Slow tourism in Gironde: the Santiago de Compostela route agency wants to promote the Blaye-Bordeaux section

The French Agency for the Routes of Compostela is seeking to promote shorter journeys. Particularly between Blaye and Bordeaux, a route for which two documents have just been launched. Before an agreement with the city hall to make Bordeaux a stopover town?

After Paris and Toulouse, the French Agency for the Ways of Compostela (AFCC) held its annual general meeting in Bordeaux on Wednesday, June 25. It was an opportunity to discuss the 68 monuments and ten sections of trails that this association aims to promote in France, with a special focus on the Blaye-Bordeaux section.

For the past fifteen years, the AFCC has been seeking to promote intermediate stages and shorter sections of the pilgrimage routes. It aims to offer an alternative to those who lack the physical capacity or the time to complete the entire pilgrimage: "Eight hundred kilometers and forty days on foot," estimates Michel Durrieu, regional councilor for Nouvelle-Aquitaine and vice-president of the agency.

"The pilgrims' approach echoes current concerns. Our studies show that people walk at times of separation, after an illness, during bereavement, or before a major professional change."

With its fifty kilometers that can be covered in two days, the Blaye-Bordeaux section offers an alternative, while remaining consistent with the values ​​of the Camino de Santiago: "Disconnect, surpass yourself, reflect on yourself," explains John Palacin, regional councilor for Occitanie and president of the AFCC. "This approach is part of a heritage that dates back to the Middle Ages, but it echoes current concerns. Our studies show that people walk at the time of a separation, after an illness, during a bereavement, or before a major professional change."

The pilgrimage routes that connect Blaye and Bordeaux are also of tourist interest. They start at the Basilica of Saint-Romain, near the citadel, where Roland is supposed to have been buried after his death at Roncevaux, and then pass either by the port, where there are troglodyte dwellings, or by the cornice that runs along the Gironde "from where the view is magnificent," assures Michel Durrieu, to cross the Dordogne at Cubzac-les-Ponts.

"And in Bordeaux, we have sites identified with pilgrimage, such as the Cailhau Gate or the Saint-Seurin Basilica," adds Michel Dronneau, president of Bordeaux Compostelle hôpital Saint-Jacques. This association, responsible for welcoming pilgrims, created the Burdigala in March, a pilgrimage certificate intended for those taking the Tours route, between Paris and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, and who make at least the journey between Blaye and Bordeaux. It's a way to encourage them to spend a night there, similar to what happens with similar certificates in and around Santiago de Compostela.

In addition, the association also sells a "credencial," a sort of passport that pilgrims have stamped at each stopover. "They are asking for this kind of testimony," says Michel Durrieu. This credencial is designed as a way to anticipate an agreement with the Bordeaux city hall to have it recognized as a stopover town, "by setting up a small development contract, as Poitiers and Saint-Jean-d'Angély have done. The route is well signposted, the sites are clearly identified, and this agreement is consistent with the values ​​of slow tourism that are of increasing interest to local authorities: promoting slow travel that respects the sites and the people who live there. We hope to have it in place by 2027-2028."