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The main and the most frequented camino of the 6 official caminos de Santiago. We walked it with our baby. Here is how it went
As the name suggests, this camino starts in France. It is one of 6 official pilgrim routes that lead to Santiago de Compostela. This camino is considered to be the main camino, as it is the most frequented and most developed. There is a village every 3-5 kilometers and plenty of albergues (pilgrim hostels) on the way. There are 2 mountains along the way, but for most people these are 2 days out of a 30-35 day journey. Most of the camino is quite flat. We chose it because of that, and we also heard of people that are doing it with a stroller.
Our camino
We started our camino Frances in the city of Leon, our realistic choice for the case that our baby will not like it. We walked the whole 315km from Leon to Santiago in 22 days. People that do not carry a baby do it in as few as 11 days. We took our time, and we enjoyed every moment. There were a lot of surprises along the way, like places that were closes, ghost villages, rain, and even snow (in April!). By the time we finished we felt like seasoned pilgrims, that did a decent part of the camino and saw how it is changing itself and us with every step.
I reviewed our camino in 3 parts that describe our route and some of our feelings along the way:
And on the map:
Our baby
The beginning of the camino was rough on us. From walking too much, to a bit of rain, getting lucky with diapers and unlucky with baby food (and when we found some, the liitle guy sometimes refused to eat it)... We managed to get the hang of it in a few days and found our rhythm. Our son got used to his carrier and his colorful blanket, and was happy and playing with every person he met. The people were amazed to see a baby on the camino and were extremely nice to us. Offering fruits, presents and even private rooms to accommodate this young pilgrim and his parents (in this order.). Our baby was the star of the camino, and made much more friends than we did.
Final thoughts
The experience of doing the camino with our baby will stay with us forever (especially now that I decided to write a book about it). We are very glad that we chose the French camino to start with. It just felt right, every second of it, every person we met. We enjoyed it and cherished every second both as a family and as individuals. Discovering the world with our son is an amazing thing. Check out our documentation, we hope we will inspire you!
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