Via Adresca

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Gillonnay (Isère), turnoff from the Via Gebennensis → Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire), starting point of the Via Podiensis
• Length: 222.2 km
• Duration: 11 stages, approx. 10–12 days
• Elevation: ↗ 4,149 m / ↘ 3,958 m
• Highest point: 1,284 m at km 190.0 on the plateau before Saint-Front; the lowest, at 112 m, is in the Rhône Valley at La Roche-de-Glun
• Landscape: The Bièvre plain and the Chambaran forest, the hills of the Drôme des Collines, the Rhône Valley, the chestnut slopes of the Vivarais, pastures above 1,000 meters, and finally the volcanic cones of Le Puy
• Waymarking: Chemin vert (green way) in the ARA's color system
• Traces of St. James: Few on the route itself; instead Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, the mother house of the Antonines, and at the finish the cathedral of Le Puy with its daily pilgrim blessing
• Accommodation: Gîtes, chambres d'hôtes, small hotels and accueils jacquaires (host families who take in pilgrims for a donation); in the highland villages often just one place to stay
• Connecting routes: Via Rhodana (shared from La Roche-de-Glun to just past Châteaubourg, then on to Arles), Via Rhodana (Lyon) (ends in La Roche-de-Glun), Via Gebennensis (turnoff at Gillonnay, last 10 km or so shared), in Le Puy the Via Podiensis and Trier – Le Puy; the Via Adresca (Montélimar) from Montélimar via Aubenas also arrives in Le Puy
• Best time: Late May to June and September; the high plateau is snowbound in winter
• Associations along the way: whole route: Association Rhône-Alpes des Amis de Saint-Jacques

Overview

From Gillonnay to Le Puy-en-Velay, the Via Gebennensis heads west for about 177 kilometers. The Via Adresca takes 222.2 kilometers for the same job, because it first runs south. It doesn't take the detour by accident. The detour leads across the wooded Plateau de Chambaran to Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, where the Order of the Antonines arose around 1095, and to the Rhône at La Roche-de-Glun. Only there, after nearly 90 kilometers, does the route turn west and climb out of the Rhône Valley, at 112 meters, into the highlands of the Vivarais.

The second half belongs to the Huguenots. Vernoux, with one of the largest Protestant temples in France; Chalencon, with the pulpit of the forbidden services; Saint-Agrève, razed twice during the Wars of Religion. At the end stands Le Puy-en-Velay, the city of the Black Madonna, from which Bishop Godescalc set out for Santiago around 950. So you walk from the mother house of a Catholic hospital order through the land of the underground church to the most famous Marian cathedral in France. The route is a detour, and that's exactly why you walk it.

Other Names

Via Adresca is the name the Association Rhône-Alpes des Amis de Saint-Jacques (also known as Compostelle en Rhône-Alpes) gave this route. In its color system it is the Chemin vert, the green way, alongside the blue Chemin bleu of the Via Rhodana; both are covered in a shared guide that pilgrims simply call "Bleu & Vert." Some guides treat it as a variant of the Via Gebennensis. Where the word "Adresca" comes from, we haven't been able to establish reliably, so we won't guess.

On how the routes are divided: the association describes the Via Rhodana with two starting points, Gillonnay – Arles and Lyon – Arles. In Camino Ninja, the shared section from La Roche-de-Glun is the Via Rhodana. The feeder from Gillonnay via Saint-Antoine is part of the Via Adresca, and the feeder from Lyon along the river is the Via Rhodana (Lyon). That's why, with us, the Via Adresca begins in Gillonnay rather than opposite Valence.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

This route is for you if you're coming from Geneva on the Via Gebennensis, want to reach Le Puy and would like to see two things the main route skips: Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye and the Vivarais. And it suits you if you haven't yet decided between Le Puy and the Mediterranean: in La Roche-de-Glun you can switch to the Via Rhodana to Arles.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you're expecting flat stages. The first four days are hilly, from Saint-Péray you climb almost 1,000 meters net to Saint-Agrève, and in total it adds up to more than 4,100 meters of ascent. It's also not for you if you're looking for a pilgrim community: there are no albergues in the Spanish sense, the villages are small, and some stage towns have only one or two places to stay.

Route & Landscape

The route leaves the Via Gebennensis on the plain of the Bièvre at Gillonnay, below La Côte-Saint-André. Via Brézins and Marnans, with its Romanesque church, you climb to Roybon (km 25.4) and into the Forêt de Chambaran, a quiet forested plateau at around 600 meters. Then it's down to Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye (km 40.0), on via the castle village of Montmiral and Saint-Ange through the hills of the Drôme des Collines, past Peyrins (the village lies about 1 km off the route) into the plain that opens toward the Rhône. In La Roche-de-Glun (km 86.9) you cross the river. From here you walk a good six kilometers together with the Via Rhodana, to just past Châteaubourg on the right bank.

At Saint-Péray (km 98.2), beneath the castle ruins of Crussol, the routes part: the Via Rhodana stays in the valley, while the Via Adresca climbs via Fringuet and Ponsoye onto the Plateau de Vernoux, past the hamlet of Herbasse (km 115.9), to Vernoux-en-Vivarais (km 123.4). Then it's down and up again to Chalencon on its rocky spur above the Eyrieux, and via Saint-Julien-Labrousse, Nonières and Le Pouzat to Saint-Agrève (km 163.9), at over 1,000 meters. Via Saint-Romain-du-Désert and Les Vastres you cross from the Rhône watershed into the Loire's at Petit Freydier, reach Fay-sur-Lignon and, before Saint-Front, the highest point at km 190.0. Through pastures you descend to Saint-Germain-Laprade, where the Via Gebennensis rejoins, and with it you walk the last ten kilometers or so to Le Puy.

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

The eleven stages below are Camino Ninja's suggestion, set in places with accommodation. Distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 222.2 km. Nothing is technically difficult, but there's a lot of up and down. The fifth stage is deliberately short: it leaves you time for Valence on the other side of the Rhône or for the climb to Crussol. If you find the tenth too long, stay overnight in Saint-Front (9.4 km from Fay, then 20.1 km to Saint-Germain-Laprade).

1. Gillonnay → Roybon (25.4 km) — through the Bièvre plain via Brézins and Marnans to the edge of the Plateau de Chambaran; most of the climbing comes at the end.
2. Roybon → Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye (14.6 km) — through the Forêt de Chambaran, then down to the abbey; short, so you have time for the church and the museum.
3. Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye → Peyrins (23.9 km) — via Montmiral and Saint-Ange through the Drôme des Collines; Peyrins lies about 1 km off the route.
4. Peyrins → La Roche-de-Glun (23.0 km) — down into the plain and to the Rhône; from here you can switch to the Via Rhodana to Arles.
5. La Roche-de-Glun → Saint-Péray (11.3 km) — across the Rhône, together with the Via Rhodana past Châteaubourg to Saint-Péray below Crussol castle.
6. Saint-Péray → Vernoux-en-Vivarais (25.2 km) — the steepest start: out of the Rhône Valley via Fringuet and Ponsoye onto the Plateau de Vernoux, past Herbasse.
7. Vernoux-en-Vivarais → Nonières (22.9 km) — via Chalencon on its rocky spur and Saint-Julien-Labrousse into the mountains of the Haute-Ardèche.
8. Nonières → Saint-Agrève (17.6 km) — via Le Pouzat and Beauvert up to Saint-Agrève on Mont Chiniac.
9. Saint-Agrève → Fay-sur-Lignon (18.9 km) — via Saint-Romain-du-Désert and Les Vastres onto the plateau, crossing the 45th parallel and the watershed at Petit Freydier.
10. Fay-sur-Lignon → Saint-Germain-Laprade (29.5 km) — the long day: over the highest point (1,284 m) to Saint-Front and down through pastures into the basin of Le Puy.
11. Saint-Germain-Laprade → Le Puy-en-Velay (9.9 km) — a short final stretch with the Via Gebennensis via Brives-Charensac and Aiguilhe to the cathedral.

An Order Against the Fire in the Bread

The story of Saint-Antoine begins with a theft, or with a pious translation of relics, depending on whom you ask. Around 1074 the knight Jocelin de Châteauneuf is said to have brought relics of Anthony, the Desert Father, from the East to the Dauphiné. In 1088 Benedictines from Montmajour near Arles settled beside them, and on March 20, 1119, Pope Callixtus II consecrated the first church; that is, the very pope after whom the Codex Calixtinus is named. Around 1200 St. Hugh of Lincoln prayed here, the earliest visitor known by name.

Around 1095 something more consequential arose next door. The nobleman Gaston de Valloire and his son founded a lay brotherhood for the sick who suffered from the "feu de Saint-Antoine," St. Anthony's fire: burning in the limbs, convulsions, fingers and toes turning black and dying off. No one knew the cause. It was ergot, a fungus in rye, and the connection was only recognized in 1597 by the medical faculty in Marburg. Until then the brothers of the blue tau cross, their emblem since 1175, had spun a network that by the 15th century comprised some 370 hospitals, including in German-speaking lands: Memmingen from 1214, Höchst am Main from 1441, Isenheim in Alsace. For the hospital in Isenheim, Matthias Grünewald painted the Isenheim Altarpiece between 1512 and 1516, and the sick were brought before it.

In 1289 the Antonines drove out the Benedictines, and in 1297 Pope Boniface VIII raised the house to an abbey. Montmajour still refused to give up the relics, and according to a tradition disputed to this day, they lay in Arles from January 9, 1490. So if you switch to the Via Rhodana in La Roche-de-Glun, you're walking to the same saint's second address. The order itself vanished once medicine took away its patients: on December 17, 1776, Pope Pius VI decreed its absorption into the Order of Malta. What remains is the abbey church and a detail no one could make up: the Antonines were allowed to let their pigs roam freely through the towns, with little bells around their necks. The order that fought a poison in people's daily bread was financed in part by free-range pork.

Highlights Along the Way

• Marnans — church of Saint-Pierre from the 11th and 12th centuries, already on the 1846 list of historic monuments.
• Roybon — a village in the Chambaran forest with a small Statue of Liberty: the "Liberté" after Auguste Bartholdi atop the monument to Mathias Saint-Romme, inaugurated in 1906. A Center Parcs with 1,000 cottages was to be built in the forest; after court battles starting in 2007, it was abandoned in 2020.
• Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye — one of the "Plus beaux villages de France"; Gothic abbey church built from about 1208 into the 15th century, a portal by a Burgundian workshop from 1460 to 1465, a church treasury and the département museum in the former novitiate.
• Montmiral — castle village with a 12th-century keep, a Monument historique since 1927; in November 1533 King Francis I came here to hunt.
• La Roche-de-Glun — an island in the Rhône since the dam was built, with the house attributed to Diane de Poitiers; in 1342 the inhabitants received a charter of liberties from the Dauphins.
• Vernoux-en-Vivarais — the temple of 1824 to 1826, one of the largest Protestant temples in France; at 51 meters the Catholic bell tower is the tallest structure in the Ardèche. In 1851 the canton was the only rural canton in France where a majority voted against Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte.
• Chalencon — once one of the twelve baronies of the Vivarais, owned by Diane de Poitiers in the 16th century; town gate, remains of walls, views as far as the Vercors and the Cévennes, a "village de caractère" since 2005.
• Saint-Agrève — named after Bishop Agrève, who died in 602; first liberties in 1289, destroyed twice during the Wars of Religion.
• Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe — chapel atop an 82-meter volcanic neck, consecrated in 961, reached by 268 steps.
• Le Puy-en-Velay — Cathedral of Notre-Dame with the Black Madonna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998 as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France; a pilgrim blessing every morning.

Here the Mountains Were Called "the Desert"

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Protestants in France were no longer allowed to hold services. They held them anyway, outdoors and in secret, and called this period the "Désert," the wilderness. In the Vivarais the wilderness was a mountain range. In Chalencon you can still see the portable "chaire du désert," the pulpit that was carried to the hidden gatherings between 1685 and 1787. In Vernoux the first temple had already been destroyed in 1683, after the "dragons du Roi" (the King's dragoons) had cut down Protestants near Herbasse. You pass through that hamlet at km 115.9.

On December 12, 1745, the young preacher Mathieu Majal, known as Désubas, was arrested near Saint-Agrève and taken to Vernoux. About 3,000 people came to demand his release, and the soldiers fired into the crowd; the sources speak of 33 or 42 dead. Désubas was hanged in Montpellier in early February 1746; he was 25 years old. Only the Edict of Tolerance of 1787 ended the time of the Désert. One village on your route, by the way, is called Saint-Romain-du-Désert; whether the name has anything to do with the Huguenots isn't documented, but it fits. On your second evening you stand in the mother house of an order with 370 hospitals; on the seventh day, next to the pulpit of a church that officially didn't exist.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Most come on foot from Geneva. On the Via Gebennensis you reach Gillonnay after 170.1 kilometers; that's where the Via Adresca branches off. From Geneva to Le Puy this makes about 392 kilometers in total, a good 45 more than on the direct Via Gebennensis. If you're coming from Lyon, say after walking the Via Lugdunum from Geneva, you can follow the Via Rhodana (Lyon) along the river to La Roche-de-Glun and join the Via Adresca there at km 86.9. Conversely, La Roche-de-Glun is the switch point heading south: from there the Via Rhodana runs 239.8 kilometers to Arles, which makes about 328 kilometers from Gillonnay to Arles, and about 498 from Geneva.

Continue the pilgrimage?

The Via Adresca ends in Le Puy-en-Velay, and here the Via Podiensis begins, the best-known Way of St. James in France. The Via Gebennensis and the Trier – Le Puy route also end here. Bishop Godescalc of Le Puy is considered "le premier pèlerin français attesté à se rendre à Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle" (the first documented French pilgrim to travel to Santiago de Compostela), around 950. From Le Puy, the Via Podiensis takes you via Conques, Cahors and Moissac to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, where the Camino Francés continues over the Pyrenees to Santiago. If you chose the Mediterranean after all in La Roche-de-Glun, you'll reach Arles on the Via Rhodana and join the Via Tolosana there.

Preparation & Practical Information

The best times are late May to June and September. On the Plateau de Chambaran there are long stretches with neither a shop nor a fountain, so carry water for the whole day. Between Saint-Agrève and Saint-Front you're at 1,000 to 1,300 meters; in winter the burle blows here, a cold wind that piles snow into high drifts, and many lodgings don't open until spring. Bring poles: the descents into the Vivarais are rocky.

Besides gîtes, chambres d'hôtes and small hotels, there are the accueils jacquaires: families who host pilgrims for a donation, often with dinner. Their addresses are in the shared guide to the Via Rhodana and Via Adresca, the "Bleu & Vert" (bilingual French and German). In the small villages there's often just one place to stay, so book ahead. The easiest way is right in the Camino Ninja App, where you can put together your stages and plan suitable accommodation at the same time. As on all French routes, you need a pilgrim passport (credencial) to stay in pilgrim accommodation and to receive the Compostela at the end. It's best to order it online in advance so it reaches you in time for the start of your trip.

What the journey will cost you

With accueils jacquaires, gîtes and the occasional simple hotel, you'll spend 40 to 60 € per day (Camino Ninja estimate, as of October 2026). In villages without a restaurant you take half board, because there's no alternative. For eleven stages that's about 450 to 700 €, not counting travel to and from the route. The association's "Bleu & Vert" guide costs 17.50 € (as of October 2026).

Getting Here

To the start: Gillonnay has no train station. The nearest is in Le Grand-Lemps, on the TER line between Saint-André-le-Gaz and Grenoble, with connections from Lyon. From there you walk about 11 kilometers on the Via Gebennensis to Gillonnay.

• Getting to the start: Train to Le Grand-Lemps, then on foot along the Via Gebennensis to Gillonnay.
• Joining midway: Valence-Ville or Valence TGV, then Citéa bus to Saint-Péray; from Saint-Agrève, regional bus E05 via Lamastre to Tournon-sur-Rhône.
• Return from the finish: Le Puy-en-Velay by TER via Saint-Étienne-Châteaucreux to Lyon, about 2 hours 15 minutes to 3 hours.
• Timetables: ter.sncf.com