The southernmost of the French roads leading to Santiago de Compostela connects the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, stretching from east to west along a thousand-year-old route.
The backgammons passed the word on this tangent which begins in Montpellier, in the Hérault, to join Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, before switching to Spain.
It is a bit like the competitor of the Arles path, closer to the mountains: the Pyrenean Piedmont route undulates in a balcony at the foot of the Pyrenees, without ever gaining altitude through a rural landscape.
Its 712 kilometers are traveled on average in 29 days, constituting a good alternative to the last section of via Podiensis.
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Finalist of the favorite GR of the French
Proof of its growing appeal, one of the parts of the Pyrenean Piedmont path has been selected for the 6th season of the "French favorite GR", scheduled from November 3 to 23, 2022: a fragment of the GR 78 between Lourdes, in the Hautes -Pyrénées, and Oloron-Sainte-Marie, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
This section of 70 kilometers in 4 days is one of the 8 finalists of this competition launched by the French hiking federation, alongside the tour of Normandy Switzerland or the GR 59 from the Southern Vosges to the foothills of the Jura.
Who knows, maybe she will succeed the Tour de Belle Île, winner of season 5, at the end of 2021.
Garrigue and vineyards of the Minervois
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The Pyrenean Piedmont route begins in Montpellier, a crossroads where the route to Arles also passes.
Instead of joining Toulouse like the latter, the GR 78 heads towards Carcassonne, in the Aude, via a first piedmont, this geographical term designating an area of plains and hills at the foot…
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