From France Today comes this first-person account of the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage, which starts in Auvergne, in the center of France:
One day, reading an article by Bruce Chatwin one line in particular caught my eye: “The best thing is to walk.†Movement is the best cure, he argued – for everything. Not taking flight, but moving purposefully, virtuously, in another direction, opening oneself up to new experiences. So I decided to walk. John, a friend who was also looking for a new direction, suggested the Via Podiensis, the pilgrimage route that starts at Le Puy-en-Velay and heads west towards Santiago de Compostela (Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in French). And so, we set off for Auvergne to begin our journey.
The whole section of the Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle from Nasbinals to Saint-CheÌly-d’Aubrac is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, a place for the soul to soar, a raw, exposed and wild paradise. In The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, Robert Macfarlane wrote that, “For pilgrims walking… every footfall is doubled, landing at once on the actual road and also on the path of faith.â€
Other pilgrims were few and far between on the plateau, and all of them, like us, seemed to have one thing on their mind: getting through the day. As a long-distance cyclist I was well schooled in keeping my head down and pushing on. John too was a hardy soul. The ability to dig in and keep going is vital in a travelling companion, particularly on days like these. The final few kilometres of any stage are always the most gruelling and, paradoxically, the most exhilarating, as a heady blend of adrenaline and the anticipation of a hot shower and food kick in, powering on tired legs and backs to continue obediently to pull their weight