
Plantagenet Way
The Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela and Mont-Saint-Michel in the West of France
The Mont-Saint-Michel TrailSince their foundation in 1998, the European Cultural Routes have played an active role in building a network of cultural exchanges on a European scale. Then as now, the Camino del Monte and the Camino de Compostela form a network of European itineraries, some of which are shared, enabling people to travel from one shrine to another as part of their long-distance itinerary, thanks to the "shared paths".
Along with Compostela, Mont-Saint-Michel is one of Europe's major pilgrimage shrines and a focal point for itineraries. It is the meeting place and departure point for the jacquets and the arrival point for the miquelots. The archangel and the apostle. The Channel and the Atlantic, the bay between Normandy and Brittany and the distant cape of Galicia. All these elements bear witness to the growing contemporary links between these two sites, which are listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites on the Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela (serial number 868).
The internet portal for the Atlantic Arc pilgrimage routes will help you get to know the sites of the various associations of historic paths in the West, from Normandy to the Basque Country... and from Brittany to Touraine... : Historical and pilgrimage routes of the Atlantic Arc.
This portal provides a brief presentation of each of the associations that promote, develop and maintain the Pilgrim's Routes to Santiago de Compostela and Mont-Saint-Michel! Unfortunately, this portal has not been updated and does not include some more recent associations.
The "Shared Routes" of Compostela and Mont Blanc
There are currently three routes linking these two major pilgrimage sanctuaries.
These three routes join the Tours route and the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela, which is signposted and described in numerous guidebooks. They are the "Voie des Capitales", the "Voie des Plantagenêts" and the "Voie de Compostelle". Grand Chemin Montois
Thanks to partnerships with pilgrimage associations in the regions they cross, these shared routes are signposted in both directions. For example, jacquets departing from the Mont follow the stylised yellow shells of Compostela and miquelots, who come from the "south", follow the cyan-blue signposts of the Mont-Saint-Michel Trail.
THE PLANTAGENET WAY
Itinerary presented in "Des racines et des ailes from January 2021
From Angers to Mont-Saint-Michel This route leads from Anjou to Mont-Saint-Michel: it is described in the guide entitled "Le Chemin du Mont Saint Michel - La voie des Plantagenêts" published by Rando-Editions in 2008 and now out of print.
This guide presented the description and heritage of Angers au Mont and du Mont au Puy-Notre-Dame (southern Maine-et-Loire), failing which all that remains are the route descriptions and maps of the Breton Association website.
For those wishing to set off from Aulnay-de-Saintonge and head for Angers and then the Mont, the section in the Deux-Sèvres follows the GR 36, which is signposted in both directions. This route is currently being signposted to the Mont in Charente-Maritime and Deux-Sèvres with the Chemins du Mont logo.
For more information on this route, the Breton Association website and the Association des Amis de Saint-Jacques en Anjou website
From Mont to Aulnay-de-Saintonge [to Compostela] [in French]. This route crosses Brittany and Anjou, via Saint-James, Fougères, Vitré, La Guerche-de-Bretagne, Pouancé, Segré, Le Lion-d'Angers, Angers, Doué-la-Fontaine, Le Puy-Notre-Dame, Thouars, Niort, Parthenay before joining the Tours route at Aulnay de Saintonge.
This 23-stop itinerary is described in the guide published by the Association bretonne des Amis de Saint-Jacques (€18 + postage) (122 p., 2020 edition), printed individually by Lulu.com. to order it
For more information on this route, consult the website of the Compostelle Bretagne association: https://compostelle-bretagne.fr/