but it was Sunday and I had to get to Bordeaux the next day for my flight back and wasn’t at all confident of there being public transport to get me there, nor of being able to get across the river to catch public transport there. There is no public transport in Mirambeau on Sunday - in fact, not much public transport on any day. So I decided to leave the GR655 at Petit Niort and follow the GR360 to Montendre, where I knew there was a train to Bordeaux.

The forecast of rain in morning, clearing up in early afternoon, turned out to be exactly right, so it was damp when set off around 10 for Petit Niort, all of 1.5km away. Here I headed off in the rain to the SE. Exactly true to the forecast, the rain stopped just as I arrived at Montendre, and I stopped in a bar to dry out before the train arrived.

The Charente Maritime route has been recently extended 5km further S to Pleine-Selve [now included in the new GR655 topoguide] though this is not shown on the IGN map. I did not however walk this, and it will have to wait for another time.