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Pilgrim's progress

Each year thousands of pilgrims make the gruelling trek from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago de Compostela. Paul Lamarra sets out.

Booming out from the tower, the bells continued beyond the eight strikes that marked the hour. Mass was over and the pilgrims had been blessed. The doors in the floor of the nave before the high altar were flung open to reveal the red-tiled roofs of Le Puy-en-Velay below and the first few miles of the ancient pilgrimage route – the Chemin de Saint-Jacques. The bells were jubilant but the mood was sombre. The hot, sultry atmosphere of the night before – when prospective pilgrims thronged the cafés, enjoying the relaxed hubbub of easy laughter, clinking glasses and excited cross-table chatter – had ebbed away and storm clouds were gathering overhead.

A new reality was etched in the faces of the doubtful pilgrims as they paid their respects to the famous statue of the Black Madonna before moving on to place a hand on the fever stone – a large slab of volcanic rock that has reputedly been curing fevers and certainly reassuring pilgrims since medieval times. The final act in Cathédrale de Notre-Dame du Puy, was to declare with a solemn signature the intention to walk the 1,600 kilometres to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain to pay homage at the grave of Saint James the Apostle. The leatherbound volume was then whisked away, should it be mistaken for a mere visitors’ book. These rituals have been played out off and on since Godescalc, a 10th-century bishop of Le Puy, donned his hair shirt, no doubt placed a pebble in his shoe and set out for Santiago, becoming the first non-Spanish pilgrim to do so.

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