Summer in Couserans: A ray of happiness! 
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We have some good descents at Guzet! 
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The GR78 "Pyrenean Foothills Trail" is the most southern of the routes to Santiago de Compostela. It passes through treasured heritage towns such as Carcassonne, Mirepoix, Saint-Bertrand de Comminges, Lourdes, Roncesvalles, and our beautiful city of Saint-Lizier.
As soon as spring arrives, we can already see the hikers on the GR78, backpacks and rain ponchos, proudly displaying the Pecten maximus shell around the neck or on the staff.
It is on the variant of the via Tolosana in the heart of the Occitan region and from Narbonne where the Pyrenean Piedmont Trail starts. Past Carcassonne and Fanjeaux, the ridge paths open onto the Pyrenees a short distance from the town of Foix before the Ariège Pyrenees Natural Park opens his arms.
- Distance: 520 km (approx. 340 km in Midi-Pyrénées)
- Duration: Approximately 30 days of walking (approximately 15 days in Midi-Pyrénées)
- Markup: White Red
- Altitude : from 100 to 1207 m
- Recommended period: from April to October.
- FFRP reference guide: “ The Pyrenean Foothills Way to Santiago de Compostela«
- Pilgrim accommodation / pilgrimage stops:
Once upon a time, two German pilgrims, a father and a son, arrived in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1090, on their way to the tomb of Saint James, with ample means, and lodged with a wealthy innkeeper. This villain, who, under a pleasant exterior, feigned the gentleness of a lamb, received them with solicitude and, under the guise of hospitality, treacherously incited them to get drunk by serving them various drinks. While the pilgrims slept in a sleep made even heavier by drunkenness, the dishonest host, driven by a spirit of greed, secretly hid a silver cup in one of the sleepers' sacks, in order to convict them of theft and then appropriate their nest egg. The next day, when they had left after the cock had crowed, the host pursued them with an armed troop, shouting: "Give me back, give me back the money you stole from me!" They replied: "If you find anything on one of us, you will only have to have him condemned."
To find out what happens next, you will have to go to the Saint Peter chapel in Castillon-en-Couserans. To the right of the small Romanesque window, a painting tells this story. That of the " Hanged-hanged ", a legend that runs along the paths of Compostela since the XNUMXth century...
Progressing west leads to the discovery of a masterpiece of the heritage of the Haut-Garonnais, the ancient Roman city of Saint-Bertrand de Comminges, a high place of 2000 years of art and history, the thermal springs of Bagnères de Bigorre, the grotto of Lourdes, Mauléon, and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, springboard to the Spanish Camino de Santiago.
