Maps & Route Napoleon

[Paul Newfield]

In 1999 I chose to walk the Route Napoleon.  I was traveling alone, and I
had the Millan Bravo Lozano book buried deep in my back pack (and
thererfore unavailable).  I found that the "Yellow Arrows" on the French
side were non-exisitant.  The maps in Millan Bravo Lozano's guide book, I
found to be less than adequate; to me, they are simply diagrams showing the
route and the terrain.

Another guide book that I now have is "El Camino de Santiago a Pie" (no
author specified, Ediciones El Pais, 1999), 213 pages.  Its maps are also
basically diagrams, but I prefer it to MBL's maps.  Since I bought it in
Santiago, I did not have the benefit of it while on the camino.

There is a very highly detailed map of France on CD-ROM that I like very
much, and would like to try it out for accuracy.  It looks great, and is
called the "Carte de Cassini, and has a lot of detail -- mountains, rivers
and streams and churches, etc. drawn in.  BUT, it dates from the late 1700s
-- probably c.1780.  (It was probably the map that Napoleon used.)  The
detail is wonderful (French side only!).
I seem to recall seeing a nicely scaled topo map of the French portion,
with altitude contours, but sorry, I have no citation for it; probably
available in SJPP.

Also, I have seen another book, called **The Way of St. James**, featuring
the cartography of Dr. Elias Valin~a Sampedro (Brentford, Middlesex: Roger
Lascelles, 1993), stated price, 7.95 English pounds.  I saw it in the day
room at the refugio in Navarette. I do not think it is available in USA.

> > I would like to take the Napolean Route but
> > from many posts suggests
> > bypassing it if there is bad weather.  Can someone
> > point me towards weather
> > information.  In Mid-April what is to be expected?
> > Is there snow?

On April 23, 1999, there was snow on the ground...  But is was very nice...

Buen camino..

Paul Newfield  (pcn01awebdsi.com)
<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~brasscannon>

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