GR653 Via Tolosana Day 3: Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert - Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquiere

 Day 3: Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert - Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquiere

24.5 km

Total elevation gain 1000 m

Our room in the Club Alpin gîte was cosy to say the least, but we slept well and set off full of energy and ready for a steep climb. Within minutes we were high up above the village in the mountains. The rocky ground, low scrub and scents of thyme and rosemary reminded me of my hike in Crete last May.

Copains de chemin - They proceed like us, in single file. But how does the first one know which way to go?

After descending into the valley past the castle of Montpeyroux and proceeding, by a cruelly winding and indirect route, to the town of Arboras, we discovered to our consternation that we were expected to climb up almost as high again before descending to our resting place for the evening!

We were so high up we could see the Pyrenees! 

Crossing the river coming into Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquiere

It was very crowded at the Gîte Comunal - ten pilgrims all sharing the same two bedrooms, two bathrooms and one kitchen. All stepping over each other's backpacks and knocking over each other's poles... Such a change after the isolation of the route from the French border to Montpellier that I walked in October! The accommodations were very simple and there was no cell phone coverage or internet... for the second night in a row! Which is why I am writing this blog from our next stop, Lodève. But, as the saying goes: "Le pélerin non exige, le pèlerin remerci!"

GR653 Via Tolosana Day 2: Montarnaud - St. Guilhem-le-Desert

Montarnaud - St. Guilhem-le-Desert 

23.5 km 

Day 2 started out over breakfast with our hostess Cathy and the other guests at Le Temps d'Une Pause. We agreed to walk with our new Korean friend Jiheun, and the three of us set off through the garrigue and the budding grapevines.

We came to the town of Aniane just in time to buy a few supplies before the grocer closed up for lunch. We walked a short way out of town and had a picnic in an olive grove, after which Mariella took a short bonus hike when she realized she had left her poles back in the shop in town! 

After a long, hot afternoon we came to the Pont du Diable, constructed in 1031 to facilitate the passage of pilgrims.

From here we followed the river, walking upstream by the roadside, to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert.

We visited the abbey, built by Charlemagne's cousin in the year 804, before settling in for the evening at a gîte run by the French Alpine Club over a pastry shop.

"Ceux qui vont à Saint-Jacques par la route de Toulouse doivent rendre visite aux corps du bienheureux confesseur Guillaume."

- Aymerit Picaud, Le Guide du Pélerin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle

GR653 Via Tolosana Day 1: Montpellier - Montarnaud

Back on the Chemin de Compostelle! 

1556 km to go

Montpellier (Hauts de Maussane)  - Montarnaud 

16 km

I booked an airbnb on the northwest edge of Montpellier so we could get right back on the trail... but once we saw how easy it was to get into the city centre on those fun colourful streetcars, we decided to spend the morning in town before setting off on the trail. And we started out at the cathedral to get the first stamp on our pilgrim passports for this section of the trail.

Then we returned to our airbnb flat to pick up our bags and hit the trail! After a couple of km we rejoined our old friend the GR653 - also known as the Via Tolosana, the Voie d'Arles or, more generally and along with a bunch of other trails, the Chemin de Compostelle - in the village of Grabels.

From here the trail set off across country through the garrigue... and we soon discovered the differences between hiking in October, after six months of drought, and hiking in April after a particularly rainy start to Spring. In October, where there were supposed to be streams there were none, and we crossed many a bridge over... nothing. But in April, the trail itself had turned into a stream in many spots! 

I am grateful to my new boots (Scarpa Khumbu) for getting me through all that mud!

On the plus side, all the Spring flowers are out. We came across wild tulips, daffodils and irises - flowers I didn't even know existed in a wild version!

After what seemed like a long afternoon of hiking, but was really only 16 km, we came to our destination for the evening: Gite Le Trmps d'une Pause, just past the village of Montarnaud. Having stocked up on supplies at the local supermarket, we prepared a simple meal in the communal kitchen and sat down to dinner with our hostess Cathy and the other guests: a French/Québecois couple who are spending a week on the trail, and a Korean girl who is hiking straight through to Santiago.

Only another 1540 km to go!

GR653 Via Tolosana: Getting back on the trail!

After a long, cold, rainy winter, there comes a time when you can no longer stand the sound of your slippers flip-flopping around the house. It's time to put your boots back on and go outside!

Time to get back on the trail! With the intention of picking up the GR653 where I left off in October, I set out with my faithful hiking companion Mariella to get the bus to Montpellier. The trip turned out to be a bit of a marathon - literally! 

Unbeknownst to us, it was the day of the  Genova marathon! This meant that the city centre was closed to traffic and the bus could not travel its usual route. The bus stop had been moved - just for today; pity the bus company hadn't thought to tell us! So after getting up in the wee hours in order to catch the early morning bus and be able to get in half a day's hiking in the afternoon, we ended up sitting around in Genoa until the ten o'clock bus, which of course didn't get in until eleven o'clock because of the roadblocks and consequent traffic snarls...

Once we did get on the road, however, the trip went seamlessly, and our driver was very friendly and couteous (in three languages). Arriving in Montpellier at dusk, we gave up on the idea of walking the 10 km from the flixbus stop to our airbnb and took the tram. Our hostess met us at the nearest tram stop and accompanied us the rest of the way to our studio apartment, on the northwestern edge of the city so that we can set off straight into the countryside in the morning and pick up the GR653 in the village of Grabels.

All's well that ends well... even the Flixbus Marathon! 

Winter, or: The time between walks

When I walked to Rome in 2015, I reached my destination, and I felt that I had completed something: I had walked the Via Francigena from my home to Rome.

I set out in the opposite direction a year later, in October 2016, and when I reached the French border I once again felt that I had completed something: crossing the region of Liguria, from my home to the border. This made sense in its own right, and even though I said goodbye in Ventimiglia to another pilgrim who was continuing on his way toward Santiago, I did not regret turning around and going home: once again I had the satisfaction of having reached a milestone, and completed something.

Last October I picked up on the same trail, at exactly the spot where I had left off, and continued from Ventimiglia into France. My goal was to reach Arles, where the Via Tolosana pilgrimage route begins, and I actually ended up walking a few days farther, as far as Montpellier. The days were growing shorter, and my knees were beginning to ache: it was time to go home for the winter.

But I hadn't really completed anything - I broke off the Via Tolosana, Grande Randonée 653, in Montpellier, approximately halfway across France, and a third of the way from my home to Santiago.

And so now I find myself thinking of winter in a different way, as a break between Long Walks.

A time to recover from the last Long Walk, and prepare for the next one.

I started by eating and sleeping as much as possible. And I found I could eat and sleep an awful lot, after a whole month of walking!

I did a couple of Sunday hikes, hoping to keep in the spirit of walking, even though a Sunday outing is not at all the same as a Long Walk. But on one of these I must have fastened my boots too tightly, because I developed extensor tendinitis - a pain in the top of my left foot. For two months I couldn't even put on my hiking boots, or my regular winter city shoes for that matter - I had to wear a pair of high snow boots which could be laced up loosely over my foot. Rather overdoing things, to be wearing snow boots with a thermal lining, on the shores of the Mediterranean! But it was the only way to be comfortable. Because of this foot problem, I didn't return to the gym I have been going to for the past 18 years, but took up Pilates classes instead, in addition to my daily Qui Gong in the mornings and stretching exercises for my afflicted foot.

I continued this "recovery programme" for two months, until the Christmas holidays, and only in January have I gone on to the next phase: preparing for the next Long Walk!

I'm back at my old gym, where I'm doing a more dynamic exercise programme in addition to continuing Pilates; my foot is feeling better, though it's still not perfect. As soon as the weather improves and the first signs of Spring appear I hope to resume day hikes - and start getting into shape for the next leg of my Long Walk!