LE PUY EN VELAY, BYE BYE CAMINO

the skyline of Le Puy en Velay

The graceful silhouette of the Red Virgin Mary appears between the branches of trees growing along the path leading us to Le Puy en Velay, then suddenly, the view opens-up as a panorama on the old-city with the cathedral distinctly recognisable by its stones of two colours, white and dark grey, used to create geometric decorative patterns. The Cathedral has entrances on two levels, entered each from a different streets on the hill. The two entrances communicate through an inner staircase in the belly of the cathedral.

I don't know how I feel after these 900km walked since Hendaye. I know for sure that my right thigh is unhappy and hurts to a point that I do not enjoy walking any longer. I try to forget the pain by focusing my mind on something else than my senses. 

I should be happy to complete this leg of the Camino on my two legs, albeit in the reverse direction. The past few days we have greeted hundreds of pilgrims, freshly started from Le Puy en Velay, as it is customary between pilgrims who meet each other. Sometimes one feels that having a backpack and one or two walking sticks makes one a pilgrim. They were all walking as if propelled by some untapped energy. Of course, after the second walking day, signs of tiredness could be perceived on some faces. The weight of the backpack over several hours of going up and down is not something that can be done away with.

It had been a good day, weather-wise, only a few raindrops in the morning, sometimes just enough to make us put on our rain poncho and remove it after a few minutes. As we descended towards the city center to find our accommodation on Capucins street, Le Puy en Velay felt like a larger city than the twenty thousand inhabitants it advertises. We saw two MacDonalds, a FNAC, multiple shops and restaurants and a construction site right in the center of the city. Traffic was also more substantial than what we had been used to for a while along the Camino. Le Puy is clearly a regional center. Pilgrims are undoubtedly supporting the local economy, but there is more to that. The city has an array of architectural styles, living testimonies of the long history of the city. The medieval center around the Cathedral has buildings made of volcanic stone, from dark red to black which gives those houses and mansions an air of having been there for ages and having witnessed the tormented twists and turns of the city's history.
There are a few half-timbered houses. The lower part of the hill features more recent houses with monochrome facades and colorful window panes. A boulevard is encircling the old city and is a line of demarcation for more recent buildings from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The Breuil square is a large opening planted with sycamore trees behind which the city hall appears as a cream-coloured palace. A few yards away, the Regina hotel is erected in a sharp angle and topped with a cupola on which "Regina" is written in big red letters. It has a nice restaurant where we indulged in a grilled beef rib. Another iconic building is the Verbena mansion which has an elaborate art-nouveau cupola with a windowed-platform in its center.

There is further intriguing building in the skyline, an old chapel, in the village of Aiguilhe, that was built atop a protruding rock which is in fact a volcanic chimney. The Chapel dedicated to Saint Michel was built in the 10th century. It is apparently, the 4th preferred popular building of French people. I wonder how many of them actually know about the chapel! Nonetheless it is a must see with beautiful stone carvings and paintings.
In the evening the city treats newcomers to a light-show that starts at the Cathedral. Various colourful images are projected on front of its lower gate which brings it to life in an unexpected way (a bit like a glowing skeleton suit for Halloween). Then comes the turn of the rock on which the Red Virgin stands. We heard that more locations were illuminated in turns, but we went to bed instead after the Cathedral part.

7 AM the next day, we walked up to the Cathedral before breakfast to attend the blessing ceremony of the new batch of Compostella pilgrims. The fog filled the narrow and fairly empty streets of the old city with an atmosphere of mystery. The lower gate of the Cathedral was now open facing a steep street that runs nearly all the way down to the boulevard. The perspective is striking from the staircase inside the church, it looks like a launchpad to the real world, a very dramatic setting for new pilgrims who are about to be blessed and set off for their pilgrimage. Inside the Cathedral, the freshers were gathered around a priest to receive his blessing. He gave a humorous pep talk and distributed prayer books and a medal for those who required them. The priest said he was available for anyone who needed a private conversation. A prayer to the black Virgin was said, for the black Virgin is revered in Le Puy, and the pilgrims were then free to start their journey. They took their backpacks and descended in the gloomy morning light full of energy and hope.
For our part, the destination and the storyline was different, we were planning to follow the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson all the way down to Saint Jean du Gard. But first things first, we headed for our breakfast.

In retrospect our experience on the Camino was different than the one on other paths because the Camino puts everyone on an equal mission which is to follow its path and for most people to reach Santiago de Compostella. But first and foremost, it is about the experience to travel anonymously under the cloth of a pilgrim (some will feel like displaying the shell on their bagpack to strengthen the appropriation of the costume). It is also about sharing evenings with people on the same mission, often with hosts dedicated or sympathetic to the Camino, and perhaps, as one meets each other regularly along the way, there is a high probability to make new friends and share the burden of travelling, for it is not 100% pleasure in a bottle, some sweat has to be spent to get from one place to the other and body pains have to be born all through. But the taste of freedom, the ability to let go away from daily constraints and the feeling of solidarity and sharing is well worth the effort.

Images

1/ Le Puy skyline

2/ Regina hotel

3/ Cathedral illumination

4/ pilgrims starting their journey to Compostella

5/ the pilgrims' blessing ceremony

the Regina hotel

Cathedral illumination

pilgrims starting their journey to Compostella

the pilgrims' blessing ceremony