2017-04-26 St-Julien-Chapeteuil - Le Puy (22 / 478 km)

Left St Julien behind us. Easy walking. Some suburbs to Le Puy could be seen at a distance. Long road into the city St-Germain-Laprade. Visited the church. Lunch at a bar in the center.

Continued towards Montjoie (Mountain of Joy) a hill with some stones and a couple of left boots. But from here we could see Le Puy at a distance for the first time. The place reminded me of a small version of Monte de Gozo - that name meaning the same - outside Santiago. On th way there I reminded the others that in Spain you would first pass Lavacolla and clen yourself there before going up the last hill. Well what did we see here in not a car wash at the side of the road.

We continued downhill. Roger and I practiced the Zorba version of Utreïa a Suseia. Actually we had during the passed days tried to transform that song adapting it to various style music and rhythms. And had a lot of fun in that. It's fantastic what you can do when you have musical people around you. Not only Paul as an old musician but also Ava proved to have been a singer in a band earlier in life. And Roger and I hummed along.

The outskirts of the city brought more dense housing. A bit later we crossed the river Loire that here not is the big and broad version that it will become later. Here close to its source it was more narrow and smaller. We continued to walk along the left side of Loire through parts of the city for quite a while. Then left up along another smaller river. Up towards the very center of Le Puy. But first some coffee at a square which was necessary since it was very chilly and rainy day. On the way we had admired the two of the remarkable monuments, the red Notre-Dame-de-France that 1860 was made from metal that the French troops under Napoleon III took from the war in Crimea Russia. The other is the remarkable chapel Saint-Michel-d'Aiguilhe that was built already 961 by the bishop Gothescalk on top of a steep volcanic rock close to the center of Le Puy. You can reach it via a number of stairs.


The final hill, very steep, even so steep that the last portion was stairs, up towards the cathedral. The cathedral with its famous black madonna (la Vierge Noire) where a black Jesus as a child looks out through her dress. You even find Saint Jacques (Santiago) himself in the cathedral.

Got the stamps and all that in the cathedral and then we continued to a Gite nearby.

Good but with a little special structure. Manned by volunteers from all over. Filled with people on their way to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Santiago). Le Puy is one of the four famous starting points in France.

The gang of four had our last common dinner at a restaurant close to the cathedral. Aval will walk on towards Santiago. Robert an Paul will spend the next day in Le Puy to see all sights. I will travel towards Lyon to fly home from there. We have had a lot of fun together.

Habíamos pasado St-Germain-Laprade llegamos a Monjoie (Monte de Gozo), no tan alto, no tan grande, donde vimos Le Puy, la meta, por la primera vez. Cruzamos el rio Loire entrabamos la ciudad. Pasabamos los altos volcánicos con sus monumentos famosos, Notre-Dame-de-France y Saint-Michel-d'Aiguilhe. Últimamente subimos la cuesta escarpada hasta el catedral con su Vierge Noir (Virgen negra). La meta de esta etapa. Visitamos el catedral, trovamos la Gite y después la cena final.