St.Jean-Pied-de-Port to Vente de Arrieta

May 14, 2025

Last week when we begin looking at the long term weather forecast for this part of the trip (Southern France in the Pyrennes-Atlantiques and Northern Spain) it was predicted to be stormy. Dave had noticed it first, and when I looked at the forecast myself, Wednesday was predicated to be the worst: ‘Thunderstorms, lightning, heavy rainfall, localized flooding. Chance of rain 100 percent.”

Hmmm: that looked pretty bad. And you all know how much Dave and I love riding in stormy weather although it does create lots of stories for our journal! And of course that was the day we had planned our big climb up to Col Ibañeta and the Abbey of Roncasvalles. I spent an hour relooking at our planned route (while on the train itching from the bedbug bites) to see if we could adjust things and concluded it wasn’t feasible short of a catastrophe since all the cancellation dates on our hotel/inn bookings had passed.

As you may have figured out with Dave and me, we tend to overthink stuff at the planning stage. I think for me it was caused by practicing law (lawyers overthink everything) and for Dave— I have no idea how his brain turned out like this.

The good news in the present circumstance was that the forecast got better every day. By the first of the week we were in a state of calm (except for the bedbugs).

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The Maison Laurentzenia in St.-Jean is highly recommended - it was clean, roomy, cool and a cut above any of the other inns I could find in the town.

At breakfast that morning we met Karen and Madeline, a mother-daughter duo from New Orleans who were getting ready to walk the entire Camino - 47 days to Santiago de Compostela. Madeline had just graduated from nursing school and had a job lined up when she got back. Their plan generated a funny conversation between Dave and me: Could we imagine our parents walking the Camino with us?

We left around 10 am. We had a big climb ahead of us and thunderstorms were contemplated for around 2 pm. The ride out of town was fine but we soon hit the D933 which was quite busy and had a minimal shoulder. It faded in and out and there were enough trucks wizzing by that I was hoping we would not have to ride this all day up the climb. Fortunately at around 10 km we peeled off the D 933 to the N-135 which was much better.

Crossing the France/Spain border and official start of this part of the Camino trail.

At a small town where we stopped to take a photo, we met Craig, another American just starting a solo ride. He was planning to do the entire Camino in 33 days and he was carrying camping gear so he had a full load on a rented bike. He was a professor at Indiana University in the business school and he hoped the Camino ride would be a mental break after teaching all year. He was distressed because he learned once he arrived that wild camping is forbidden in Spain and the Spanish police are not nice about it. (I have no idea if that is accurate but it made me a little concerned about his preparation for this trip. He had never done a cycle tour before and 33 days on a rented bike with a plan to camp sounded like a big ask.)

The monument behind Craig memorializes the Basque victory over Charlemagne in 778 on the Roncevaux Pass (the pass we were climbing).

According to Google, Basque warriors ambushed Charlemagne’s rear guard as the Frankish army crossed the Pyrenees back into France, killing every last one of them!

After this brief stop, the climb pitched up in earnest and we spent 13 km slogging up the mountain.

It got to 13 or 14 percent on a few occasions but mostly was 4 to 7 percent. There has been a lot of rain in the region this spring so everything was green and fresh and the scenery was gorgeous. It was a cool day and couldn't have been any better for a ride.

Wildflowers lined our route, thanks to all the recent rains.

We passed a few tourers but not many. We reached the Col at the top around 12:45. The weather was whipping up at that point so we quickly took our pic and then peeled a few km down the road to Roncesvalles - the small village that contained an abbey and a few hostels and dorms.

I had looked hard at staying overnight in Roncesvalles but could not find an appealing place. We would have liked to stop and have a drink at the local café and wander around the Abbey but rain appeared imminent. We quickly ate a small two-day old ham sandwich (still in my pack from Saint-Palais) and donned our raingear.

Our destination was a super-obscure spot in the road called Vente de Arrieta. When we left Roncesvalles we had planned to ride the gravel (Eurovelo bikeway) but the main road was easier. I wasn’t sure of the etiquette of passing some poor pilgrim in their meditative state on a bike and there was minimal traffic on the road. The downside of that decision was that we had to actively read the map rather than just follow Komoot instructions. I am better at that than Dave so I took the lead - a rare occurrence. The good news: It was all downhill so it was a fun ride for 13 km, rain and wind notwithstanding. We passed a pelegrino supermercado and Dave ran into get a bottle of wine (10 euros) and a beer as we were not sure those would be offered at our inn. (As it turned out, our fears were unfounded).

The last 7 km we turned off on a small road, the NA 1720, and had a glorious ride through a scenic forest along a stream. Our b and b, Vente de Arrieta, was located right on the road. Our hostess, Elisa, had texted the code to get in. We successfully parked our bikes in the living room (as instructed) and cleaned up in very spacious digs.

The entrance to the house is next to the main road.

Our bikes, temporarily in the living area

Later, after a nap and sitting by a warm fire, we met Guillaume and Elisa and learned the story of the inn. They raised their three children in Pamplona but had lived in a number of places around Europe (Berlin and Munich were mentioned). Guillaume works for a company where he travels all over the world and Elisa was in HR. A few years ago, after becoming empty nesters, they bought Vente de Arrieta. They had to gut the house and barn and did much of the work themselves. There are five rooms to rent but right now they only rent out two until they decide how much innkeeping they actually want to do. Elisa quit her corporate job (and based on our experience is taking her innkeeping very seriously) but her husband still works and the biggest challenge he has is the hassle of getting to an airport for business travel.

The house is beautiful and unique and they have maintained the original wood on the stairs and ceilings, so when you lay in bed and look up you want to talk about it. The house is also very modern and comfortable.

You can see a bit of the original wood in the ceiling.

Guillaime was also a cyclist so he was excited to hear about our travels (past and future) and we discussed our projected route to Pamplona the following day.

Because we were on bikes (and there nowhere close to eat) Elisa agreed to cook what she described as a “simple dinner:” salad, salmon, a Basque salsa and gratin dauphinois (a potato and cheese dish) finished off with fresh strawberries and a little ice cream. At the end of the meal Guillaume brought out the cognac for Dave - so he was happy.

Guillaume generously brought a bottle of Cognac out for me to enjoy.

It was a really great and unexpected experience and the effort to book a place a bit off the beaten track turned out to be worth it.

Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 656 km (407 miles)

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