LA VIA PODIENSIS

It's the most famous of the roads to Compostela: the royal route from Le Puy-en-Velay. One of the best-known routes, it was the first to be converted into a long-distance footpath (sentier de Grande Randonnée) in the 1970s. Marked GR65, its route is a beautiful walk punctuated by churches, Romanesque chapels and numerous vestiges and legacies of local life, including guide crosses, fountains, wash-houses and assemblies. This is one of the best signposted and serviced long-distance trails in France: it's impossible to get lost!