Hiking the Good Life in France

France on Foot – On the Quieter Camino Routes North of the Pyrenees

by Kai Born

At a Glance

Book: Hiking the Good Life in France
Original German version: Wandern wie Gott in Frankreich (paperback and ebook)
Author: Kai Born
Format: E-Book – Kindle Edition
Subtitle: France on Foot – On the Quieter Camino Routes North of the Pyrenees
Subject: Long-distance hiking in France and Switzerland
Routes covered: Four French Camino routes and the Swiss Via Jacobi
Distance: Nearly 3,000 kilometres
Walking days: More than 100 days
Also included: A bonus chapter on Switzerland!

A Different View of the Camino de Santiago

There are many books about the Camino de Santiago, but relatively few that seriously explore the long approach routes through France and Switzerland. Kai Born’s Hiking the Good Life in France addresses this gap in a personal, informative and direct way.

The book is not a conventional guidebook. Rather, it is a travel narrative based on more than 100 days of walking, covering nearly 3,000 kilometres across four major French Camino routes and the Swiss Via Jacobi. For readers interested in long-distance hiking, slow travel and the quieter side of pilgrimage, Born’s account is both engaging and practically useful.

Beyond the Familiar Camino Francés

For many walkers, the Camino de Santiago begins in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and continues west across northern Spain. Born shifts this perspective by focusing on the extensive network of Camino routes in France and Switzerland, where the journey is often less crowded, less standardized and more demanding in practical terms.

The book covers the Via Gebennensis from Geneva to Le Puy-en-Velay, the still relatively little-known route from Strasbourg to Le Puy, the well-established Via Podiensis from Le Puy to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the Via Tolosana from Arles towards Toulouse, and the Swiss Via Jacobi from Rorschach to Geneva.

Together, these routes form a wide-ranging portrait of walking across France and Switzerland: from Haute-Savoie to the Auvergne, from Alsace and Burgundy to the Massif Central, from the Aubrac plateau and the Lot Valley to Gascony and the Basque Country, and from Lake Constance through central Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland to the French-speaking west.

The Routes Covered in the Book

Via Gebennensis – Geneva to Le Puy-en-Velay
A varied route from Switzerland into eastern and central France, leading through Haute-Savoie towards the Auvergne. For Born, it becomes an accessible and rewarding introduction to long-distance walking.

Strasbourg to Le Puy-en-Velay
The longest and least familiar of the routes described in the book. It leads through Alsace, Burgundy and the Massif Central, offering solitude, regional variety and long stretches away from the better-known Camino infrastructure.

Via Podiensis – Le Puy-en-Velay to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
The best-known of the French Camino routes, crossing the Aubrac, the Lot Valley and Gascony before reaching the Basque Country. It is more established than the other routes, but still very different in character from the Camino Francés in Spain.

Via Tolosana – Arles towards Toulouse
A southern route shaped by the Rhône region, the Cévennes and the Canal du Midi. It adds another geographical and cultural layer to the book’s portrait of France on foot.

Via Jacobi – Rorschach to Geneva
The Swiss route from Lake Constance across central Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland to French-speaking Switzerland forms the book’s bonus chapter and broadens the perspective beyond France.

A Personal Travel Book Rather Than a Manual

The strength of Hiking the Good Life in France lies in its tone. Born writes in a personal, direct voice with a dry sense of irony. He neither turns hiking into a spiritual performance nor romanticizes the hardships of the road.

Instead, he describes what extended walking actually feels like over many weeks: changing landscapes, small towns and villages, helpful hosts, improvised encounters, good meals, fatigue, and the quiet moments of walking alone.

This makes the book particularly appealing to readers who prefer observation over pathos. Born writes with restraint and attention to detail. The result is a travel book that remains close to lived experience — practical enough to inform, literary enough to engage, and honest enough to avoid reducing the journey to a sequence of scenic highlights.

France as a Country to Be Walked Slowly

One of the book’s most convincing aspects is its view of France. Here, France is not merely a country to be crossed on the way to Spain; it becomes the journey itself. The reader encounters a slower, more varied and sometimes contradictory France: rural guesthouses, small accommodations, regional cuisine, long empty stretches, changing weather, language barriers, generous hospitality and occasional frustration.

Born shows that long-distance walking is not about collecting sights, but about duration, rhythm and attention. A day’s stage is shaped not only by distance, but by landscape, fatigue, encounters, food and mood. In this sense, the book is also a quiet argument for slow travel.

Who Should Read This Book?

Hiking the Good Life in France will appeal particularly to experienced Camino walkers looking for alternatives to the heavily travelled Camino Francés. It is equally relevant for hikers planning routes across France, as well as for readers interested in discovering the country beyond established tourist paths.

Even those who may never walk these routes themselves will find it rewarding, as Born offers precise and often understated insights into how long-distance walking shapes perception and experience.

Reisebuch.de Recommendation

Kai Born writes neither as a pilgrim preacher nor as a travel influencer, but as an attentive observer of the road. That is precisely what makes this book convincing.

Hiking the Good Life in France is a personal and clear-eyed account of long-distance hiking across France and Switzerland. It opens up a broader, quieter perspective on the Camino de Santiago — and presents France as a country best understood on foot.