Le Chemin de Saint Jacques - El Camino de Santiago

Santiago Peregrino, from polyptych by Vivarini, 1490, at Getty Center.

This web site describes my spiritual, recreational, and arithmetic pilgrimage from Taizé, Lyon, and Cluny in France , to Santiago de Compostela and Fisterra in Spain, April-June 2003. There are about 2000 photos, contained in about 100 photo directories, each labeled by date and introduced by a "readme" summary page.

These sample buttons take you to the last and first "readme" summary pages:

Last "readme" summary page

First "readme" summary page

To get a daily overview of the entire pilgrimage, start here and read the daily "readme" summary pages in chronological order. To go from one day's "readme" summary page to the next day's, click on the Next directory button on that page.

The photos for each day are in one (sometimes two) directories, each with a "readme" summary page. Each such "readme" summary page has a brief text summary of the day's activities, a principal photo, and often thumbnails of a few of the more interesting photos from that day; sometimes a sello and sometimes email reports sent out that day from internet stations along the way.

All the photos for that day are under the Preview/Source photo/text index buttons. To understand how to navigate the photo directories, read this link: How to Navigate these directories.

The following are the text indices to the major segments of the pilgrimage:

• 20 km: Nov 9 - Apr 9: Before the pilgrimage: pilgrim gatherings, Taizé, ENS-Lyon.
• 311 km: Apr 10 - Apr 23: Cluny to Le Puy following the Chamina guide.
• 459 km: Apr 23 - May 17: Le Puy to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, part of Via Podiensis. Though I walked most of the way from Cluny to La Romieu, I had to skip some sections in France in order to meet Ted Raczek on time in St-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
• 774 km: May 17 - Jun 14: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, Camino Francés. I walked all the way from Sauveterre-de-Béarn in France to Santiago.
• 120 km: Jun 15 - Jun 28 After the pilgrimage: ARITH-16, pilgrimage continuation to Muxía and Fisterra, return to Santiago and home.
• Paperwork: Credentials and certificates.
• One phase of my camino ended and a new one began when I made my Cursillo with the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, 2-5 October 2003. De Colores!
• Pilgrim Gathering Santa Barbara 19-21 March 2004.
• I worked as part of a Cursillo team September 30 - October 3 2004.
• Pilgrim Gathering University of Toronto, 13-15 May 2005.
• Pilgrim Gathering Santa Barbara 7-9 March 2008.

Here are some other indices into the photos:

• Directories indexed by country, then state, department, or province, then date.
• Most popular photos.
• Most recently revised directories.
• Directories indexed chronologically.
• Directories indexed alphabetically.

The camino continues:

• March 30 - April 4 2006: Gathering of Pilgrims, Boulder CO.
• First Tuesday: Taizé prayer at Stone Church in Willow Glen, 6:45pm.
• First Friday: Taizé prayer at Mercy Center in Burlingame, 8:00pm.
• Fourth Friday: Taizé prayer at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, 65 W Rincon Av, Campbell, 7:30pm.

	I cannot forget an evening in the summer of 1942, when I was still on my own in Taizé. It was wartime. I knew that I was in danger because of the refugees I was sheltering in the house. Some of them were Jews. There was a serious threat that I would be arrested and taken away. Members of the civilian police force had repeatedly come to question me. That evening, with fear in the pit of my stomach, a prayer of trust took hold of me. I said to God, "Even if I lose my life, I know that you, the living God, will continue what has begun here, the creation of a community." --- Brother Roger, God is Love Alone, 2001.
	Learn about Taizé-style communal prayer: go to Taizé attend Taizé prayer at the Mercy Center near San Francisco, organized by Sister Suzanne Toolan, listen to the Taizé website read the Taizé website GIA Music is the authorized distributor of Taizé publications in the US.
Gott ist nur Liebe, Wagt, für die Liebe alles zu geben. Gott ist nur Liebe, Gebt euch ohne Furcht. --- Taizé chant #123 (Hörbeispiele #5 on linked page)	Gott ist nur Liebe was one of the chants during Eucharist at Taizé on 5 April 2003.

Who made this pilgrimage possible?

• Joan Inman gave me the idea.
• The ARITH steering committee set the time and place.
• My wife Brenda paid my bills in my absence so the cash machines and credit cards would keep working.
• My sister Bonny and her husband Jerry mailed my Poste Restante/Lista de Correos parcels and received the items I sent back from the camino, according to the time-honored tradition that everybody takes too much, regrets it, and sends it back.
• Margaret Kvamme championed Taizé prayer at the Almaden Valley United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church in Almaden.
• Pastor Julianne Stokstad and members of the Almaden Valley United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church in Almaden, and others prayed for me.
• Fellow pilgrims Beatrix, Birgit, Paul, Ted, Randy, and Alan helped keep things interesting at various times and places along the way.
• René Gastineau and Bernard Doyen provided much encouragement before and during the newly-published pilgrimage segment from Cluny to Le Puy.
• Profs. Crespo Martín and Rivera Montańez taught me as much Spanish as I was willing to absorb, and Profs. Bell and Gabet refreshed my long-forgotten French.
• Herta Puentes the pedicurist took care of my feet before and after.
• The members of the Day Hiking Section helped harden by feet and strengthen my back over the course of many outings 1995-2003.
• Uploading all my photos to my website from Santiago, so people could see how I was progressing, was finally accomplished with keychain USB cards, the handy nearly universal medium for medium size data sets, at least on PC's. I am indebted to Cyber Nova 50, in the Rúa Nova in Santiago, for allowing me to upload most of my photos from keychain USB cards. Ciber@stor in Astorga even allowed me to connect my computer to the internet and thus upload some of my early photos of Spain.
• The spirit of St James/St Jacques/Santiago Peregrino/Xacobeo was manifest in numerous minor miracles along the way, and expressed also by the countless persons along the way who indicated encouragement as I passed.

    Tous les matins nous prenons le chemin,
    tous les matins nous allons plus loin.
    Jour aprčs jour la route nous appelle,
    c'est la voix de Compostelle.

    Ultreia, Ultreia, et Suseia,
    Deus, adjuva nos!

    Chemin de terre et chemin de foi,
    voie millénaire de l'Europe,
    la voi lactée de Charlemagne,
    c'est le chemin de tous les jacquets.

    Ultreia, Ultreia, et Suseia,
    Deus, adjuva nos!

    Et tout lŕ-bas au bout du continent,
    messire Jacques nous attend,
    depuis toujours son sourire fixe,
    le soleil qui meurt au Finistčre.

    Ultreia, Ultreia, et Suseia,
    Deus, adjuva nos!

    J. Claude Bénazet

• The Spirit of the Pilgrimage.
• Gifts and Reflections.
• Ethic and Spirit of the Way.
• Pilgrims Through Grace, a Pastoral Letter of the Archbishop of Santiago in the Compostellan Holy Year 2004.

Organizations:

• American Association of Friends of the Road to Santiago.
• American Pilgrims on the Camino.
• CSJ - Confraternity of St James.
• Association Rhône-Alpes des Amis de St Jacques.

Electronic mail discussion groups:

• gocamino AT oakapple.net.
• GOCAMINO archives.
• Santiagobis site under development and corresponding yahoo group.
• Ultreya yahoo group.
• PCT-L for the Pacific Crest Trail. Many of the issues are similar to the Camino, others are different.

Maps and Guides:

• CSJ - Confraternity of St James.
• Chamina guidebook Cluny to Le Puy-en-Velay available from Amazon.
• Editions du Vieux Crayon publishers of Miam-Miam-Dodo for Le Puy-SJPP (in French) and SJPP-Santiago (in Spanish), the most up-to-date guides to lodging along these routes; available from CSJ and in many places along the routes.
• FFRP home of the topo-guides, but they don't accept credit card orders.
• IGN USGS en français; they do accept credit card orders and carry many FFRP topo-guides. Especially note map IGN 903 1:1000000 plan of the French GR hiking paths.
• Editions François Lepčre available from Amazon.
• Elstead Maps and guides.
• Epaths (the route from Le Puy to Santiago is part of E3).

Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago, Goya 1804, at Getty Center.

France:

• UCLA's map of the French routes and El Camino Francés.
• Photos and Haiku by René Gastineau and Guy Dutey in three languages, available from amazon.fr.
• Trilingual list of guides to French routes.
• Le Puy-Santiago: stjacquescompostelle.free.fr.
• Le Puy-Santiago: perso.wanadoo.fr/camino-frances.
• France on Foot, Bruce LeFavour's general guide to walking in France with numerous references to sources of information, many of which are listed above; pilgrimage routes aren't covered specifically.

Spain:

• Telegraph Online information on the pilgrimage - useful information but don't order from their defunct online store.
• Lonely Planet Spain, general information on walking in Spain, with a chapter on El Camino Francés.
• consumer.es website on El Camino Francés.
• Todas las etapas y albergues.
• Mundicamino interactive map of Camino Francés.
• Marco Lazzari's index to other Camino sites.
• La Credencial del Peregrino.

Personal accounts:

• One youtube view of the camino.
• Another youtube view of the camino.
• Gerhard Eshuis' camino just after mine.
• Jim Damico's trip report, September-October 2002 and his journal web site.
• Joan Inman's pictures St Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago to Fisterra, June-July 2001.
• Catherine Watson, senior travel editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, from SF Chronicle.
• Sir Walter Raleigh.
• Other Quotations on pilgrimage.

My other hiking pages:

• Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail - plans, progress, and photos.
• Short hiking trips - past, future, photos.

Photo by René Gastineau.

Council of Europe logo for the Ways of Santiago.