FRANCE

The 2011–2012 academic year was concluded by one of the greatest phenomena of medieval Europe: a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Our goal, however, was not to reach its final destination – the tomb of St. Jacob in northwest Spain – but just cover a part of the pilgrimage route running through southern France, where several major pilgrimage churches are located, mainly from the 12th century.

With the intention (and willingness) of getting as close as possible to the perspective of a medieval pilgrim, we set out on this journey on foot, with everything we needed on our backs. Eight pilgrims from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Switzerland took part in the expedition. Half of the crew set out by bus from Brno to Lyon, where, after exploring the city and its typical Renaissance passages, it joined the other half, arriving from Switzerland by train. From Lyon, took the train to the village of Le-Puy-en-Velay, where our journey began. This is where the whole tradition of the pilgrimage to Santiago began in the ninth century.

There, we exhaustively explored the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-du-Puy, where pilgrims from all over the world have gathered since the Middle Ages. As we descended the massive staircase, we realized it was about 170 kilometres to the nearest destination in Conques. We managed to complete this longest section divided into significant sub-goals in the first four days, during which we walked through the picturesque landscape of the French Auvergne. Besides the feast for the eyes in the form of cow pastures, our tired bodies were nourished by the best homemade cheese, salamis, pâtés, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, and wine, which a customer in a regular store can hardly imagine.

On the fourth day, when we had already figured out we couldn't make it in ten days, we decided to take advantage of a non-medieval practice and approach Conques by hitchhiking. We split into two pairs and one three-person team. One person had a bike and so had to pedal the whole route. In the village of Conques, time seems to have stopped and only the ubiquitous tourists disturbed the authenticity of the pilgrimage place. We decided to spend the night on the green meadow of the local cemetery, so that we could experience the place in its magical evening and morning atmosphere. We ate dinner, consisting again of local delicacies, directly under the imposing tympanum of St. Foy´s Church. The next day, we visited the local museum, where we could see with our own eyes the golden reliquary of St. Foy. Our steps continued towards the city of Cahors. Because of our schedule delay, we took advantage of the good will of local motorists again, but this time, the head of our expedition was the one to ride the bike at a lethal pace.

After an exhausting multi-stage journey, we all met again the same evening in Cahors, located in the curves of the river Lot. The last to join us was the leader of the expedition. Alternating on the bike proved to be the right move, as the road, with several significant hills, was more difficult for the mountain bike than it first seemed. We spent the night on the outskirts of the city, in the garden of one of the many "pilgrimage houses", hostels for numerous pilgrims, travelling along a prosperous highway on the officially marked route to Compostela. But our route always led us in other directions, albeit without the comfort of a roof over your head, running water and the certainty of lunch and dinner, but free. In the early morning, we first set out to see the tympanum of the local cathedral, and then headed for our next destination, the city of Moissac. We initially planned to walk this part, like everyone else, but when we found out about the opening hours of the local museum, we were forced to finish it again by hitchhiking, this time only about the last 4 kilometers. In the town of Moissac, a reward awaited us in the form of the beautiful medieval portal of the monastery church of St. Peter, as well as reliefs in the cloister of this monastery.

After a night spent in a local hostel for pilgrims (our first night under a roof!), we made it to the last destination of our journey, the city of Toulouse. For this last section, we decided to go along the Deux Mers canal, which seemed friendly at first. But when the surroundings hardly changed for the whole day and we felt like we were walking on a hot treadmill with the same view in front of us, it was so mentally tiring that we decided to cheat again and hitchhike for the last few kilometers. The city of Toulouse, the main attraction of which, for us, was the large Romanesque church, Saint Sernin, and its portal, made us a little uneasy and so we were not too sad when we were forced to leave early. We took an exorbitantly-priced TGV train back to our starting city of Lyon, where our expedition split again, one part going back to Brno, and the other heading for Switzerland.