Stage Sorigny - Sainte-Maure de Touraine

A short, gentle stage across the Sainte-Maure plateau, between the valleys of the Indre and the Vienne. The way crosses a countryside of cereals, small woods and scattered hamlets, and its main attraction is the passage through Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, one of the places richest in pilgrim memory in Touraine.

From Sorigny the route heads south along farm tracks and quiet local roads, away from the traffic of the main road. The landscape is open, with long straights and the occasional wood providing shade from time to time.

Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois appears halfway through the day. According to tradition, it was here in 1429 that Joan of Arc had the sword she would carry on her campaigns sought out behind the chapel altar. The present church, in Flamboyant Gothic style, was built a few decades later, and beside it stands the Aumônerie de Boucicaut, a hospice founded in the early fifteenth century to shelter pilgrims on their way to Santiago. The ensemble, small and well kept, deserves a leisurely visit.

The last stretch continues across the plateau, with gentle rises and falls, until Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine comes into view on its hill, beside the little river Manse.

Sainte-Maure is known for the goat's cheese that bears its name, log-shaped and pierced by a rye straw, protected by a designation of origin. The town preserves spacious seventeenth-century market halls, the remains of the château of the Rohan family and a church with an ancient crypt. With shops, restaurants and accommodation, it is a practical and pleasant stage end.