Gironde on the coast road to Saint James of Compostela

The Coastal Way runs from Soulac to Bayonne, along the backs of the cordon of dunes and ponds between Soulac and Mimizan (Landes), then on to the Pyrenees and Spain.
From Pointe de Grave onwards, the route (which is not mentioned in the Pilgrims’ Guide ) provided stop-offs at the Saint-Nicolas and Soulac priories, the hospital in Lagrayanès and the priories in Comprian and Mimizan, between which, in the 13^th century, the Hospitallers had acquired vast estates and stretches of land across the Médoc, Buch and Sore regions.

This “English road” begins at Soulac-sur-Mer, where pilgrims to the Holy Land and Compostela disembarked from ships sailing from Saintonge, England, Holland, Brittany and Normandy, to visit the tomb of Saint Veronica. In the 11^th century, Sainte-Croix abbey in Bordeaux built a Benedictine monastery there. The fame of the sanctuary (Notre-Dame-de-la-Fin-des-Terres) spread, and it was much visited by pilgrims. Romanesque in style, and restored during the gothic period and successively from the 15^th century onwards, the edifice was subjected to the Wars of Religion and the relentless assault of the sand, and ended up almost completely covered by the dunes. The monument was saved in 1860, under the auspices of Cardinal Donnet.

CDT 33 - Hubert Sion

The pilgrims then made their way to the Saint-Hélène-de-l’Estang priory (Hourtin) which contains a chapel one of whose altars is dedicated to Saint James. The primitive church in Carcans, dedicated to Saint Martin, was destroyed around 1850. One of its altars was dedicated to Saint James and a confraternity of Saint James was recorded as existing there in 1661. The present church boasts a fine 17^th -century polychrome wooden statue of Saint James the Pilgrim.

Next stop was Lacanau, where, in the village of Talaris, the Sanctus Vicentius de Canali chapel once stood, finally to be destroyed by rising water levels. It was rebuilt in the centre of Lacanau-ville in 1765. The old church was a place of worship for Saint James pilgrims, and there was still a confraternity of Saint James there in the 17^th century. The new church contains an 18^th -century polychrome statue of Saint James the Pilgrim.

From there, the pilgrims continued on to Le Porge, where the Saint-Seurin-de-Buch and Saint-Seurin-du-Porge chapel stands, a dependency of the Cayac priory in Gradignan, one of Gironde’s major pilgrim centres. A statue of Saint James stands in the church.

Next, in Andernos-les-Bains on the edge of the Arcachon Basin, came the Romanesque Saint-Eloi church, belonging to the Saint-Seurin Chapter in Bordeaux and also attached to the Saint-Jacques priory in Barp, and seat of a confraternity of Saint James with its own statutes, founded around 1600 under the auspices of Cardinal de Sourdis. The church has been restored and there are some fine murals from the late gothic period in the north apse, which is dedicated to Saint Quitterie.

In Le Teich, the Saint-Jean Fountain, which stands on the path of an old Roman road known as the “Chemin de Port de By à la station de Lugo”, attracted travellers, pilgrims and merchants alike, who stopped off to rest and quench their thirst there. A sculpted fragment found at the bottom of the fountain is composed of a stone hollowed out in a semi-circular scallop-shell shape to serve as a font. From a later age, Saint-André church in Le Teich was built in neo-mediaeval style in 1923-1924 by the architect Gervais, and contains a 17th-century polychrome statue of Saint James the Pilgrim.

The Comprian priory in Biganos was founded in 1085 by the Saint-Seurin Chapter in Bordeaux, and served as a hospital for pilgrims and sailors – and, in the 1300s, as a burial place for the Captaux de Buch. It finally fell into ruins, and what was left was converted into farm buildings. A few pieces of Romanesque and gothic sculpture work from Comprian are conserved at the Musée Aquarium in Arcachon, including a 12^th -century bas-relief depicting the Traditio Legis , transmission of the new law to the apostles and principally to Saint Peter, patron saint of Comprian, and another small capital at l’Atalante, of neighbouring provenance. The church in Biganos contains a quadrifoil baptismal font decorated with symbols of the evangelists. The pedestal is decorated with sculpted cabbage leaves alternating with trefoil arcatures, dating back to the 14^th or 15^th century.

The pilgrims then proceeded to Mios and Salles, stopping along the way at the church in Vieux-Lugo (Lugos). Lost in the depths of the woods, in an ancient hamlet abandoned by its inhabitants in 1849, the church is renowned for the 16^th -century murals adorning its walls, depicting the acts of mercy carried out on behalf of pilgrims to Compostela, and featuring characters easily identifiable as pilgrims from their staves, scrips and mode of attire. From there, travellers set off to the Saint-Pierre-de-Mons priory, where the road joined up with the great Tours Way leading to Spain.