An Impossible Dream
.jpg)
In September 2024, after almost a fortnight travelling in London and Brittany, a party of us set off from Le Puy-en-Velay in the south of France to walk the some 750 kilometres to St Jean-Pied-de-Port near the Pyrenees.
​
Well, not quite. Two of us were planning to walk the whole way, and the other two about half the journey.
​
It didn't quite work out that way.
​
We made it half way, to Cahors, a distance of about 350 klms. My decision, made 10 days into the walk, to finish early, was not without its ramifications. I write specifically about that here. It was a decision which has weighed heavily on me.
The map above shows our planned route, and you can click on the map to take you to a close up in Google Maps.
​
The blue route is the path we actually walked. The green route is the second half which never eventuated.
​
It was our fourth "big" walk in Europe, after the Camino Frances in 2015, and the Camino Portuguese in 2018 and the Via de la Plata in 2023. The detailed blog can be found here. As I have found many times now, the impact of the walk is not felt until some time later. It wasn't my favourite walk - the challenges of the decision to quit halfway attended to that - but I still look back at our time in France with great fondness. So much so that we're going to attempt the second half in 2026. Stand by for that story ...