Plantagenet Way

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).

There are currently three routes linking these two major pilgrimage sanctuaries. These three routes link up with the Tours route and the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela, which is signposted and described in numerous guidebooks. These are the "Capitals Routethe Plantagenet Way and the " Grand Chemin Montois or "Chemin de Tours". Thanks to partnerships with pilgrimage associations in Brittany, Anjou, Maine and Touraine, these shared paths 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 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! It should be noted, however, that it has not been updated for several years and does not take into account the creation of more recent associations such as Compostelle53 and other routes

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, see theBreton Association and theAssociation of Friends of Saint-Jacques in Anjou

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., 2023 edition), printed individually by Lulu.com.. For more information on this route, visit the association's website Compostelle Brittany