Travel Journal, 2017 July to September
San Sebastián
Our last stop before returning to the UK. Rosemarie had a lovely birthday weekend with the family flying down and joining us for the weekend. A good time was had by all in spite of the very wet weekend. We caught up with John’s Sydney cycling buddies although John’s Camino injury prevented him from joining in on the rides.
Festival of St Fermin
This festival is celebrated twice each year, once with the running of the bulls and once without. Fortunately, and unknowingly, we managed to be in Pamplona for the latter, much more relaxed affair. Traditional costumes, music and parades were the focus.
Pamplona to Puente la Rein
Gaining confidence from walking the two earlier sections, we decided to try this 23km stretch (for us, actually 26kms because the motorhome was 3kms out of town). Despite starting before dawn we missed the four o’clock bus back to Pamplona, mainly because of slow progress after the lunch stop with John hobbling along with a leg problem.
Roncesvalles!
Although Camino pilgrimages can start from many places, Roncesvalles is probably the most well known.
There's basically only the monastery, the pilgrims' aubergue and centuries of history here.
(And they are quite relaxed about motorhomes overnighting in the large adjoining parking area).
Finally! The Camino
It was thirty years ago that Rosemarie read about actress Shirley Maclaine's preoccupation with the Camino de Santiago (see "The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit" published some time later) and resolved to walk the 800 kms from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in south west France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The required block of six or so weeks for the pilgrimage has never appeared, and even in retirement looks unlikely. So, heading from the Dordogne towards San Sebastián in northern Spain, and motivated by Anne's and Greg's recent Camino walks, we made a snap decision to deviate to St Jean to see how much of "The Way" we could tackle.
Leaving Montignac on the Vézère on the 13th, we headed south to overnight at yet another free aire in the village of Montfort, one-time home of Simon de Montfort, historically famous as the 6th Earl of Leicester in the thirteenth century, and a somewhat brutal individual all round. We then popped into Domaine de Soleil Plage, a resort further down the Dordogne, to briefly catch up with other Carthago owners having their autumn get together.
Then it was off on the long drive to south-west France, overnighting - with some difficulty - at Dax. With night falling, we found the listed aire occupied by some slightly dodgy characters, and after a bit of trawling around, found about 30 French motorhomers using a retail parking area, apparently with no restraints. However we were off at first light just in case, for the short stretch to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
More about the drive south from Montignac, Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port and the Camino in the five same-dated posts below...
Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port is in the French part of the Basque Country, a fact to which the dual language French/Basque signage everywhere attests.
Some other differences from the rest of France were immediately evident, such as a the well-attended rugby game (see the magnified rugby post on the left of the photo!) and the huge jaï alaï stadium (arrowed) next to the 30 place aire, with our van also magnified. (OK, so rugby is played in France; it was the pride of place given to it in an otherwise soccer football obsessed country that was noteworthy.)
For more about Basque identity, click here. For more about the Basque conflict, click here.
