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Camino Francés
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The Camino Francés is the main spine route of the Camino de Santiago. It stretches of nearly 800 kilometres (500 miles) from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port near Biarritz in France to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. It has had large numbers of pilgrims travelling to the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) for at least 800 years. It has had a major influence on European history since it was the protection of pilgrims which inspired European rulers to support the small northern Spanish kingdoms in their efforts to push back the Muslim invaders of Spain. The Camino Francés can be divided into 3 main sections: the rolling hills of the Basque country, the hot, flat, empty central section of the "meseta", and the green hills of Galicia. The route includes the major cities of Pamplona, Burgos and León, the large towns of Logroño in the Rioja, Astorga, and Ponferrada, and hosts of interesting smaller places along the way. It is very varied scenically. A typical journey on the Camino Francés would take a month allowing for one or two rest days. The path itself is usually fairly flat and wide, with a good surface, as we will see from the many pictures in this section. There are plenty of refugios (simple mixed hostels with basic facilities costing a few euros a night operated on a first come- first served basis) where you can meet other pilgrims, as well as a range of more expensive accommodation. |
Our pages on the Camino Francés Our pages on the Camino Francés were originally posted in 2002. The development of the Picture Pages of the Camino at www.santiago-compostela.net since 2004 has been assisted by the Xunta de Galicia and by the Spanish Tourist Office in London.. We express our gratitude to them for this support. |
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, to Gilles Franqueville and Laure Castillou for the first French
pages 
- please click on the links at the head of this page to access
these. If you would like to | The stages of the Camino Francés | ||||||
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| Waymarking The waymarking along the route is, in general, extremely good. In France, the route from St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port is part of the long-distance GR65 footpath, and is marked by the red and white flash of the GR network. There are separate red and white to indicate changes of direction, and a red line crossed with a white one to indicate that you have taken the wrong turning. In Spain, the official mark is the stylised scallop shell on a blue background, which is often placed on the walls of houses well above eye level to indicate the route through villages and towns. In open country, one frequently encounters these signs are often found embedded in small concrete pillars. There are also signboards with this mark at the top, a pedestrian sign in the middle, and a direction arrow at the bottom; these are much used at road crossings. The red and white GR flashes are also found from time to time in Spain. However, the most common mark is a yellow arrow, which may be painted on trees, rocks, kerbstones, storm water gutters etc. Sometimes a yellow stripe is painted on trees as a continuation marker for reassurance. Some other waymarks incorporating the scallop shell can be found in the photographs. Waymarking can never be perfect - logging operations appeared to have removed all the marks at two points on this trip, though it was reasonably obvious which way the path continued. For pictures of many of the different varieties of waymarks, please visit our waymarks page This page has had |
Please visit our other travel websites for the
Inca trail in Peru, Mount Athos in Greece, Mongolia and the High Atlas in Morocco
This website is copyright© 2002-2011 by Internetworks Ltd. All the pictures are copyright© 2002-2011 Piers Nicholson, who took them all. You may download and use these pictures freely on condition that you include an acknowledgement
(and a link if it is on a website) to www.santiago-compostela.net