Finally arrived, St Jean Pied de Port, the traditional starting point for the Camino Frances. Our day started as we woke up in Paris, found (really not hard to find) a cafe with coffee and a coursannt – wonderful! Bought sandwiches for the train and checked out of the hotel. This was the last of the stressful days and getting on the correct train as it turns out was way easier than we thought.
High speed rail in Europe is great! 2 hours to Bordeaux and we slept most of it – jet lag gone. Another 2 hours to Bayonne and then switch trains to Cambo Les Bains.
In Bayonne we had to get on the regional train. Janice asked the nice agent twice how we know what track to wait at. Janice asked because people seem to be nicer to her and the agent explained it in a French kind of English which Janice seems to have mastered.
So the regional train showed up 20 minutes early with no markings telling us it is our train. A nice young woman got off the train and saw us standing on the platform, probably looking like we were lost, and she asked politely where we were going. We told her and she let us know we were looking at our train. How nice is that! Really.
This was a milestone moment for us not only because we were finally headed for St Jean Pied de Port but because there were actually other Camino travelers getting on our train!
Got on the bus at Cambo Les Bains to go to St Jean Pied de Port and we traveled for about 45 minutes through beautiful southern France villages. The countryside looks very much like Oregon near Eugene. How do people live in such a peaceful place?
The bus trip was a bit like the tour bus trips from Italy we’ve been on – lots of curves, streets too small for buses and glad I was not driving. In the end though – St Jean Pied de Port!
It is Monday evening and we will start the Camino Wednesday morning. We are staying at a place called Villa Esponda. It is a charming old building that resembles the haunted mansion at Disneyland. When we opened the creaky front door it opened to an empty dark foyer. No front desk, no one in the whole building. We called the number from the web page and a very nice woman named Panjika told us she would drive right over. And she did! Up the wooden stairs we went and to our room which turned out to be a very nice room albeit we seem to be the only ones in this very old three story haunted mansion – just kidding not haunted we think.
Time for dinner it’s 7:30pm – early for this part of the world.
At dinner we met two others heading out on their Camino – both from the US. One a school teacher who will be moving to Lithuania and the other a musician. All in all a really nice chance meeting with others on a common journey.
Tomorrow we go to the Camino office, do some laundry and wait for Wednesday! No updates for a couple of days.