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

All my life I worried ’bout,
What others thought of me.
I always tried to watch myself,
And act as I should be.

Mind my manners, stand up straight,
And try to be a lady,
But we all knew that in my heart,
I was a little shady.

There was a wild thing lurking there,
Just below the surface,
Aching just to be set free,
And have myself a circus.

Now I’m old and just don’t care,
You get just what you see.
I’ll dress the way I want to dress,
Be what I want to be.

I’ll ride my horse, run with my dogs,
Climb hills and even trees.
If folks don’t like the way I look,
Too bad, cause this is me.

Judy Ball – Growing Old Disgracefully

The only other person sharing my dormitory at Le Grand Halte at La Bastide Puylaurent. He was a French walker called Alain Viatge. He lived near Toulouse, was aged 70 and as well as bearing an uncanny resemblance to the ex Leicester City and Chelsea FC manager Claudio Ranieri, Alain turned out to be a remarkable person.

Over supper, Alain revealed that he was the regional Vice President of the members of the Accceuil Jacquaires in south west France. He had walked many of the pilgrim routes in France and Spain and was currently walking the Chemin de Stevenson.

He then fished out his mobile phone and proceeded to show me the details of all the walks he had completed in recent years. He had detailed every day’s walk in meticulous detail including hours walked, distance covered and average speed achieved. I thought I had been doing pretty well averaging 4-5kph and 30-40km per day. But this paled into insignificance compared to Alain’s achievement – an average speed of 5.3-5.5kmph. What was more, Alain was no spring chicken – aged 70 he was 10 years older than me but a lot faster. Impressive stuff to put it mildly particularly as he also had a dodgy pair of knees – a legacy of playing too much rugby during his youth!

Alain had retired 3 years previously after a career in a French company which manufactured PCBs for high end car brands like Daimler Benz. After years of sitting in front of a computer, Alain had developed back problems. However, these had miraculously disappeared as soon as he’d taken up long distance walking!

The Hotel La Grande Halte was a great place to stay the night. A three course meal with wine and complimentary breakfast all for the princely sum of €53 (£45). Nicholas, the genial host, divulged that bookings hadn’t been as strong as the previous year, perhaps due to the weather or the weak economy.

La Grande Halte had been a coaching inn dating from the 17th century and would doubtless have accomodated more than its fair share of pilgrims on tbe Chemin Régordane.

Over breakfast, Alain divulged that he organised regular weekend walks for groups of 20-40 people and I’d be most welcome to join. We swapped contact details and promised to stay in contact.

There was a brisk northerly wind blowing and a hint of rain in the air as I headed off under leaden skies.

Having crossed the Col du Thort I was soon on a plateau with magnificent panoramic views of the Cévennes.

As another rain shower blew through, I turned round and saw a glorious rainbow framing the sky. It was surely a good sign for the day ahead!

My particular challenge was to reach Génolhac by 5pm in order to pick up the keys and get access to the municipal gite where I planned to spend the night. Due to a slight wrong turning during the morning, I needed to cover 40km in under 9 hours. Chicken feed for Alain Viatge but quite a challenge for me.

The landscape was reminiscent of parts of the Scottish Highlands with a mind boggling expanse of forested hillsides that stretched for as far as the eye could see.

Descending towards Albuspeyres, I somehow contrived to lose my way and by the time I had regained my bearings had succeeded in adding 4km to the day’s walk – payback for having taken a short cut yesterday which shaved 6km off the day’s walk.

Shortly after 1pm I reached the medieval hilltop village of La Garde-Guèrin. Another of France’s most beautiful villages it was founded in the 12th century with the express purpose of ensuring safe passage for pilgrims on the Chemin Régordane.

I took fifteen minutes to explore the village. Although some of the buildings were in a state of disrepair (perhaps due to fire damage caused by marauding English brigands during the 100 Years War), the entire village was like a time capsule. It can’t have changed much in 800 years. Extraordinarily, people actually live in some of the houses!

As I descended from La Garde-Guèrin, the clouds lifted, the sun came out and Lake Villefort came into view – one of the most iconic images on the Chemin de Régordane.

The great irony is that pilgrims on the Chemin de Régordane during the Middle Ages would never have got to enjoy the view. The lake was created in 1964 and involved flooding the valley and the village of Bayard, where 26 families lived.

Alain had warned me that Génolhac was nothing to write home about. It had a certain charm to it including a couple of restaurants, a small food store and even a book shop.

I noticed a sign post showing it was still another 136km to Saint Gilles-du-Gard. Throw in another 35km for good measure to reach Le Grau-de-Roi and I was still on schedule to finish my walk in 5 days time. Not quite as fast as the pilgrim pro Alain, but not too shabby for an unfit 60 year old whose only training for the walk consisted if walking a mischievous spaniel called Puzzle down the track twice a day! I wonder what sort of shape I will be when I hit 70 in just over 9 years time!