GR653 Via Tolosana / Camino Aragones, Day 16: Bource - Col de Somport- Canfranc Estacion

Man's real home is not a house, but the Road, and life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.

― Bruce Chatwin, What Am I Doing Here?

IN SPAIN!!!

A long, steady climb up to Somport Pass, a photo break at the top, and then another eight kilometres downhill to the village of Canfranc Estacion.

We started out with some road walking, where the GR disappears and the Fédération Randonnées recommends you take the bus for a few km. It being Sunday morning, there was very little traffic, so we simply walked along the shoulder of the highway. We had no trouble at all, even where the road narrows under Fort Portalet. 

Then we left the road for the path and began to climb steeply in the woods. We were glad we had continued on the road for a stretch instead of taking the path when we were rejoined by our companions at the pass, and heard that one of them had been threatened by dogs and the other had gotten lost for a while! 

But all's well that ends well, and we all made it to the top! 

Somport pass at 1632 metres:the border between France and Spain! 

After waiting to make sure everyone had made it to the top and taking the ritual photos, we began the descent toward Canfranc Estacion, following the famous yellow arrows of the Camino de Santiago! 

Only 857 km to go! 

¡Mi primera flecha amarilla! 

We passed the ruins of the medieval pilgrim hostel of Santa Cristina. 
And a series of ugly modern ski resorts which I did NOT photograph! 

Canfranc Estacion is rather a strange place. A giant international railway station was built here, where all the passengers and freight had to be offloaded onto a different train back when Spain and France had different gauges. In 1970 a train derailed and destroyed a bridge on the French side of the Pyrenees, and the libe was never repaired. Now the enormous station stands empty, except for the central section, where a tiny single-carriage train stood waiting for the few passengers who still come to this remote place. 

GR653 Via Tolosana, last part: Day 15 Sarrance - Bource

Tous les matins nous prenons le chemin
Tous les matins nous allons plus loin
Jour après jour la route nous appelle
C’est la voix de Compostelle

- Traditional French pilgrims' song

Tous les matins nous allons plus loin... And after taking to the road on many, many mornings, walking farther and farther from home every day, here I am, on my last night in France!

Ventimiglia (on the border between France and Italy) to Bource (14 km short of the border between France and Spain)

58 days - 1260 km! 

***

This morning we left the monastery in Bource and headed for another stretch of trail through the woods on a perilously slippery path perched above the Aspe River, during which I was too busy watching my footing to take pictures!

Leaving Sarrance - On the bridge over the Aspe

We six women who had been staying at the monastery walked as a group for most of the day, and we had a great time!

Especially in Bedous, where we met Pierette, who opened the church for us and then invited us all to her home for a cup of coffee. It was like a proper ladies' tea party - but with muddy boots and wet raingear strewn all about the hall!

Bedous

Bedous

Pierrette, keeper of the key to the church (and a very impressive key it is!) 

Ladies' coffee morning chez Pierrette! 

Pierrette's home was very simply furnished but packed with images of saints and Madonnas, stacks of Famille Chrétienne magazines and other such relics, reminding me very much of the home of Jeannine who hosted me in Mouries the night I couldn't find accommodations!

When we finally managed to leave Bedous behind, we discovered a flour mill on the edge of town that sells the most delicious bread in the world!

Tearing chunks off a freshly baked loaf with our bare hands as we walked, we continued to the village of Jouers, where we made a slight detour to view an 11th century chapel decorated with extravagant little carved figures around the roof.

We caught up with the rest of the ladies as they were setting up for a picnic by the river just outside the village of Accous.

Accous

From here the route became rather less exciting, joining the national highway for some time. Then it crossed the river again to wind through the trees on the opposite bank of the river from the road.

Hot and sweaty from walking all day in waterproofs, we were delighted to arrive in Bource and find that the local pilgrim hostel is also the local bar!

After a cold beer we retired to our rooms, or rather, our house, as we have the whole place to ourselves tonight! The guys have gone ahead to the next town, and there are no other guests, so for once we don't have to worry about the complications involved in getting out of the communal shower when you have only a handkerchief-sized travel towel!

Bource

Bource

Now off to bed, as we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow: first, a steep climb up to Somport Pass, at 1632 metres, and then a border to cross!

Hasta mañana!!

GR653 Via Tolosana, last part: Day 14 Oloron Sainte-Marie - Sarrance

Ici le temps va à pied

- Written in chalk on a rock in Sarrance

Woken up with music and chased out of the hostel in Oloron-Sainte Marie before eight o'clock. Our hospitalier was full of useful information about the trail into the mountains and over the pass at Somport - provided you could understand his French and tell when he was joking and when he was not! He also taught us how to tie our shoes (double-lacing for the descent on the other side). But he and his partner hospitalier kept iron discipline and turfed us all out onto the street in the rain at eight o'clock on the dot.

View of Quartier Notre Dame in Oloron in the morning 

After crossing the town we followed the path into the forest, but it was quite muddy so we descended onto a small road and followed it for most of the day, winding up the Aspe valley further and further into the mountains. At the end of the day we are still at an elevation of only 362 metres, but surrounded on both sides by steep walls of rock.

When our little road joined the highway we took the trail through the woods above the river, where we had to be very careful not to slip in the mud after the rain and end up in the river below! Slowly and carefully we proceeded until we came out at the village of Sarrance, where we were to spend the night in the monastery.

We attended Mass in the monastery chapel with Frère Pierre and were served dinner along with him and the members of the community who are living and working in the monastery.

GR653 Via Tolosana, last part: Day 13 Lacommande - Oloron-Sainte Marie

Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow...
And there we will wallow
In glorious mud!

Michael Flanders & Donald Swan, The hippopotamus song


After yesterday's rain, we were wallowing in plenty  of glorious mud in the Forêt de Lacommande this morning!

We eventually came out into the sunshine with another glorious view of the Pyrenees, closer than ever.

We stopped to eat what little remained of our food supply in a rest area set up specifically for pilgrims and watched a shepherdess take hundreds of sheep out to pasture.

Old boots never die, they just get composted

Passing over the fields above the sheep, we emerged on a hilltop with a view over the Oloron valley. Vultures circled in the sky.

From here we went back into the woods and came out in the village of Goés, following the road to Oloron-Sainte Marie, a crossroads for pilgrims travelling the Santiago/Rome path and the Voie des Piemonts to and from Lourdes.

Quartier Notre-Dame, where our hostel is located

The cathedral

Here we had one last beer with our friend Peter before accompanying him to the train station to return to his home and family. Oloron is the last good-sized town before the climb into the Pyrenees and Spain, and many walkers break up their trips here.

And so our fellowship of the Way begins to unravel.

But on the streets of the town and then at the hostel we found new pilgrims starting here or coming from the Lourdes route. At dinner we spoke with French, German and Canadian walkers and cyclists, all of whom will be heading our way tomorrow, onward and upward.

Ultreya!

Susseya!

Less than one thousand kilometres to go! 

Our resting place in Oloron