Bonjour! Finding France...

This napkin was given with breakfast and
served as a reminder to enjoy my pilgrimage
the way I wanted. It translates, per my best friend
Google, as "Enjoy to your liking!"

Breakfast was so different from anything I had already had... or expected.  The toast came with a tomato sauce and there was a stack of potatoes on the side.  It also came with some fruit and coffee. I was shocked to like the toast and tomato sauce so much. It really just felt good to be eating...I can't lie.

While I ate I thought about the things I still had to make sure went right.  First, I needed to get to the major bus hub and get the train to St. Jean Pied de Port, France. Then, after finding the Pilgrims Office and getting myself checked in for this pilgrimage...I had to find the room I had booked months earlier.  When I woke up there, I would have to leave that morning to hike up into the Pyrenees Mountains to get to a hostel I had booked...the Orrison...on time.  The beds were coveted there as it is the only place to find a room in the middle of these mountains.  Then a hike to get to Roncesvalles, Spain on time for another critical hostel stop......my mind was on overload.  I kept feeling that little gut sickness you get when a freak out is coming. I had to keep reminding myself to really take one day at a time. I ended up reminding myself to take it one mode of transportation, one meal, one hostel at a time in order to feel like I was handling this really well.

I took the city bus to get to the major bus station. I got there hours early to help myself stay calm and feel organized.

Every once in a while I saw another person sporting a backpack and carrying some hiking sticks.  Fortunately, we would usually sit together and talk for a while, inevitably picking up some other valuable information from each other...like where to stand while waiting for my bus.  This is when I noticed that we would start calling each other by the name of our home state or country.  It was at this bus station that I met Texas and North Carolina!

The bus climbed up the mountain into France.  It was beautiful.  I swear that even the leaves on the trees in France looked petite and proper.  I couldn't get over how green the landscape was. I had left a drought back at home in SoCal. and hadn't seen anything lush in years!

France was stunning.  The countryside was beautiful and when we arrived in the city of St. Jean Pied de Port I felt as if I was walking in a fairy tale.  The cobblestone roads were so charming and the buildings looked like something I would expect to see on the stage of a Shakespearean play.  Unfortunately, I think these pictures are of the only two streets in France or Spain that didn't go UP.

It was on these streets that I met a couple from the states.  I called them Arizona whenever we bumped into one another and of course, they called me California.  They pointed the way to my next stop...the Pilgrims Office.

The line was long. There were so many people starting their Camino at the same time I was glad I had made my hostel reservations ahead of time.  Fall isn't typically as busy as summer...but it looks like an autumnal pilgrimage is catching on.

The people who work inside the Pilgrims Office are those who have previously finished the Camino and now work to help other pilgrims get set off on the right foot.  They give you valuable information (like a sheet of paper that lists the hostels that are for pilgrims, the prices, and names the villages or cities that have ATM machines.) This is also where you get your Pilgrim's Passport.  There is a grid in this passport that gives space for you to get a stamp where ever you end up spending the night or for each time you visit a legendary cathedral. They very best thing they offer, however, is encouragement.







I left the Pilgrim's Office with my passport and started to look for my hostel. Thankfully it was on the main road just a few doors down from the office.

The River Nive runs through St. Jean Pied de Port, France

The window looking out of my room at the hostel.

It became clear that you could tell which beds were taken if someone left something on theirs or had already put on their sheet and pillow case.

I got a top bunk which was fine for me here.  There was a light just for me by my pillow and an outlet for charging my phone.  As long as I could take a shower and get up to the top without embarrassing myself, I was fine with any bed.  It was fun to really start using the things I had organized in my backpack...like my shower bag, towel, and washing some of my smaller clothes items. When things were used and wet, like my towel, I figured out that I could just hang it from one of the bed rails and pack it up dry in the morning.  So far the system I had planned was working!

This was just outside of the hallway door of the hostel.

I placed my passport on the window sill of my room and just felt so happy!  I had my first stamp!  I would be leaving to start walking in the morning...it was all real now.  Even though I was still feeling concern over getting to Orrison and Roncesvalles on time...I was beginning to feel proud of how far I had come. I sent this picture to my mom.  I believe that over a couple thousand miles we were both feeling the same way.    


It was time to go get dinner and to find a vegetable stand where I could pick up some snacks for the hike tomorrow.  There wouldn't be any stops between St. Jean's and the hostel Orrison.

I would walk to the store every day if it always
looked like this!

I found this beautiful produce and some pistachios to up my protein intake...but I was worried that they might not have anything at Orrison for vegans to eat.  If they didn't, I wouldn't have a lot of choices.  I made the decision to buy a few cans of baked beans and some soft white bread baguettes that came like the rolls you can buy stuck together in a plastic bag.  Not the healthiest choice...but I figured it would be easy to just put some beans in the bread and eat them up.  I stuffed the fruit, pistachios, beans, and bread in my backpack and felt ready to go.







I ended up getting a pizza without cheese and a glass of wine for dinner.  They looked at me funny for asking for no cheese...but that's ok.  I had wine to celebrate the start of my hike!

 

The next day, MY FIRST DAY, it was misty outside. I dressed and re-arranged my backpack.  I went outside and watched to see which way everyone was heading.  I followed the other backpacks and it worked...I found my way to what I guess you could call the trailhead for the Camino Frances.  

The street to leave town was uphill.  Really.  The hike started out as an uphill ordeal from the get go. The mountains we went through in the bus were the same mountains I was going to walk back over on a slightly different path.  Gravity became more obvious... I could really feel the extra weight of those cans of beans. It was so beautiful, though, I didn't care.

It was at the beginning of the climb that I met a young man from Israel.  We started talking about how excited we were to be beginning our treks. I wish I could remember his name...he was really nice.  It was obvious to me that he was in better shape and younger than me, and that he was being kind to go at my pace instead of what he probably was capable of.  As we walked up the hills, we stopped now and then and set our packs down, sometimes to rest, others to take off or put on our jackets. 

It was obvious that my backpack was weird.  It looked...well, crooked.  The cans of beans made my pack top heavy and would make it slump over every time I set it down.  After the third time of having my backpack wobble over the young man asked me what was in my pack.  I explained that I was carrying beans and told him the whole story about how I was ensuring I would have something to eat when I got to the hostel Orrison.  He nodded that he understood.  We kept walking and talking, mostly about how to be of service in this world.  It was interesting to talk with someone that felt the same way I did about helping other people, especially a young person. After a while I knew I had to let him go on ahead.  I told him that I knew he could move much faster than me...and that I would be fine...he should move at the pace he wanted to.  He finally agreed but put his hand out and said, "Ok, but I want you to give me the beans." I didn't understand at first, but he insisted that I should give him my cans of beans.  "I want to take that burden from you" he said. I did not  see that coming. I was so surprised and touched that I handed over the beans and thanked him.  He put the beans in his pack and took off.  He was as fast as I imagined he would be.

I started walking alone.  It was kind of nice not feeling guilty about holding someone back.  I was free to go as slow or as fast as I wanted, to look at the view for as long or as short of a time as I wished.  It was kind of how I had imagined my walk would be when I would day dream about it at home.  One thing that never came into my daydreams though was just how beautiful it was here in the French Basque country.  Again, it was like something from an enchanted fairytale that I saw illustrated in my childhood books.

 I hope this video works!

The hill to mountain work was pretty tough.  There weren't many flat sections and I had to stop every once in a while to catch my breath.  

It wasn't too terribly long before I made it to the hostel Orrison.  I came up to a bend in the path and as I rounded it I could see the hostel to the left hugging the mountain.  On the right side of the road was a patio with tables where on nicer days people might sit outside to eat and stare at the view.  But today there was only clouds beyond the patio.  One seat was taken...it was my new friend from Israel! He was sitting with a beer when he noticed me coming up the final stretch.  He stood up as if he had been waiting for me to arrive, gave me a thumbs up, and took off up the hill into another set of clouds.  He planned to walk all the way into Spain to Roncesvalles without stopping to sleep anywhere. I waved and watched him walk off.  

I went in to check in at the hostel.  The line to check in was fairly long, a hard wait when your tired. When it was my turn, I gave the lady my name.  She checked my passport (the government issued) and then stamped my Pilgrim's Passport.  "And I guess these are yours then," she said, lifting up four cans of baked beans with my name written across the top of each can. 

I couldn't believe how lucky I was...and how suddenly it was very important that I eat every one of the beans in those cans.  I really wish I knew his name and that I could thank him some how.  

Peace!

Let me know in the comments below if you've ever had anyone do something like that for you!