Routes Santiago de Compostela - Mapcard and multiviews

Reference : FR081

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"Saint-Jacques de Compostelle"

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way (Spanish : El Camino de Santiago, French : Chemin de St-Jacques) is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.

The Way of St. James is said to have originated in France, where it is called Le Chemin de St. Jacques de Compostelle. This is the reason that the Spanish themselves refer to the Way of St. James as "the French road", since most of the pilgrims they saw were French. The origin of the pilgrimage is most often cited as the Codex Calixtinus, which is decidedly a French document. Though in the Codex everyone was called upon to join the pilgrimage, there were four main starting points in the Cathedral cities of Tours, Vézelay, Le Puy-en-Velay and Arles. They are today all routes of the Grande Randonnée network.

The Paris and Tours route

The Paris and Tours route (Latin : Via Turonensis) used to be the pilgrimage of choice for inhabitants of the Low Countries and those of northern and western France. As other routes are becoming overcrowded, that route is gaining more and more favour, owing to the religious and touristic aspects of the monuments on the way.

The official start is Paris-Orléans-Tours or Paris-Chartres-Tours. From Tours, the route passes through Poitiers and Bordeaux, the forest at Les Landes before connecting to the Camino Francés GR 65 near Ostabat, shortly before Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port or to the Camino de la Costa in Irun.

The Vézelay route

The Vézelay route passes through Limoges and joins the GR 65 near Ostabat.

The Le Puy route

The Le Puy route (Latin : Via Podiensis, French : route du Puy) is travelled by pilgrims starting in or passing through Le Puy-en-Velay. It passes through towns such as Espalion and Cahors before coming to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. It is part of GR 65.

Also from Le Puy is GR 70 which Robert Louis Stevenson travelled along for 12 days with his donkey Modestine, as described in his book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes.

The Arles Way

The route from Italy, the Via Tolosana, becomes the Arles Way (French : La voie d'Arles or Chemin d'Arles) in southern France, named after that principal cathedral city. It goes through Montpellier, Toulouse and Oloron-Sainte-Marie before reaching the Spanish border at Col du Somport in the high Pyrenees. There it connects to the Aragonese Way, and as such is the only French route not to connect to the Camino Francés at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.

UNESCO w.h.s. :
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France

Date of inscription : 1998

Santiago de Compostela was the supreme goal for countless thousands of pious pilgrims who converged there from all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To reach Spain pilgrims had to pass through France, and the group of important historical monuments included in this inscription marks out the four routes by which they did so.