On the road to Compostela : from Motz to Saint Genix sur Guiers

In Savoie, its 58km route traverses some varied landscapes following the Rhône to St Genix sur Guiers. Although Santiago de Compostela is still over 1700km away, you can still experience this thousand year old pilgrimage route and you will meet very many pilgrims from Switzerland, Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. We invite you to follow this thousans year old route, redolent of spirituality.

The routes of Santiago de Compostela in France are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Via Gebenensis comes from Geneva to go to Le Puy en Velay and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (in Spain). Between Yenne and Saint-Maurice de Rotherens, you will have to climb 600m into a forest before finally enjoy the amazing panoramic view on the plain of Rhône. What a nice comfort after such sport !. Once you have crossed the region of Yenne, you come in Val Guiers region in which you can see many churches and chapels: in Saint-Maurice-de-Rotherens, the sculpted wooden cross of a pilgrim and the Chapel of Pigneux in Saint-Genix-sur-Guiers. Pilgrimage is a time when you can discover the patrimony The legend of the scallop During a wedding feast, a noble knight fell into the ocean with his horse just as the boat carrying the body of Saint James passed by. Immediately the sea became calm and the knight and his horse emerged from the water, covered in scallop shells, known in French as shells of Saint James - coquilles Saint-Jacques. The symbol of pilgrimage In the Middle Ages, the shells were sold in the square in front of Santiago Cathedral. The pilgrims carried them home as proof of their journey.