The Best Laid Plans...from Nice to Le Puy

Well, we thought we had it all figured out. Our train trip was supposed to be very straightforward. We had good connections and although it was an early start, we would be at Le Puy en Velay by 2:30 - time to find where we would stay, do a little sight seeing and relax a bit before our long walk tomorrow. That all worked fine until the train from Nice to Lyon was 25 minutes late. That of course made us miss connections all down the line.

But did get to Lyon about 5:30pm making it quite a long and tiring trip. I was having pre-walk jitters I guess so I didn't sleep all night before we left.We had no idea how to get to the cathedral area but headed off into the right direction using a combination of our teeny map, which I had downloaded from the Internet, and following where others were gone. It turns out that the cathedral is relatively close to the train station. We walked only a few blocks before heading up to the 'haut village' where the cathedral, two or three albergues or auberges as they are called in France, and our pilgrim welcome from the Amis of St. Jacque were nestled.

A young Canadian girl who was teaching English in Le Puy for 9 months helped us to find the right area and walked with us up a slippery cobblestone road to the top. Our map proved to be useless up there as the roads seem to change names each block, but as we walked around and around and ended up standing outside the old address of the Amis office at 29 rue de Cardinal Polignac, a man in a red jacket came along and asked us what we were looking for. He led us off to tea and our pilgrim's passports. The warm welcome was very timely as we were cold and wet and starting to feel sorry for ourselves.

Our angel in the red jacket also phoned the nearest gite- Acceuil Saint Francois- and led us up there and we were soon in our little room for two with our dinner available downstairs. We sat with three people, all French speaking although the woman spoke some English and ate huge slices off ham, Le Puy lentils (of course) and pasta salad, followed by large hunks of three delicious cheeses and then a cold creme brûlée for dessert. Very tasty all around.

Our room is very adequate although the bathroom is down the hall and across the breakfast room. Workable but not ideal for anyone who has to get up in the night. We had a good night and both got some sleep. Up at five before our alarm and the walk begins.

Here's a picture of Le Puy-en-Velay from below with the huge statue of the Virgin and child overlooking the city.

About a third of the cobblestone steps we climbed to reach the cathedral and our auberge for the night. You can start to understand why the French are so healthy when they go up and down stairs like these every day!