The route : Planned vs actual

The route we chose is almost entirely made up of France's GR (Grand Randonnée) network.

It is almost all on the Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle ways, both the major routes and their variants:

• Le Puy-en-Velay to Figeac: GR65 (Via Podiensis path of the Chemin de Compostelle)
• Figeac to Rocamadour: GR6 (a variant of the Compostelle to Cahors via Rocamadour)
• Rocamadour to Cahors: GR46 (a variant of the Compostelle to Cahors via Rocamadour)
• Cahors to Limogne GR65 (the Compostelle in reverse)
• Villefranche to Cordes: GR36 (the Compostelle variant which links the Via Podiensis to the Via Tolosano from Conques to Toulouse)

The first map shows our planned route, with rest days in Figeac (after 11 days hiking) and Cahors (after an additional 6 days of hiking), followed by 8 final days of hiking.

The planned route.

We stuck to the plan through the first 20 days of hiking, but shortened or eliminated our last 5 hiking days (dashed red represents bus or trains instead of walking).

A few compromises after 22 days of  hiking and stops

The gpx/kmz files for our route are available on the navigation page.