Day 68 – June 12th
Ostabat to St. Jean Pied de Port
20 km
‘I’m suddenly a tourist attraction’
I woke up in the Gîte Ospitalia to find my clothes from yesterday still damp, but the storm had passes and the weather was cloudy and warm so they would soon dry out on me. After I packed up and said goodbye to Maria and Retno I headed into the upper village to grab a coffee or two before setting off. Retno’s feet were recovering well but she was taking a taxi to St. Jean Pied de Port today and we would meet her there.
This was to be my last full day walking across France (apart from the last 12 km or so from St. Jean to the Spanish border in the Pyrenees Mountains) and I was apprehensive and a little excited. I was excited that I was soon to be walking through Spain; I knew it was going to be very different (and cheaper) and I was looking forward to the adventure. I was apprehensive of St. Jean Pied de Port, or the fact that most pilgrims who walk the Camino start from there, and being June it was going to be packed. There would be around a hundred new shiny pilgrims starting from there every day. But there is a saying on the Camino;
‘Walking in France you walk with the French, walking in Spain you walk with the world’ so it was going to be very different indeed. Then there was the small matter of crossing the Pyrenees on foot.
Ostabat – Larceveau – Utziate
The first 3 km to the village of Larceveau was pretty flat on country lanes. The Way bypasses Larceveau just to the north, but the village is large enough to have shops and is a good place to stock up on food. I was sitting just before the turn off for the village having a cigarette and debating whether to bother popping in when Maria came past and stopped for a chat. We decided not to go into Larceveau and carried on.
The Way from Larceveau was on country lanes that shadowed the busy D933 for the next 4.5 km to Gamarthe where I hoped to find a café. Though the route was pretty I was never far from the sound of roaring traffic which wasn’t nice, though it did cross my mind that each car going past would be in St. Jean in under an hour while it would take me all day to walk there!
The
Hôpital d’Utziat
On the way the route passed through the tiny hamlet of Utziate where I came across an amazing restored 12th century pilgrim hospital. The medieval word hospital (hôpital in French), does not mean exactly the same as in English, i.e. a purely medical facility. The word comes from the same word as ‘hospitality’, and the medieval pilgrim hospitals were much like the gîtes and albergues of today, offering shelter, a bed and sometimes food to the poorer pilgrims (the rich pilgrims would of stayed at inns).
The hôpital d’Utziat is a squat one story, one roomed stone building complete with mattresses on the floor, and a large dining table and chairs inside. It was open and passing pilgrims could rest, shelter and eat there. It looked like an amazing place to stay the night. Maybe next time!
Pilgrim oasis at Gamarthe
From Utziate The Way carried on shadowing the main road until it came to the ancient wayside cross, the Croix de Galzetaburu (dated 1714 and with an extremely strange Jesus on the cross) where the route crossed over the main road and headed into beautiful hilly farmland on quiet country roads. A few kilometres on from the cross I came to the village of Gamarthe where I was hoping to get lunch and possibly a beer. Unfortunately I was out of luck, there was nothing there, even though my guidebook said there was a café there. Feeling hungry and a little despondent I carried on, wishing I had bothered to stop off to buy some food earlier in Larceveau. Not only that but I had run out of tobacco!
What the guidebook didn’t tell me was that the café was at a farm (La Ferme
Uhartia) just past the village. It sold bio foods from the farm itself and not only that it had cold drinks, coffee, yoghurt, jam, bread, biscuits and cakes for donation! It was an amazing place with beautiful views and I was happy to chill out here for a while.
Mongelos – Bussunarits – St. Jean le Vieux
I really needed tobacco by now (a bad habit I know) and the next likely place I could buy some was in the large town of St. Jean le Vieux 7.5 km away. The Way to St. Jean le Vieux was mainly on tarmacced roads though they were very quiet and mostly pretty. The weather was still cloudy but it was very muggy and humid, not so nice to walk in.
Just past Gamarthe The Way rejoined the busy D933 for a short while as it bypassed the small village of Mongelos before it turned back south-west on country roads once more. The Way was very hilly for the next 5 km to Bussunarits and by the time I got there I was feeling shattered by the humidity. Just outside of the village near the Château d’Aphat the weather broke for a while and started to rain. As I sheltered in a bus shelter I was a happy bunny, thinking that at least now it would not be so humid and it would be easier walking.
It was then an easy 2.5 km to St. Jean le Vieux where I found a Tabac (a shop licensed to sell tobacco in France. Unlike the UK where tobacco can be bought everywhere, in France you have to go to a Tabac. The problem for me is they only exist in the larger towns and were not always open when I got there). In this case I was even luckier in that the Tabac I found was in a bar. By now it was definitely beer O’clock so I settled in for a pint or two. The staff and customers in the bar were extremely friendly and I could of stayed here a while, but wanted to get to St. Jean Pied de Port early as I could so I could guarantee a bed at the Refuge Municipal. The Refuge Municipal in St. Jean Pied de Port is the main pilgrim gîte and the cheapest, but it does not take bookings in advance; it operates on a first come first served basis.
I saw a strange sight whilst passing through St. Jean le Vieux, wandering around loose in a car park was a large dog that looked like a lion. Its fur had been cut just like a male lion with a mane and such that it gave me quite a scare when I bumped into it! Obviously some local thinks this is funny. It is really.
An embarrassing arrival in St. Jean Pied de Port
The final 4 km into St. Jean Pied de Port was uneventful, but my arrival into town was extremely embarrassing. Pilgrims arriving into St. Jean Pied de Port on foot enter via a magnificent ancient arch in the city walls aptly named the Port St. Jacques. Picture the scene. There is a coach trip of tourists from around the world gathered at the Port St. Jacques listening to their guide telling them of the ancient pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
“The route is still walked by pilgrims to this day” he said, just as I trudged down towards them, very tired, muddy and damp still from the storms yesterday, carrying a unfeasibly large rucksack and a walking staff. The guide smiled and looked at me. The tourists went bonkers,
“A pilgrim!” they cried as all thirty or forty of them started photographing and filming me. To make matters worse a car was trying to get through the Port St. Jacques just as a tourist ‘train’ was trying to pass through the other side and both came to a halt, blocking my way past. I was stuck in front of the tourists feeling like something from another planet as they
ooohed and
ahhhed at me. The guide was looking very pleased with himself as I stood there p***** off. It was a few minutes before I could make my escape.
The Pilgrims office
The first thing I needed to do was head straight to the pilgrims’ office to find out where the Refuge Municipal was so I could make sure I got a bed. St. Jean Pied de Port is such a popular starting point with so many pilgrims arriving daily that the town has a large dedicated pilgrim’s office. The office is staffed by volunteers who are pilgrims themselves, and to qualify as one you must have walked the Camino to Santiago. The role of the office is to issue credencials (pilgrim passports) to new pilgrims and to stamp the credencial of people like me that have walked there. They also offer advice and encouragement and help pilgrims find accommodation. They also give pilgrims a very detailed map of the Pyrenees crossing and also an up to date list of albergues in Spain all the way to Santiago. Their most important role however is advising of the weather conditions prevailing in the Pyrenees. There are two routes across the mountains into Spain; The Route Napoleon also known as the Artillery Route and the Valcarlos Route.
The Route Napoleon or Artillery Route is the high mountain route across the Pyrenees; 26 km long it involves a climb from 170 metres at St. Jean Pied de Port to 1,450 metres at the summit and a decent to 950 metres to Roncesvalles in Spain. It is so called because Napoleon used this route during the Napoleonic Wars to get his artillery into Spain. It was also used by the Emperor Charlemagne in 778AD in the war against the Muslims who then occupied Spain (incidentally, this predates the cult of St. James who’s remains were allegedly found at Compostela in approximately 813AD). This is also the traditional route for pilgrims heading to Santiago de Compostela, as hundreds of years ago this route had less trees than the heavily wooded Valcarlos route, so there was less chance of being attacked by bandits. However, the route can be dangerous, especially in bad weather, as can be seen by the number of pilgrims who have died crossing there even in recent years (one was to die up there in 2015 not long after I crossed). Every year many pilgrims have to be rescued off the mountain who have run into trouble (four South Korean pilgrims had to be rescued off the mountain not long after I had crossed, they had got lost in fog). In bad weather the pilgrims office will ‘close’ the Napoleon Route and advise pilgrims to take the Valcarlos route instead. The problem is that the weather on the crossing can change in minutes and it is very easy to get lost up there when thick mist or fog descends. Either way it is a tough crossing and pilgrims should take the advice given by the office.
The Valcarlos route is an easier option though still tough. It climbs steadily from St. Jean Pied de Port (170 metres) until it reaches Roncesvalles (950 metres) and is about the same length as the Napoleon Route. This is the route that bicegrino’s (pilgrims on bicycles) take, and pilgrims on foot when the Route Napoleon is closed due to bad weather. The Valcarlos Route is open in all weathers all year around. The downside is that this route is alongside a busy main road with pilgrims literally on the hard shoulder some of the time. A plus is that it passes through the villages of Arnéguy and Valcarlos that both have shops and accommodation, so the route can be broken up into stages for those pilgrims who can only walk short distances.
I quickly found the pilgrims office and sat down with a volunteer to get my credencial stamped. Then things got embarrassing again; some of the tourists from earlier had followed me into the pilgrims’ office! First I knew about it was when I got out my credencial and opened it up on the table to be stamped. Suddenly there were gasps and more
ooohes and
ahhhs as the tourists spotted the many colourful stamps in my credencial. This was followed by flashes going off as they tried to photograph me with the credencial open. Worse, they attracted the attention of some new pilgrims who were starting off tomorrow and they joined in too. I looked up at the office volunteer and he was getting as p***** off as I was. As nobody was going to throw them out of the office I decided to let them photograph my credencial before they finally left me alone. At last I could get on and sort out what I needed to do here.
My plan
My plan was this; I wanted to stay in St. Jean Pied de Port for two nights as I needed a day off to get my washing done and have a break. Also St. Jean is an extremely beautiful town and well worth a look around. The office gave me directions to the Refuge Municipal but they couldn’t tell me if it was full or not, I would just have to go there and try my luck. If it was full I would have to get a private gîte which would be more expensive.
Second thing was I wanted to walk the Napoleon Route and so I asked what the current conditions were like. They told me the route was open, but the weather tomorrow was looking grim, a rain storm was predicted, but not bad enough to close the pass. As I was going over in two days time I would check again tomorrow, but it looked like I would be able to cross over on the Napoleon Route as planned.
The third thing was I wanted to break up the crossing over the Pyrenees into two stages. There is a pilgrim refuge at Orisson 8 km from St. Jean Pied de Port on the Napoleon Route giving me a short day followed by an 18 km day to Roncesvalles in Spain. The nature of the Napoleon Route is that the first 8 km to Orisson is by far the hardest; it is extremely steep, a really unrelenting 8 km killer climb. After Orisson the route isn’t too bad (in good weather anyway). Also, I had heard doing my research that Refuge Orisson is a great place to stay with an incredible atmosphere. By staying there you also get to watch a spectacular sunset and sunrise in the mountains; Orisson is a very beautiful place. There is nothing there except the Refuge and the mountains. The trouble with Orisson is that it is small; it has only 18 beds and has to be booked in advance. Most pilgrims who want to stay there book a place before they even set off from home, but of course I couldn’t do that as I didn’t know when I would get there. I did know however that the pilgrim office could book for me so I asked the volunteer to try and book me in for two days time. He rang Orisson for me and managed to get the last bed booked. Success!
The Refuge Municipal
I walked back up the hill to the Refuge Municipal which is near the Port St. Jacques where I had entered the town earlier. There was already a queue of pilgrims snaking out of the door but luckily they still had beds available. As I neared the front of the queue where the hospitalero was sat in the kitchen booking pilgrims in I noticed a group of pilgrims sat at another table. They definitely weren’t new shiny pilgrims, I could tell by the look of them that they had been on the road for a while. One of them spotted me and smiled as he said
“Ah! It looks like you have been walking for a long time pilgrim, welcome”. This guy turned out to be Ruben from the Netherlands who I was to meet later; he was a bicegrino who had cycled from his home in Holland via the Paris route.
The Refuge Municipal was a nice place; it housed 24 pilgrims in two spacious dormitories and had a large communal kitchen and dining area. It cost me only 8 Euro’s including breakfast. I had booked in for two nights as planned. Pilgrims are not usually allowed to stay for more than one night, but just like the pilgrim gîte in Le Puy an exception is made if you have walked there and are not starting your pilgrimage from there. After a shower and putting on some clean clothes I set off to explore St. Jean and do some shopping.
Chilling out in St. Jean
As I was heading back into town I bumped into Retno and Maria looking for the pilgrims’ office. Retno had arrived from Ostabat by taxi earlier and had booked a gîte for her and Maria. Her feet were getting better and she was confident she could walk from now on. Maria had not long arrived. Both of them were also staying in St. Jean for two nights. After showing them where the pilgrims office was I hung around while they got sorted. I invited them for dinner but they had a communal meal booked in their gîte, and before I headed off we agreed to meet up tomorrow.
I headed off to find dinner and was soon ensconced in a restaurant with a large beer. St. Jean is a tourist town in its own right and there were tourists everywhere (and hundreds of motorcyclists), but they were totally outnumbered by the pilgrims that were knocking about. I was amazed at just how many of us there were; I saw more pilgrims while sat there than I had seen so far on my whole journey! Another thing was that the average age of pilgrims starting from St. Jean is much younger than the Le Puy route, many of the pilgrims I saw knocking about town were in their twenties. For example on the Via Gebennensis from Geneva I was one of the younger pilgrims at 48 years old. On the Via Podiensis from Le Puy I was about average age, here, I’m definitely old! (The reason we think that the older pilgrims walk further distances is one of time constraints; usually only retired people can get the 3-4 months off to walk from say Geneva, but a young student may be able to get the 6 weeks or so off to walk from St. Jean). Walking in Spain was going to be very different I thought.
I ordered a menu of the day (steak and chips) which came with a half bottle of wine (I’m not keen on wine and had a beer but at least it was free). The price was extortionate reflecting the tourist trap the town was but there was nothing I could do about that. Also I found the staff in the bars and shops to be not as friendly as non-tourist places. Oh well.
Sat at a table next to me was a middle aged couple who were English, they were obviously on holiday and we soon got chatting. They asked me what was going on as half of the town seemed to be carrying rucksacks around and I explained we were pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostela. They had never heard of the
Camino de Santiago and were bemused by the whole thing. I noticed they were drinking wine so I gave them my half bottle as I didn’t want it as I was sticking to drinking beer. A few minutes later the waiter came across to ask how my meal was and he noticed I had no wine, he thought he had forgotten to bring it out and brought me another half bottle!
I chilled out at the bar for the evening before heading back to the refuge for an early night. As usual there was a 10pm curfew and I knew that as most of the pilgrims would be up at daft O’clock for the Pyrenees crossing they would no doubt wake me up too.
Back at the refuge before finally crashing out for the night I shared a glass of wine with a few pilgrims including Ruben from the Netherlands I had met earlier and a very beautiful young Swedish girl called Anna. Anna was in her early twenties and seemed a very friendly and confident girl; she was looking forward to heading off over the Pyrenees tomorrow alone despite the forecast of bad weather. Young, fit, intelligent and with her confidence I am sure she would make it to Santiago no problem. Ruben, who had cycled here from home in Holland was also staying here two nights so I would see him again tomorrow.
After a long day I slept like a baby!
The Way near Gaineko-Exta
Pine cone pilgrims decorate a house near Larceveau
The restored 12th Century pilgrim hospital at Utziate
Inside the restored Medieval
Hôpital d’Utziat
Inside the restored Medieval
Hôpital d’Utziat
The Way towards Gamarthe runs alongside the busy D933
The Croix de Galzetaburu just before Gamarthe dated 1714 with a very strange Jesus
Donativo café on a farm (La Ferme
Uhartia) just past Gamarthe
Pilgrims on The Way towards Bussunarits and St. Jean le Vieux
The strange Lion-Dog in St. Jean le Vieux