Pilgrims on the Way

Last night after dinner was Mass for the Feast of Saint Matthew, celebrated by the Augustinian canons of the church. Afterwards, one of the priests gave a tour of the church. Only about six or seven of us stayed for the tour, which concluded with going down into the crypt, which still had its original 13th century paint. It was […]

A wistful sort of melancholy filled me as I passed out of the gates of Saint-Jean last night after dinner. I touched the stones of the Spanish Gate wondering when I would see the town again. As I climbed the Camino route up the hill to my rooms, my head was suddenly filled with the medieval pilgrim song that we […]

Today is my first genuine zero – rest day – on this Camino. Tomorrow, I cross the pass over the Pyrénées into Spain, but for now I’m just hanging out in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. After a leisurely morning – my body decided to wake up at 5 AM but I resolutely told it to go back to sleep – I had breakfast […]

Just a quick word about last night’s gîte: magnificent! Wide and spacious dorms, but more importantly, gracious and amazing hosts. Dinner was outside on the terrace in full view of the beautiful Basque hills. And afterwards, there was a sing-along in French punctuated by our host playing accordion and singing traditional Basque folk songs. It was just a great experience. […]

A bit of a lazy start today, but today’s stage is listed as only 19.5 km, so I wasn’t bothered about it. I finally left the gîte about 6:40. The most treacherous part was going down the building’s crazy stone stairs.  Quite cool this morning.  The Camino exited town through one of the remaining gatehouses in the ramparts. From a […]

It rained last night. Not hard, but pretty constant for most of the night. This, combined with the sort of general dampness of our gîte, means that not only did the clothes I washed last night not get dry, even clothes I didn’t wash at all feel vaguely damp. I left about 6:15 this morning, which was about half an […]

Not only did last night’s gîte not have Wi-Fi – which isn’t super unusual – but they also didn’t have electrical outlets in the dorms. This means that I had to rechargew my phone using a battery pack. Again, not a problem – that’s why I brought the battery pack with me in the first place. I knew that there […]

Last night, for only the second time since I’ve been in France, I had all of my clothes laundered in a machine. As much as the daily hand washing of clothes is something of a ritual for the pilgrim, I know that it’s really only getting the clothes cleaner, not actually clean. It’s amazing what a difference a washing machine […]

Yesterday, I broke out my rain jacket for the first time in France. I wore it to the grocery, and then to my trip to the center of Nogaro. I returned to the church of Saint Nicholas. It is a solid Romanesque structure with enormous supporting pillars. It projects a feeling of strength, solidity, and permanence. The church was consecrated […]