Chapter 5: Baguette Vending Machine

Today we rested. Tomorrow is the first day of walking. We’ve been in St Jean Pied-de-Port for roughly 24 hours, and so far we’ve met; Alice, 50’s, Security Guard, from Singapore; Richardo, 40’s, Attorney, from Brazil; Gary, 60’s, Federal Government , from Western Australia; Catherine, 20’s, Sales Rep, from Denmark; Bridgette, 50’s, Speech Pathologist, From Germany; Ava, 40’s, School Headmaster, Sweden… we could go on and on. People here really come from all walks of life, and are happy to share their stories and chat in the communal setting of our Auberge. It’s an exciting atmosphere here, as for most of us it’s the official start of the Camino, after several days of traveling.

It feels particularly energetic in St Jean today as tomorrow is April 1st – the unofficial kickoff to the Camino walking season – the route between the boarder of France and Spain usually opens every year on this day. Blake and I – like most of our fellow Pilgrims – were careful to book our trip around this start date – so as not to miss the first day of walking through the Great Pyrenees Mountains. That said, Mother Nature has other plans.

We started our morning with a short walk up cobblestone roads to the Pilgrim office to register for the walk. They gave us our “Pilgrim passport”, which is basically a credential that needs to be stamped along The Way, and filled us in on some bad news. St Jean and the Basque region of Spain are experiencing unseasonably stormy weather, and the “Napoleon Route” through the mountains will remain closed through the week – we will have to walk an alternative route at a lower elevation and forego the traditional border crossing. This doesn’t put our schedule behind at all, and it only means that our first two days will be different than what we had planned. Almost every pilgrim we spoke with today expressed severe disappointment at this development – the Great Pyrenees is one of the most beautiful sections of the Camino… but nothing can be done about bad weather.

We got over this development within about 5 minutes, and set off to test out our new waterproof hikers. We walked all over St Jean today – the city itself dates back to 716, and is surrounded by huge castle walls with archery defence windows. The city is etched into a mountainside, making for a steep climb to the castle at the top and excellent views.

It rained nearly all day long, and we were absolutely soaking wet by the time we were able to head back to the Auberge. In an effort to save Cash, we thought we’d pick up some sandwich ingredients for supper. Cheese and meat were easy enough to find, but bread was much harder. The Deli owner told us that – in small town France – it’s quiet common for bakers to close for the day at noon. Wet, hungry, and running out of hope, we wandered around the tiny town until we found this. The French are industrious people.

A Baguette vending Machine – it cost 1 Euro – amazing.

Tomorrow is the first day of ACTUAL walking – it feels like we’ve been on the trip for so long already…. But it’s actually just starting. As I’m typing I can hear the rain crashing down on the roof. We’re somewhat nervous for the walk in the rain, however the pilgrims office assured us that there are approx. 100 pilgrims are leaving from St Jean every day, so we will not be alone on the trail. More over, we’ve already buddied up with a few people from our Auberge to tackle the first day with, and will be moving together. Wish us luck – tomorrow we will be crossing the border into Spain. Buen Camino.