SJPP and The Start

April 2, 2025

From the itinerary: today is a day of rest and preparation for the first full day on the Camino.

Some history of SJPP:

Population: 1580

Medieval village which serves proudly as the starting point for the French Route of the Camino.

The original town, built not far away, was destroyed by Richard the Lionhart in 1177.

In the 12th century King Sancho VII (Sancho the Strong) created the original town deed creating San Jean Pied de Port in its current location.

The name derives from its two patron saints: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Pied (foot) de Port (gateway) comes from being at the base of the two easiest crossings of the Pyranees. There are two which pertain to this Camino route - the Valcarlos Route and the Napoleon Route - more on that in a different post.

The City has served alternatively as an invasion point, a military stronghold and a pilgrim starting location.

Basque people do not consider themselves French or Spanish, but part of their own Basque Country called Euskal Harria. Signs are normally in either French or Spanish and Euskara - their traditional Basque language.

The day started with a cold buffet in our "superior" hotel. The croissant and bread were nice. The spread was so underwhelming there is no photo, but there will be in the next blog.

Our first stop was the pilgrim registration office to get our camino shells, our Camino passport and our first stamp. Since I did the Kumano Kodo last year I will be able to be a dual pilgrim once I finish this Camino. More on that later.

The Pilgrimage starts from the St James Gate in the Ramparts, flows down through the city center, by the areas oldest church - Notre Dame du Bout Du Pont, across the roman bridge over the river Nive, and through the Spanish Gate.

At the outskirts of town the pilgrim has a decision to make: up along the Napoleon Route, or take the lower Valcarlos Route. There is a sign which tells pilgrims if the Napoleon Route is closed. Today we went as far as the sign which showed the Napoleon Route as closed, even though the Pilgrim Office said repeatedly it was open. We went back to the office and showed them the photo and they said it was open anyway, so I guess that's good news for tomorrow. Hopefully that's just a miscommunication between the authorities and the Office and not closed due to bad weather. More on the Napoleon Route tomorrow.

So, I have officially started as we walked from the St. James Gate to the sign.

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch with local beef, local sheep cheese, salad and rose wine. Local specialties include apple cider and sheep cheese. I haven't tried the apple cider yet because it only came in a .75l bottle which was too much for lunchtime.

Dinner was at The Cat Perches and we were able to try the local cider made from a nearby orchard which had 42 different types of apples. I had the local veal stew, Chris a steak and he had the local almond cake, I had home made creme brulee. We are ready for the start.