Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy.

Alexander Fleming

One of the great pleasures of walking the pilgrim routes of Europe is the chance encounters with other pilgrims and pilgrim host families.

Before you set out, you can never be entirely sure whom you’ll meet but the chances are that the random encounters that you do have, will live long in the memory.

My host in Cluny, Annabelle Rogelet, had informed me that I would be sharing her apartment with another pilgrim, and, because he’d contacted her first, I would have to make do with a mattress in her living room. It was fine with me – all other accommodation in Cluny was booked solid.

On the bus from Macon-Loche TGV to Cluny I noticed a 40 something guy on a seat opposite me who looked for all the world like a pilgrim, replete with back pack, walking poles and a straw hat.

I disembarked as we entered Cluny and made my way leisurely to Madame Rogelet’s flat in the centre of town. Imagine my surprise when the pilgrim on the bus materialised at the same time!

After we’d checked in, we went for a short stroll around Cluny. His name was Michael – a German who lived in Switzerland. Trained as a classical musician he now worked part time as a car mechanic to make ends meet. We shared a beer in a local cafe and chatted about our experiences walking the pilgrim routes of Europe.

Annabelle Rogelet proved the perfect hostess. Over a sumptuous supper of vegetable quiche made from her own eggs and vegetables from her potager, we chatted about her job and family.

She worked as a cello teacher and all her four children were pursuing musical careers, dotted around Europe, in Gottingen, Toulouse and Paris.

Annabelle’s house was situated in the middle of town. Dating from the 16th century, the coquille de St Jacques on her fireplace, attested to the pilgrim connection.

Cluny was packed out with tourists. The plethora of high end boutique shops spoke volumes about the clientele. Yet despite this, Cluny has a quaint domesticity about it, a place where everybody was probably on nodding acquaintance with everybody else.

After breakfast at Annabelle’s I made my way to the tourist office to get my credential stamped and have a quick tour of the Cheese Tower, a 300 foot tower which offered panoramic views of Cluny.

At 10am I headed out of Cluny towards Tramayes. Sadly there wasn’t time for a tour of the abbey. I had 32km to cover, and wasn’t sure whether my twice daily walks with Puzzle would leave me in good shape to make my way to St Jacques des Ârret, in good time.

Thankfully the walking was fairly easy, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the landscape was enchanting – gently sloping alpine like hill sides dotted with hedgerows. I could almost have been in Devon were it not for the wall to wall sunshine and the 70C heat!

After a brief pit stop at Tramayes I carried on towards Cenves, on the border of Burgundy and Beaujolais.

I passed a pilgrim with a dog who was walking to Compostella and a group of 4 elderly pilgrims outside Tramayes who were also heading in the same direction as me.

Later in the afternoon, things went slightly pear shaped – I ended up taking a wrong turning and heading in completely the wrong direction for 30 minutes before realising the error of my ways and retracing my steps. Things could have been worse, but it must have added a hood 4km to the day’s walk.

I finally made it to my gite at St Jacques des Ârret shortly after 18.30. The pilgrims I had passed outside Tramayes had arrived 30 mins before me and were already relaxing on the terrace!

It turned out they were four friends walking to Assisi, one of whom (Walid) originally hailed from Lebanon.Nicholas, the gite owner had recently quit a high powered job in Lyon to realise his dream of running a gite on a pikgrim route. In his 40s, he’d recently got engaged to an American from Texas who’d stayed at his gite and things had developed from there….

As he barbecued us our supper on the terrace I couldn’t but notice how happy he looked with his decision to completely change the direction of his life.

I remembered a sign I’d seen beside the path when I’d been walking the Via Francigena in 2021.

Suivez vos rêves, ils connaissent le chemin it read. Follow your dreams, they know the way. Carpe diem – life is short and you never know what is around the corner.