This walking itinerary links the two mediaeval sanctuaries of Sainte Foy in Conques, on the Le Puy Way, and Saint Sernin in Toulouse, on the Arles Way. It corresponds to the reality of mediaeval history : it was a route which linked Toulouse with the Auvergne and the Lyonnais regions. The itinerary goes through Peyrusse-le-Roc, Villeneuve-d’Aveyron, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Najac, Laguépie, Cordes, Gaillac and Rabastens. All these communes, in the Aveyron, the Tarn et Garonne, the Tarn and the Haute-Garonne, have had a well-documented tradition of hosting pilgrims or of a devotion to St. James the Greater.
In Villeneuve d'Aveyron, you can admire the frescoes representing one of James' most famous miracles, that of the "hanged man unhung" ; in Villefranche de Rouergue, a mediaeval economic crossroads, traces of the pilgrim life will be visible to you in the stained-glass of the Charterhouse, or in the traces left by its large St. James Guild, as also in Cordes sur Ciel. Then Rabastens awaits you, with the story of the Translation of St. James on the painted walls of its church. Deeply marked by the mediaeval past of Occitanie, this itinerary is also the one which the Countess of Toulouse, desperate for a child, followed to go and pray at the shrine of Saint Foy.
The itinerary follows the GR®62b, 36 and 46 paths. It provides a north-south/south-north pedestrian route.
