Walking to Assisi with L’Arche Grenoble

My friend Pat is director of L’Arche Grenoble in the South of France. He shared with me, some time back, his dream of a group from his community walking from Grenoble to Assisi a week a year following the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage route to Rome that starts in Canterbury. The distance from Grenoble to Assisi is 800 km and there are two mountain ranges in between, the Alps and the Apennines. None of these proved to be obstacles in the way of Pat’s dream, and the pilgrimage began in earnest in 2022. Yim Soon and I joined the group in April 2025 for what was their fourth stage, and we rejoined them on Easter Monday 2026. 

The start point for this Stage 5 was the old Roman city of Acqui Terme, a bit south of Turin and famous for its hot sulphur springs. Yim Soon and I were met at the train station by Pascale who has been the brains behind the entire expedition. She told us she was a bit worried about the ‘facilities’ at the place where we’d spend the first two nights; namely that there were two toilets (and just one with a shower) for the group of twenty-five, who would all be sleeping on the floor. I reminded her that it had been a similar situation at the location where we’d begun the 2025 leg and reassured her, “No toilets, no problem!”

The reality about the facilities was that the shower was hanging over a squat toilet and there was no lock on the door. I was a bit dubious about taking a shower there, especially when  Pat told me the water was cold and then a young woman called Helena said it was “freezing.” I was pleasantly surprised when the water came out lukewarm. There I was standing over a hole in the ground, with a dirty floor from everyone else having been in there, and with a door that didn’t lock; and it felt like the most luxurious shower in the world! It was interesting to be in a hotel for our third and fourth nights. There was a proper shower cubicle between three of us and a clean floor and when the water came out lukewarm at first I was bitterly disappointed because I’d expected it to be hot. Expectations! The water temperature had been exactly the same in both places, yet my emotional reaction had been the polar opposite on each occasion. 

The shower incident showed me, in part, something I’ve experienced again and again on pilgrimage: that we can be very happy with very little. There’s also an incredible intimacy about walking together, eating together, pitching down on the floor together at night, waking up together in the morning, even sharing the same squat toilet with a shower head hanging over it. We’re all way out of our comfort zones and there’s a vulnerability in that but we’re all vulnerable together and perhaps more aware of our need for basic human kindness and more appreciative of little unexpected gifts.

There’s also a great sense of fun and joy that is shared as we make our way slowly along the pilgrim path. And with this latest stage going across the foothills of the Apennine mountains, the scenery was utterly stunning. Each person shared at the end what they’d enjoyed about the week and I said that I felt so lucky to be in such a beautiful place and with such a beautiful group. I’d also loved the music. There were a couple of guitars and so lots of singing in the evenings and dancing too. The owners of the hotel where we stayed for two nights told us how they’d been touched by the singing and dancing and the happiness of the group. And that’s another of the virtues of pilgrimage; it touches and transforms not just the pilgrims but also those who are met on the way.

I’d particularly enjoyed the music on the second night. I’d been feeling quite tired and a bit out of sorts and wasn’t especially relishing another night on the floor but I picked up a guitar and began to sing. A lot of the group had been on their way to bed but were drawn back by the songs. There we were; a group of people with and without learning disabilities, men and women of different ages and from different countries: all sharing a moment of pure joy. Another of the women, Isabelle told me afterwards how touching it had been for her.

Close bonds are formed as we journey together, with all of our changing moods and with the daily highs and lows, both geographical and emotional. I felt rather sad to come to the end. I’ll see some of the group again next year; some people I’ll never meet again. But each person had touched my heart, and I felt like the richest man in the world.

 It seems that it will take another ten or twelve years for L’Arche Grenoble to reach Assisi. We were each asked on the last day whether we wanted to come back next year. I said I wanted to come back every year, right to the end. Roll on April 2027!