Some notes about the route

The trail is well-marked and follows the French Grande Randonee 65 with red and white balises and also the pilgrim route to Compstelle marked by yellow scallop shells on a blue background, which are the ones we really look for. The direction of the shell points to the direction of the trail. We have maps and 2 guidebooks, one in French and one entirely in German which we can't read except for basic elements. Too bad as it has lots of details about places we pass through. Sometimes we are on small country lanes paved or unpaved, occasionally on bits of two-lane highway, usually for short distances, and sometimes on real hiking trails. We pass through many tiny clusters of houses, often named on roadsigns, but not on our bigger maps.
We have a series of topographic maps (3 for the entire Geneva to LePuy route) which I have cut up to carry just the parts that show our trail, which is marked by a dotted red line that I also outlined in yellow. These show more detail than the two guide books in terms of other trails, roads, and nearby towns and villages, giving us a bit of sense of just where we are in relation to these and to natural elements of the landscape such as mountains, lakes, and rivers.