Paris Camino

The Saint James tower (Tour Saint Jacques) is the historic meeting point for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela from Paris. It is the former bell tower of the Church of Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie that was destroyed in the French Revolution. For centuries, the pilgrims coming from the north would walk via Saint-Denis, enter Paris to regroup around Tour Saint-Jacques and continue southwards to Tours.

From the 1740 kilometers from Paris to Santiago, we will only walk around 9 km... within the limits of the city from the Parc de la Villette in the north to the Porte d'Orléans in the south, a rather small distance for a pilgrim usually walking an average of 25 km daily.
Paris camino is obviously much less bucolic and less proper to spiritual meditation than most of the Pilgrim's Roads to Santiago de Compostela, but it crosses interesting neighborhoods and historic sites.

The first part is a recent one, based on the GR 655 used by pilgrims from North and Flanders. It goes through Parc de la Villette and follows Canal de l'Ourcq and Canal de Saint-Martin. A more traditional way is then followed along rue Saint-Martin down to the church of Saint-Merri.

The second part older, is the one traditionally followed by pilgrims from the middle ages. It starts from the Saint James tower and follows an old roman axis, called Cardo maximus and renamed Rue Saint-Jacques in the Middle Ages as a reference to the pilgrimage.