The GR®653, Arles route to Compostela (from L'Isle-Jourdain to Marciac)

L'Isle-Jourdain has not lost its Gascon accent!
The old town has preserved the charm of a medieval city. Notably, the interest of the 14th-century Tower, flanked by a collegiate church with classical architecture, the "Claude Augé" mansion, a figure born in this city but also the founding father of the Petit Larousse Illustré, famous for its stained glass "La Semeuse", and of course, the European Museum of Bell Art installed under the market hall, which brings together over a period of four millennia an exceptional collection of more than a thousand bells, cowbells, jingles, carillons. A monumental clockmaking work from the five continents.

Facing a full panorama overlooking the Pyrenees, between green hillsides and softened hills, the route will take you to Auch, capital of Gascony labeled Grands Sites Occitanie and Pays d'Art et d'Histoire.
Your eyes will delight in the Sainte-Marie cathedral (15th-17th centuries), a major site on the routes to Saint-James of Compostela classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. Its construction lasted two hundred years (1489 - 1680), which explains the variety of styles: Flamboyant Gothic for the whole work, and Renaissance for the facade framed by 2 towers. Inside, multiple treasures await discovery: the stained glass windows by Arnaud de Moles, counted among the most beautiful stained glass of the 16th century, the oak wood choir composed of high and low stalls where over 1500 figures are sculpted, the great 17th-century organ.
Completed in 1863, the monumental staircase connects the historic town to the new town over 35 meters of elevation. Overlooked by the statue of the famous musketeer d'Artagnan, created by Firmin Michelet in 1931, climb its 234 steps (374 in total with the double flights) before indulging in a walk in the heart of old Auch, exploring the pousterles, steep medieval streets with stairs.

This beautiful route, between bastides and castelnaux, will reveal many treasures before the ultimate Gers stop in the heart of Marciac. Here you will be in the most swinging bastide founded in 1298, labeled "Grands Sites Occitanie" and the soul of jazz in Gers.
Vast in size, its central square surrounded by houses with arcades sheltered a market hall destroyed in 1871. The village is recognizable from afar by its 2 bell towers: that of the Notre-Dame de L'Assomption church (13th century) and that of the former Augustinian convent (14th century). Outside the village, the Notre-Dame de la Croix chapel (19th century) borders the Saint James route.

Your path will end in the Hautes-Pyrénées at the village of Maubourguet.