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Historical Background
The St James’s Way, also known as «Camino de Santiago» or «Chemin Saint-Jacques Compostelle», is a major Christian pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.
Tradition has it that the remains of the apostle, St James are buried here.
The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987;
it was also named one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 1993.
Voie d’Arles (GR65-3)
The route has many starting branches.
The oldest of this is the «Voie d’Arles», «Via Tolosana» or «GR 65».
This route starts at Arles, in south of France, and goes to «Puente La Reina» in Spain where it joins «El Camino Frances».
To cross the Pyrenees mountain range, that divides France and Spain, the Arles route follows along the magnificent river Aspe in the «Aspe Valley» all the way to the spectacular high peaks.
This is one of the most beautiful Pyrenean Valleys and definitely the wildest as is part of the Pyrenees National Park.
Fountains Of Escot Refuge
Fountains Of Escot, a former monastery and St James study Center has been for centuries a refuge for St James pilgrims.
Today tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims and other travellers from around the globe set out each year from popular starting points across Europe.
Most travel on foot, some by bicycle, and a few travel, as some of their medieval counterparts did, on horseback or by donkey.
Some of this pilgrims still find refuge in our family run
B&B Accommodation.
Geographical Location
Fountains Of Escot is at the entrance of the Aspe Valley in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.
We are on the GR 653 (or GR 65-3) section that goes from Oloron Sainte-Marie in France to Canfranc and Jaca in Spain (see map below).
We are just after the viaduct of Escot and before the church of Notre-Dame of Sarrance.
On the footpath you will see a small sign indicating the way to follow to the Fountains Of Escot.
We are 200m from the path you just have to cross the river bridge.
See
«Property plan».
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Pilgrims are Welcome!
At Fountains Of Escot rooms are individual with private shower and wash basin as explaines in the
«B&B simple rooms»
page.
We offer breakfast and dinners.
Laundry washing and drying facilities are also available.
Special Pilgrims Discount
We offer special discounts for pilgrims and the price varies according to the season:
The price for 2 pilgrims in a twin or double room starts at €13 per pilgrim per night.
The price for 1 pilgrim in an individual room starts at €22 per night.
There are further discounts for
groups of pilgrims.
Large groups of up to 40 pilgrims can be accommodated comfortably.
Open 365 days!
We are open all year round.
We emphasise this because even during winter we see some pilgrims and
some «gites d’etape» are open only during the summer months.
Thermal Mineral Waters
Fountains Of Escot is also a historical spa and we often take pilgrims for a tour of the ancient
Thermal Station
where we have some early christian sculptures related to the route.
Before departing pilgrims like refilling their bottles with the Fountains Of Escot mineral water!
See the
«Spa sculptures»
page.
Booking
You can book on-line using our
«Price quote & book now!»
facility (don’t forget to tick «pilgrims» on the form to get the pilgrims discount).
or you can simply
contact us
to book your accommodation.
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pilgrims’ gite d’etape open all year round
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multilingual hosts english, french, italian, spanish
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rooms starting at €13 per pilgrim
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private shower and wash basin
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good breakfast and evening meals available
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washing drying services
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large groups of up to 40 pilgrims can be accommodated
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free internet access
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great facilitites in a unique location
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spring mineral water freely available
Friends of St James Way
We are members of the «Friends of the Arles Route» organisation and we are always happy to help.
Some useful links are:
aucoeurduchemin.org
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