Stage after stage they got closer and closer to their goal: Barcelonnette and on Sunday (26 May) they will reach it. They are the participants of the Compagnia del Buon Camino which created the trek which started from Cuneo on 1st April; divided into ten stages.
On Sunday the meeting is at 7.30 in Piazza Spada a Demonte. At 9am by car you will reach Jausiers, the French town where the ninth stage ended last Sunday. From there they walk the 10 kilometers that separate them from Barcelonnette. A packed lunch will follow and in the afternoon prizes will be awarded to all those who participated in at least six stages. «The mayor of Cuneo, Patrizia Manassero and the local administrators will attend the ceremony» explains Ermanno Bressy of the Compagnia del Buon Cammino.
He himself takes stock of this «path of paths» as he likes to define it «because various routes have been followed: from that of Sant’Anna di Vinadio to the ancient one of Routo used by the shepherds of the Stura and Maira valleys heading to Provence during the transhumance, to that of Santiago de Compostela. We have therefore not traced new ones but discovered spectacular places, outside the usual routes. We walked without ever getting rain and all this made the outings really pleasant. The groups were almost always made up of 30-35 people, of all ages. The doyen in all stages was Sergio Melchio, 87 years old, from Demonte.”
The walk was also characterized by pleasant encounters and anecdotes. «When we carried out the inspection for the Pratolungo-Pontebernardo section we found an avalanche. Having informed the municipality of Vinadio, it seemed that it would not be possible to open the section and instead to great surprise when we returned with the group the avalanche had been cut. Thanks to the vice mayor Angelo Giverso.”
Even across the border, on French soil «the welcome exceeded expectations – Bressy continues -. Our friend Jean Pierre Chevallier will be our guide.” And the memory goes to last Sunday with the visit to Ceillac, the description of the Queyras Regional Park and the participation in the Typical Cuisine Festival, in Jausiers.
«A beautiful walk that we have distributed over ten stages but if you want you can concentrate it in about three days, covering the 110 kilometers that characterize it without interruption. It could be an idea to put into practice as summer approaches.”
The mission of the Company is always the same, the one contained in the name: “good journey”. «It is the pleasure of traveling through our valleys, discovering their beauties, appreciating their characteristics and describing them so that more and more enthusiasts choose those paths. Whether new or ancient” concludes Bressy.
