The purpose of this travelogue is to give readers an idea what it was like for me to walk part of the Le Puy Route and what it might be like for them. Long-distance walking is healthy unless you fall down , kind to the environment unless you litter , on the cheap side unless you insist on luxury. I have much clearer memories of travel where my feet have provided transportation rather than a machine. Long-distance walks like the Le Puy Route, with its opportunities to share lodging and meals with other walkers, can also be great for the traveler who is solo, but not anti-social.
While planning this walk in , I could find very little information in English about the Le Puy Route, and almost all my fellow walkers were either French or at least French-speaking.
In the last two years, more material has appeared. I hope this encourages non-Francophones to pack their backpacks, get out their walking sticks, and make the journey. My train from Lyon to Le Puy-en-Velay is a pokey regional one with only three cars. Past Aurec-sur-Loire, it follows the Loire river. The slopes on either side are covered with a mix of light green deciduous trees and dark green pines. He reads the Book of Nehemiah, underlining passages. Are you going to Le Puy? Is this man on his way to walk the Le Puy Route like me, though in his case as a truly religious, Bible-toting pilgrim?
I assume his first question is the opening to a conversation. Instead, the man falls silent. Soon, he puts a handkerchief over his face and dozes off. This seems like an appropriate book to read before my trip in more or less the same region, on foot like Robert Louis Stevenson , though in my case without a donkey.
Checking the display panel in the train, I see that Le Puy is the next stop. My topo guide informs me that, in a swords-to-ploughshares transformation, the statue was fashioned from cannons captured by the French in the Battle of Sebastopol. It was the largest statue in the world until nudged aside by the Statue of Liberty. Most of the other people getting off the train are equipped for hiking like me, with backpacks, hiking boots, and walking sticks.
