Why The Via Francigena
“Have you walked the Via Francigena?”
“What’s that?”, we answered.
Sitting at a café, enjoying a coffee and croissant while on the Camino de Santiago, our conversations with nearby pilgrims veered towards other pilgrimages. The nice couple from Switzerland sitting next to us had completed the Via Francigena the year prior and were super excited to share their experience.
That was the start of our own Via Francigena pilgrimage.
Phase 1
The Via Francigena (VF) is 1200 miles, starting at Canterbury Cathedral and ending in Rome. It follows the route taken by Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 990, when he walked to Rome.
The full journey is too long for us to take in one go, so we split it into two phases. We started the first phase in Canterbury and traveled through Switzerland, stopping at the significant churches along the way.
We decided to drive this first phase, as it seems the walking infrastructure isn’t as developed as with the Camino de Santiago, and it would save some time. Having a car also gave us the opportunity to visit some “side pilgrimages” in France, not directly on the VF.
We are planning to walk the second phase, from Aosta, Italy to Rome, in the springtime.
The nearby map shows our route for the first phase. We started driving on the left side of the road in Canterbury, then right through France, stopping at select VF sites.
Having a faithful pilgrimage is our main focus, so our blog posts will often be organized by the churches we visited. For the Camino De Santiago, we wrote a travelogue. Our stops on the VF included: Canterbury, Saint-Omer, Reims, Condé-sur-Marne, Vaux, Châlons en Champagne, Langres, Besançon, and Lausanne in Switzerland.
Side Pilgrimages
While in France, we had a few other pilgrimages in mind.
Mont Saint-Michel, an island on the Sword of Saint Michael, is a fascinating site. Bayeux is famous for its tapestry, and it’s a great central location for exploring the Normandy beaches and cemetery. Lisieux is the home of the Little Flower, St. Thérèse.
Paris was our port of entry, and it has many interesting churches. Our first was the Chapel of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Then to the Chapelle Saint Vincent de Paul. We also visited Saint-Chapelle, Sacre Coeur, Notre-Dame, and Saint Sulpice. We attended English language Mass at St. Joseph’s in Paris, too.
As mentioned earlier, we’ll be posting about the holy places we visited as well as on the moving World War II memorials and historic sights we encountered.
St. Jeanne d’Arc has two prominent locations in France — Reims is on the Via Francigena and where she attended the coronation of Charles VII. We also visited Rouen, the site of her trial and martyrdom.
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