It Started in Le Puy en Velay

I learned about le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle when our Johnston exchange students visited Le Puy en Velay more than 10 years ago.

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When I wrapped up my teaching career, I decided to do something different – like go to France in September (instead of going back to the classroom) and hike 9 days, doing the stretch of the Le Puy Way. When I took High School students to France on exchange, every other year we would visit Le Puy en Velay, where a tiny British lady tour guide who lived near Le Puy told stories of the pilgrims who started here ever since 900, and wended their way southwest towards Conques and then on the the Spanish border near Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and then up the Pyrenees and on to the well known Camino Frances all across northern Spain – all the way to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in the very northwestern tip of Spain (That’s the most well-known Camino). Ah, but that’s too far for me right now; I just want to do 126 miles or so from Le Puy to Conques this time. We’ll see how it goes. What will I see? Whom will I meet? What will I learn? I’m looking forward to this adventure, a mini-pilgrimage, and a chance to do something new to me, but familiar to so many others before me on the pilgrim’s way. I want to record a bit of my journey here: 3 images and a few observations and reflections from each day. I hope a few others find it interesting and helpful. I walked another 126 miles in 2022 with Elizabeth from Conques to Moissac. (I also had a torn meniscus at the time.) But it has been trimmed, and I am better! Now it is 2023, and I am getting ready to begin my third min-pilgrimage. If all goes well, I will walk from Moissac to the Atlantic Ocean. More to come. “It started in Le Puy en Velay” is stil an apt title for my blog. Where it will end is what makes every pilgrimage exciting.

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