A 30 day, 770 km walk from Cosne-sur-Loire to Auch.
Meeting a mushroom collector deep in the forest near Saint-Pastour
This expedition allowed us to link up some of our previous walks. We began in Cosne-sur-Loire, the place where we had joined the Loire in 2006, and three weeks later crossed our track of 2007 at Bergerac. A week after that we crossed our 2004 pilgrimage at Condom and ended two days later at Auch, which we had passed through in 2004 .
From Cosne-sur-Loire we headed south, upstream to Fourchambault, where we merged with Way of Vezelay and left the river in favour of the Canal de Berry.
This took us into the old province of Berry, the country of George Sand, with its peaceful fields divided by great hedges, a part of France still relatively unvisited by tourists.
Finally a sunny day and only ten more kilometres to Auch, the end of our walk
Pressing on into Limousin, passing from one pilgrim church to another, past Limoges and into Périgord, we crossed the Dordogne at Bergerac, the Lot at Castelmoron and the Garonne at Aiguillon. It was a land of plenty, full of vines and punctuated by bastide villages, relics of the Hundred Years’ War.
Despite the weather, which had been wet and got wetter, we arrived at our destination, Auch, in time to have a day of rest and sunshine before getting the train back to Paris.
For those who like statistics there is a spreadsheet that gives details of this walk.
Our route for this year
All section maps show accommodation icons (either camping or hotel/gîte) for each night. By zooming in on a particular icon, and clicking “Map” in the top right hand corner, you can see the precise location of the establishment where we stayed.
You can also get a full screen view of the map below in Google Earth and take a virtual flight along our route.
The diary has been broken up in to the following sections:
Cosne-sur-Loire to Fourchambault
Fourchambault to Loye-sur-Arnon
Bénévent-l’Abbaye to Flavignac