Saint-Palais to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port

May 13, 2025

As usual, we had been keeping a keen eye on the weather forecast. Since thunderstorms were predicted from around 2 pm, we left at 10 am- hoping to avoid them. It was a little earlier than usual for us so we felt a little rushed. We left Saint-Palais with a warm feeling as we liked this little town.

We had a bit of a climb as we departed - just enough to warm us up — and then we had the pleasant rolling hills and valleys that make cycling so fun. We donned rain gear to start but stripped down midway through as rain did not look imminent. The small country roads had little traffic and we had a fun steep climb at km point 20 where the inclinometer on Komoot indicated 15%. Right at the top of the climb we met Lolita, a five month old German Shephard, and her human parents (whose names I cannot remember). They were from La Rochelle in France, and Lolita had the privilege of traveling with them in their Burley trailer (usually used by humans - not canines).

Jill doing the climb - it was a steep one.

We were on our way to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, which is the formal start of the Camino Francis (I had thought), but on the way we saw a steady stream of hikers. Our friends Mark and Elizabeth, who were with us in Provence, had just completed a 22 day walk on the Camino (Leon to Santiago) and we had had a full discussion of the pleasures and challenges of this particular adventure. They love it (they hiked the Camino route out of Portugal last year) and it actually got me excited about trying it, but over dinner one night, Dave advised that that would be a bridge too far for him, although I was welcome to do it with friends if I wished.

In our case, we are only riding a very small piece of the Camino. Once we arrive in Logrono (next week) we will be riding north through the Rioja region (fine wine taking precedence over spiritual riding) and meeting up with friends in Bilbao. My original idea for this trip was to ride the whole Camino all the way to Santiago de Compostela but the chance to meet with friends in Bilbao altered that plan. I am glad it turned out that way. The whole Camino ride may have been too much of a good thing and a bit like the Kattegattleden ride in Sweden we did in 2023. Four days of riding in one area would have been fine, eight was too many and it got a bit monotonous.

In any event we arrived in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port at 2 pm. Our host had kindly texted us the code to let us drop our bags and bikes at the inn before early check in. The entrance was so unobtrusive it took us a while to find it, but once we did we parked our bikes on the patio and left to find lunch. We could tell we would like the inn.

Yep. This is the place. Unobtrusive on the outside, lovely inside.

St.-Jean turned out to be shockingly charming, lots of cobbles on steep pitches and shops and cafés all to serve the pilgrims. Because of that, the hours of the restaurants are more flexible than the usual French drill where kitchens are only open between noon and 2 pm and dinner doesn’t start until 7:30 pm. Everything seemed to be open in St.-Jean and we found a creperie around the corner and enjoyed unusual crepes and cider (a local specialty).

We wondered around the town afterwards and found a place to make a booking for dinner. Its the beginning of the season so while there were plenty of hikers it didn’t feel overrun. I suspect it might feel different in July.

At 3:30 Katherine from Maison Laurentzenia checked us in. It appears to be Murphy’s law that the room I booked was on the top floor of the inn. Despite being a haul to bring our gear up three flights, the room was a lovely large room (tub included) and we don’t mind the stairs. It would really be a pain to struggle with stairs in Europe due to a lack ADA compliance (or whatever the European equivalent might be). Although we suspect if I focused more on finding rooms on the ground floor or a hotel with a lift rather than focusing on, say, getting a room with a tub - we might have a different perspective!

Dave got excited when he saw the newish tv in our room and spent 20 minutes figuring out how to cast the Giro from his tablet - a complicated process (at least to Jill). As he said as I commented on his determination, he gets the bit in his teeth on the technology stuff. He achieved success only to realize that the internet connection wasn’t strong enough to support watching the race.

We went out for dinner at Café TTipia, a Rick Steve’s suggestion, down by the river. We had another bottle of Irouléguy wine along with our salad and meal. The meal was good but not amazing as evidenced by the fact that as I write this a few days later, I can’t remember what we had. The restaurant was full of early diners. Many were pilgrims but there were plenty of other random tourists as well.

This particular Irouléguy was 100% cab franc and was less tannic and had bright fruit flavors.

(Sorry for the chronic wine pics for those of you who don’t care about wine: this journal provides a record for us, which we need to compensate for our senior memories.)

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 618 km (384 miles)

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Jacquie GaudetNo problem with the wine pics! We rarely order a full bottle anymore but love the stuff!
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