Santiago de Compostela.
Beaune still really is the crossroads of Europe it seems. In the hotel today I met a couple who were clearly on a walking tour – today they were walking ~4 hours to Chagny. But actually their final destination was a good deal further away – the Santiago de Compostela – in Spain!
Oh, and that’s not the closest part of Spain either!
Historically, Beaune was an important stopping-off point in many a pilgrimage and it seems that for some people, little has changed. The owner of my hotel has a special stamp for these people’s notebooks/routebooks to register that they were in Beaune. People start from as far away as Bonn or Strasbourg, she says. But normally they don’t do it in a single journey – they often choose to do three weeks per year, re-starting where they left-off the previous year. She did mention one man who left Beaune and was back 6 months later – he had been there and back in that time – but he still had a long way to go, in order to get home!
There is one response to “how far are you going?”
Bill,
Doing the Finest Wines of Rioja and NW Spain I became familiar with the little blue signs with the yellow shell that indicate a Camino route. It does seem increasingly popular, I saw 4 youngsters and a donkey passing Aloxe-Corton a year or so ago carrying shell badges on their rucksacks. The path passes above Clos Vougeot towards Vosne-Romanée and later below Bressandes on Corton Hill. I’ve not yet seen any Camino hostels anywhere on the Côte like you’ll find all over N Spain though. Here you show your pilgrim card and get discounts on meals and lodging.
Jon