On Monday morning we took a bus from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port . The name means “St John at the foot of the passage” because this is the historic gateway to the passage through the Pyranees from France into Spain, the same passage we follow on the Camino.
St. Jean is lovely, with a medieval old town and a bustling “Pilgrim’s Center” to get us on our way. It seems like most visitors in town are pilgrims about to start, identifiable by their backpacks and the attached scallop shell, the symbol of pilgrims headed for Santiago.
We walked the town, had lovely ham & cheese sandwiches and Basque Cake for lunch, and listened carefully for other English speakers. We soon connected with another couple, Greg & Jody from Boston. Then we bedded down in our very pleasant gite to prepare for an early start.
