In 5 days, we have been walking the French hillsides. Compared to the other ‘pilgrims’ we met on our trip, our daily and ultimate goals were very mild (but not mild enough …more on that later.)

The Preparation

While many people geek their way to the ultimate gear and packing lists on Camino walking forums over the net, apparently preparing for months and sometimes years, our preparations were as advanced as any of our other trips. Never the less, based on the loosely researched idea that there is an abundance of super hard core travelers out there, we will share our experiences here in hope that more casual city-slickers in the mid-thirties might get to enjoy a part of this trip as much as – or even more than we did.

So lets get started, shall we:

The Gear

Backpack

This is your most valuable accessory, and you should spend some time researching one. If you are awfully late (like us) there are several shops in Le Puy (Kari got hers from a local shop on the day of our departure), but our suggestion is definitely that you buy one before you travel. Don’t go too large, 35-45 liters should be (more than) enough. You should invest in a modern backpack with a flexible plastic meis with a hip belt and a zipper that stretches the whole distance from top to bottom for easy access and overview of food, water etc.

Shoes

Most people we encountered used hiking boots, we used normal outdoor sneakers/jogging shoes. While this seemed like a good idea at first, we would – based on a lesson later learned – suggest investing in some walking shoes or low-cut walking boots.

While we found sneakers to be good for most of the terrain we encountered, you will be walking a lot of steep hills during the first days, and sneakers will flat out kill you in steep downhill action; our toes were constantly squished to the tip of the toe, and great strain was put on the wrist and frontal labia. The point being them having a reinforced frontal wrist section for increased stability and distributed shock absortion on the foot. This became apparent already on the first days descent to Saint Privat d’Allier, and five days later, emerged as MTSS on the 5th day, ending the trip to Conques some 10 kms before finish. Only because of wrong equipment. That’s sto0pid. So don’t do that.

The Clothes

• Our entire trip was made without as much as a single drop of rain. While that possibly won’t be the same in other times of the year, July is a very stable period for this region. We would suggest – at least for a July trip – to get a super light disposable poncho rather than a heavier raincoat. You probably won’t need it at all and if so – probably only for a short, (really) heavy shower. If you’re unsure, bring gear and send it off to the next station via La Malle Postale. More about that later.
• You will of course need UV factor around 35 and clothes that protect against the sun.
• While this probably might go without saying, you will require a cap or a hat to protect you against the intense sun. The temperatures start at around 14°C in the morning, and quickly escalate to 35-40°C from 11:00-13:00, and stay there for the entire day – until about seven in the evening, when the temperature slowly sinks again.
• In the evening you will need a light warm garment of some kind, need a blanket but nothing exsessive.

The Food

Mosquitoes and other wildlife aren’t as prominent as you might think. As a matter of fact, the only time we encountered these pests was during our first day, and this was mostly because of our late departure, and because one of the final hours of the trip went through a dense forest. But then! It was like being bombarded. The video only gives a fair idea of the feeling, having the whole army of flying beasts constantly swirming around you. We finally found it wise to flee from the forest entirely, running and not stopping before we managed to leave the French Tricolor behind us.

French Time

In general, the tip is:

Read yourself up on French-time.

We have no link, and while we haven’t had the time to research it – it might be difficult finding someone explaining the phenomena. Instead of boring you with timetables, let’s do a practical use example:

It is noon. You have been walking since 7, and you have started getting hungry. You approach a village. In the middle of the town square sits a bar and a restaurant. Luckily, both are open! You take a look at the menu. The bar only sells beverages and salads. Having eaten only a flimsy breakfast, you need something more substantial. The restaurant turns out to have everytning from sandwiches and salads to steak, and of course the boef tartar and the saumon fumé¹. Great!

You sit down, and wait. The waitress is conferring with a guy sitting by the bar counter. It takes forever. Finally, she comes over to you, looking just gently pissed off. You ask for the menu, “Un menu?!?!” she looks at you and says something really fast and incomprehensible. You try again with your best french: “Mangér?!?!” She puts her hands in the side, shakes her head almost unnoticeably, and confidently says something like this

Êtes-vous complètement retardé? Nous ne servons pas de nourriture.

“Did she just say _retard“?!_, you think to yourself… Or does “Retardé”, mean something different? Are they delayed? Retaard… you taste the word. Did she even say that, or did you get the word wrong? She seems pretty confident, and she’s waiting for a reply so you decide to look at her with the stupidest smile you can make, and feberically show gestures of a monkey using a knife and a fork, eating some imaginary food. Now she’s that fed up with your theatrical debut that she allows herself to speak English.

Nô fôódè!

“Ah! Bon! Ouioui!” you promptly reply, nodding like this was something self evident, learned from birth, a cornerstone in your upbringing. You had just been checking if _this place in the entirety of France might possibly be the strange, unheard of place with the crazy serving concept that gave people food in the middle of the day. But of course that was completely bonkers, so you immediately point at the most flimsy thing you see on the menu.

French Food

France is renowned world wide for its delicate french cuisine, but as you will soon find out, this doesn’t translate to the rest of the board.

Flimsy Breakfast aka Petit Dejunér

While French breakfast – the petit dejunér – might be appropriate/fashionable for a weekend getaway in Paris, we really don’t feel this is a big help for your mountaineering expeditions. You will typically be offered white bread, sweet marmalade, butter, coffee, artificial orange juice and – if you’re lucky – yoghurt, a croissant and a sweet, provocative cookie.

If you are french you will probably have no problem with this. If you are not, you will probably find this to be an offensively sweet and flimsy way to start the day of a 10-30 km walk. This combined with that most breakfasts start too late (more about that later) at 7:45 or 8:00 (even in Pilgrims herbergés / Gités), makes us come with the following super romantic suggestion.

Petit Dejunér – FIX

…More will follow, welcome back! ;)

Breakfast

You typically pay 5€ for it. For this amount of money you can get a great cheese the day before

The animals

Because of the heat, there are really no mosquitoes… more of this later.

The packing

With some detergent, you can get away with no more than 2-3 briefs and in general one outfit. You should bring some sandals or alternate shoes for your afternoons in the towns you are visiting, but no more than two pair of shoes.… more of this later.

The Luggage

yes, more of this later.

We started out from Le Puy.

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