Great Taste of Camino Frances 2024

• Per person based on two sharing a double or twin-bedded room

• Guest-house-based option:

£580.00 Pounds Sterling or €660.00 Euros

• Hotel-based option:

£635.00 Pounds Sterling or €730.00 Euros

• Extra nights: On Request

• Choose between a hotel-led or a chambres-d’hotes-led format to suite your preference.
• Enjoy a slice of the best section of Europe’s Classic Pilgrimage trail.
• Explore the cultural heritage of two of France’s most inviting ancient regions: La Margeride and Aubrac.
• Hike the mythical ‘UNESCO’ World Heritage section from Nasbinals to St Chely across the Aubrac Plateau.
• Finish on the banks of the scenic River Lot.

• 4-night, self-guided, inn-to-inn walking tour through rural France.
• moderate challenge, averaging 12½ miles-20 kms a day over a total of up to 43 miles/69 kms.
• Start any day, beg. April to mid-October.
• Tour starts in Aumont-Aubrac and finishes in either St Come or Espalion.
• Best access from Claremont-Ferrand by train.
• Carefully-selected and fine accommodation averaging ‘superior 2-star standard’ hotels, chambres d’hotes and auberges.
• Optional return transfer to Aumont-Aubrac or Le Puy at tour’s end – please ask us for details.
• Luggage transfers throughout.

• 4 nights comfortable accommodation with all local hotel taxes
• 4 breakfasts and 4 evening meals.
• Luggage transfers¹.
• Themed dossier, Hiking Insight Notes and 1: 50,000 maps. The Way is very well way marked and we consider this scale map as entirely adequate for this particular trail.
• 7/7 Emergency telephone help-line service with native-English speaking local backup.

Notes:
¹ You are entitled to take one piece of luggage per person weighing up to 13 kgs -Supplements are payable for extra or overweight luggage.
Note: we are able to arrange for your excess luggage to be securely stored for the duration of your tour and delivered to the final hotel before your departure. Please ask us for further details of this service if it is of interest to you.

Not included:
Remaining meals and all drinks and extras;
personal expenses;
1: 25,000 scale maps: three of these would be required to cover the tour, which we are happy to supply at a supplement;
entrances into any optional cultural visits and venues;
hiking, personal and travel insurances;
travel to Aumont-Aubrac and from either St Come or Espalion.

These details are non-contractual and subject to change.
Please see:
https://www.sncf.com/en
or
the TER Site here.
or
https://www.rome2rio.com/

How to get to Aumont-Aubrac – Great Taste of Camino Frances

• By air to the following airports: Paris, Claremont-Ferrand, Lyon, Bezier or Montpellier. Nimes or Rodez are options if coming from the UK.

• By rail

• Best access is from Claremont-Ferrand for onward SNCF train or bus to Aumont-Aubrac. Aumont-Aubrac has an SNCF station.

Example – from Clermont-Ferrand gare SNCF: dep at 10.50 by SNCF coach, arrive in Aumont at 12.32; or dep at 13.03 by train, arriving in Aumont at 15.53.

• From Nimes via Mende with onward SNCF bus to Aumont-Aubrac.

Example – from Nimes gare SNCF: depart at 12.22 by train, change at Mende and arrive in Aumont-Aubrac at 16.48 (4 hrs 26 mins).

• From Montpellier gare SNCF to Millau by tramway and SNCF bus (90 mins), for onward SNCF bus to Marvejols (65 mins).

Example – from Montpellier: depart on SNCF bus at 12.05 from tramway at Mosson stop (Lines 1 & 3), arriving in Millau at 13.35; onward SNCF bus departs Millau at 15: 05, arriving in Marvejols at 16.10 – we can transfer you by taxi from here.

• From Bezier, there’s one direct morning train to Aumont-Aubrac in as little as 3.30 mins.

From Bezier gare SNCF: dep at 09.37, arrive in Aumont at 13.10.

• From Lyon via Saint-Etienne-Chtx and Clermont-Ferrand to Aumont-Aubrac.

Example – from Lyon-Part-Dieu gare SNCF: depart at 09.24 by train. Change at Saint-Etienne-Chtx for SNCF bus to Clermont-Ferrand, followed by train to Aumont-Aubrac arriving at 15.52 (6 hrs 28 mins).

• From Millau to Aumont-Aubrac.

Example – from Millau gare SNCF: depart at 11.29 by train direct to Aumont-Aubrac arriving at 13.10 (1 hr 41 mins).

• By bus:

• From Clermont-Ferrand gare SNCF to Aumont-Aubrac.

This service is run by Autocars Lozère and the SNCF and there are three services each day:
Example: departure from Clermont-Ferrand gare SNCF at 10.50 by SNCF coach, arriving in Aumont at 12.40 (not on Sundays or National holidays); departure from Clermont-Ferrand gare SNCF at 13.03 by SNCF coach, arriving in Aumont at 15.52 (not on Sundays or National holidays) or departure at 16.50 by Autocars Lozère coach, arriving in Aumont at 18.45.
See: autocars-lozere.com

• From Millau Gare SNCF to Aumont-Aubrac.

There is one SNCF bus per day, departing from Millau at 08.40, arriving in Aumont-Aubrac at 10.29.

Departure:
• We can get you transferred back to Aumont-Aubrac [or onto Le Puy-en-Velay] after breakfast on departure day on demand, subject to availability. Please reserve this at the time of booking.

Aumont-Aubrac lies on the regional railway line that runs north-south connecting Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers. Onward transport leaves here from around 11am and it takes approx. 2 hours to go north to Clermont-Ferrand or 3½ south to Beziers.
Alternatively, you can travel east across country by SNCF bus to Mende [the capital of Lozere] followed by onward train to La Bastide-Puy-Laurent and onto Nimes in approx. 5½ hours.

Le Puy-en-Velay is better for those wishing to travel onto Lyon.

We have literally combed the trail to find the best accommodation that the Camino has to offer so that you enjoy the over-night stay as much as the hiking. Great Taste of Camino Frances is thus delighted to bring you two options from which you can choose according to your own personal tastes:

• Guest house-led

Great Taste of Camino Frances sets out with the express aim of placing our customers in two fine guest houses along the trail. Bedrooms are all, of course, en suite and comfort levels are high. The objective is to allow you to meet interesting travellers along The Way, who value the same comforts as you, and spend time with hosts who know the area and its history and enjoy sharing it with their guests.

The human factor and the personal touch is thus writ large in Great Taste of Camino Frances. Your hosts are accustomed to welcoming Anglophones into their homes although, as with anything in life, your extra effort will be handsomely rewarded and so practicing some French [however rudimentary] is highly recommended.

The homes are on the trail itself. Depending on your dates, one may not provide an evening meal, simply because the village in question offers a multitude of local options to suit most tastes less than 100 metres away.

Both chambre-d’hotes have something unique to offer to their guests, both in terms of the style and warmth of the accommodation but also in the insight it provides into life at each place the particular stages along the trail.

Please note that as a result of COVID-19, there is no longer a suitable chambres d’hotes in Nasbinals nor St Chely. We thus place you in centrally-located two-and three-star hotels respectively.

• Hotel-led

This alternative option allows you to experience the trail by day whilst focussing the evenings on you, your family and close companions. You set the social agenda in the welcoming environment of your hotel bar, restaurant or room.

You stay in two 3-star hotels and two 2-star hotels.

Our commitment is to bring you your preferred accommodation option, Guest house-led or Hotel-led, in its purest form. However, we cannot guarantee that corresponding accommodation will always be available at each stage and so this cannot be a precondition of your booking. Where we are unable to accommodate you in the desired chambres d’hotes or hotel stay on a particular night, Great Taste of Camino Frances places in the equivalent hotel or guest house, respectively, with an adjustment to that night’s fees. Of course, it goes without saying that the more flexible you are with your start dates, the greater chance you have of getting your preferred accommodation type at each stage of the tour.

• Warm summers; mild and sunny spring & autumn
• Enjoy sub-alpine flora and volcanic plateau to schist valley topography.
• Cross three regions: Auverge, Languedoc-Roussilon and Midi-Pyrenees.