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Gaële de La Brosse: "Traveling with a map means developing all of your senses"

2021-03-18T05:13:34.398Z


A walker, familiar with the Saint-Jacques roads which have inspired her for thirty years, Gaële de La Brosse is at the origin of a tribute book, and collegial, which has just been published on the occasion of the jubilee year 2021, In Compostela.


In this collegial work, published by Salvator editions (256 p., 17 €), Jean-Christophe Rufin, Bernard Ollivier, Hervé Bellec, Alexandre Poussin, or even Jean-Pierre Raffarin, testify, among 34 personalities, of their experience.

However, between maps and beacons, some pilgrims follow the GPS.

For

Le Figaro

, the editor looks at what this change can induce in the collective culture.

THE FIGARO

.

- Are you offended to see pilgrims using GPS on Compostela?

Gaële de La Brosse

.

- No, because I adhere to the saying: "

To each his own way

".

However, I do not recommend it: most of these paths are marked, and very well designed tools (maps and guides) allow you to find your way around.

The GPS seems to me to be more useful on long-distance paths where the markup itself has been made virtually, such as the paths of Saint Columban.

These, which total 9000 km through nine countries, were recognized by a pilgrim, Simon Derache, who recorded the track of his route by means of a GPS.

A website and an application (or digital guidebook) are now available.

The Via Columbani federation, which is responsible for promoting this path, made this choice for three reasons: to save the financial and energy cost of pausing and maintaining a markup on such a long route;

facilitate the organization and modification of itineraries;

and preserve nature, often overloaded with various markings.

Read also: Via Garona, the other way to Compostela

What does this tool inspire you?

Do you use it on foot, by bike or in the car?

No, I have never used it, neither on foot, nor by bike, nor by car.

I never felt the need or the desire.

In the car, I use the road maps;

and on foot or by bike, guides and topographic maps.

I have some reluctance to be guided by a satellite.

Personally, I am a lover of maps, old as well as contemporary, road or topographical.

I particularly like to discover the contour lines, rivers and streams, the color of the roads that determine their importance (from the red highways to the black paths followed by Sylvain Tesson in his crossing of France), the green or blue spots. which reveal the natural spaces, the boundaries of the department.

And all these little spots like so many villages or hamlets behind which so many human stories are woven!

Even the legends of the maps make me dream much more than the vocabulary of digital mapping tools.

Finally, I like to see far.

With a GPS, the horizon is our screen.

With a map, you are in a more or less large environment as you unfold it.

Read also: Corsica on foot ... outside the beaten GRs

Gaële de La Brosse Nicolas Portnoi / The Pilgrim

Do you think GPS redefines the contours of a psychological geography?

Yes, most definitely.

We use GPS to save time, to find the shortest route, the cheapest, the one that is not under construction, that is not congested, etc.

Whoever uses the map, whether by car, on foot or by bicycle, accepts that uncertainty is part of the journey.

It even includes the possibility (quite relative in our regions!) Of getting lost.

These hazards are part of the adventure.

They have on us not only material consequences (delay), but also psychological, teaching us to manage the unforeseen and to develop certain faculties which will also be useful to us in our pilgrimage of the life - where it is sometimes necessary to get lost to better find oneself. .

Traveling with a map means developing not only your intuition, but also all of your senses.

Sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste validate or invalidate the timeliness of the data on the card.

Finally, I would award a special prize to the intersection of roads, those features which overlap on the map and which impose a choice.

The crossroads is an imagination in itself!

And, again, trusting a satellite or our lucky star is a choice that reveals a character, or at least a way of traveling.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-03-18

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