The French Way  

The French Way is the xacobean itinerary with more historical tradition, being the most internationally recognized. Its layout through the north of the Iberian Peninsula was settled by the end of the 11th century, thanks to the constructive work and promotion of monarchs like Sancho III the Greatest, Sancho Ramírez of Navarra and Aragón, Alfonso VI and his successors. The main routes of this Road in France and Spain were described accurately in the Codex Calixtinus, fundamental xacobean book, written in 1135.

The fifth Book of this codex constitutes an authentic medieval guide of the peregrination to Santiago. In this book, the sections of the French Way are specified from, also detailing the sanctuaries of the route, the local hospitality, people, food, fountains, customs, etc. Everything is written with the synthesis and clarity needed for a practical answer to a concrete demand: the peregrination to Santiago.

This guide, attributed to the French clergyman Aymeric Picaud, demonstrates the political-religious will to promote the compostelan sanctuary and to facilitate the access to it. When this book was written, the French Way and the peregrinations reached their maximum apogee and the French Way its greatest affluence, excluding the present moment. Santiago becomes the goal of the pilgrims coming from the Christian orb.

With the passage of the centuries and due to political-religious ups and downs, the physical itinerary of the French Way lost importance. At the end of the 19th century, a renewed interest for the jacobean thematic arose and continued during the second half of the 20th century with the progressive recovery of the old itinerary, recognized internationally like one of the historical symbols of the European unit.

The French Way acquires a precise layout in France through the four main routes already described in the Codex Calixtinus.

Three of these routes (París-Tours, Vézelay-Limoges and Le Puy-Conques) enter Spain by Roncesvalles, in Navarra, and the fourth route (Arles-Toulouse) enters by the port of Somport and continues until Jaca, in territories of Aragón. The itinerary of Roncesvalles, that crosses the city of Pamplona, is united with the Aragonese in Puente La Reina (Navarra).

From Puente La Reina, the French Way maintains only one itinerary that crosses localities and cities of the north of Spain such as Estella, Logroño, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Burgos, Castrojeriz, Frómista, Carrión de los Condes, Sahagún, León, Astorga, Ponferrada and Villafranca del Bierzo.

The French Way enters Galicia by the region of El Bierzo.

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