Inspiration

Place of inspiration

In October 2025, we transferred our hostel in Le Chemin to Yvonne and René. After welcoming 35,000 pilgrims, we are setting out on a new pilgrimage route, including a place of inspiration in Vézelay.
We, Huberta and Arno, feel deeply connected to pilgrimage. Our pilgrimages to Santiago, and later to Rome and direction Jerusalem, were wonderful experiences in themselves and a source of inspiration for the rest of our life's journey.

After Santiago, we changed course and, in 2003, started a pilgrim hostel in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. We symbolically left our backpacks at the door. Eleven years later, we picked them up and moved to Le Chemin, 25 km south of Vézelay. There we built our second hostel, which offers more peace and space, to pilgrims and ourselves.

Around the 20th anniversary of L'Esprit du ChemiN, we realize that we want to travel even lighter. We decide to stop working as hosts and continue our pilgrimage in a different way. In the coming years, our place of inspiration will take on further substance and form, including on this website. See the sections Meaningful Journey and News (link).

Building plans

We are creating the place of inspiration in and around a house that was built in the 18th century, as a barn, on a small road leading from Vézelay. The owner probably lived within the fortified walls. The vaulted cellar and a small extension (appentis) were used by winegrowers. Later, the ground floor was converted into a dwelling (habitation). Nothing was done to the hayloft at that time. We bought the house in September 2024. It had been little used in recent years and the garden was a jungle.

We convert the hayloft into a studio, for ourselves and others. We demolish the roofed structure (hangar) next to the house. In its place, we build an extension to the house and a courtyard (cour), with a view of the valley. Next to it is a half-finished building, dating from 1975. We complete it as a meeting and work space (atelier).
Our plans were officially approved in May 2025. This was a relief, as our house is located just within the part of Vézelay that is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This means that strict rules apply. We expect the renovation to be largely completed by the end of 2026.

Would you like to help us create a beautiful place of inspiration? Please let us know.

Inspiration

The verb to inspire comes from the Latin inspirare: to inhale or breathe into. It has been used for centuries in the sense of creating or moving, whether or not by divine power. We still use it in that sense today, for example: to breathe new life into something.
Inspiration is connected to the Latin word spiritus: breath. (In French: l’esprit.) It refers to the core, the essence of something. In this way, it is related to the concept of soul.
On the large tympanum in the basilica of Vézelay, the holy breath (or spirit) stirs the robes of Christ and his apostles.

On our pilgrimages, we experienced 'the spirit of the way'. For us, this means consciously following your own path, travelling freely and lightly, in connection with yourself, with others and with the Other. In a flash, we felt that this was our call: to set up a hostel in that spirit and thus contribute to the special journey of our guests. That flash also gave our hostel its name: L'Esprit du ChemiN. Under that name and in that spirit, we continue in Vézelay.

La maison bleue

One evening in our hostel in Saint-Jean, Alexis, a young French pilgrim, says: "it's like La maison bleue here". When we look at him in surprise, he tells us about a song (1972) by Maxime le Forestier, about a blue house on a hill in sometimes foggy San Francisco, where he lived for a summer. A house you can reach on foot and don't have to knock on the door, because the residents have thrown away the key. A house where people eat together and eagerly listen to each other's music and stories.
The lyrics and melody are enchanting. They evoke a longing for something beautiful, for freedom, hospitality and connection. And they stir a desire for new perspectives on our tumultuous world. La maison bleue became a hit and remains so to this day. (By early 2026, it had already been played more than 38 million times on Spotify.)

The song inspires us to build one more 'blue house' on a hillside in sometimes foggy Vézelay, even though only the shutters will be blue and the door will sometimes be locked. Because we too like to travel to 'blue houses'... 
Merci encore, Alexis !