Time for a break....: Day 44 – 20/05/2013

Orthez – St Jean Pied- de-Port

82.1km, 6hrs 16mins, 1422m total climb

After a very good night's sleep in the very nice cosy hotel bed with a very comfortable mattress, we got up, packed up and got back on the bikes. After taking a few more pictures of the outside of the hotel we left Orthez alongside the GR 65 (the walker's route).

After about 20km we got to Naverrenx. A pretty medieval looking town with still completely intact town walls with 4m thick walls of different layers. We stopped and had lunch outside the hotel de ville. For a while now we noticed that town names on signs were written in two languages – one in French and below in Basque. Basque seems to look like a cross between a Celtic Language and Mexican! We now were in Pays de Basque, but still on the French side. This and the road signs to Pamplona clearly meant that we were heading in the right direction towards Spain and hopefully sunshine. It was nice and sunny while we had lunch but we started seeing dark clouds crawling up behind the houses. We quickly finished up our sandwiches and just as we got back on the bikes it started raining again – heavily this time!

We had the first glimpse of the Pyrenees in the very distance today. Not so intimidating as the Alps, but actually a welcome relief from all the rolling countryside of South West France!

For today's route Greg had planned two little stops just off the route (about 1km) to look at some chapels which are supposed to be a must-see on the St Jacob's way. We only looked at one, but it was definitely worth it. It was one of the more bodged-up ones and from the outside it looked more like a farm than anything else. There were lots of walking pilgrims when we arrived. It was very pretty inside covered with colourful wall paintings. I decided to make a donation of 2.50EUR.

The second one we could see from the road and was just another small hill-town with a central chapel. Picture postcard perfect, but also something we have seen a lot of already. We also decided not to use the Pilgrim's Credential book, or to collect the stamps from all of these places. If we had signed up for that then we would be stopping a lot more regularly at these places. We are only out for a cycle really!

There are two kind of French towns on the pilgrims route we have encountered so far – the bigger ones that have the old city with old buildings and churches but also a modern part which is more industrial and the ones that are just little villages that are very medieval and traditional. Arriving in Jean Pied-de-Port was strange and didn't really fit in either of those categories. It wasn't very big, but extremely busy and buzzing with all nationalities of walking tourists – not just the French that we had so far met. We cycled through town along the main road and it all looked more like a busy ski resort town in Switzerland than a popular pilgrim's stop, everyone dressed in Goretex and carrying poles, alongside plenty of street bars where people were sitting out on the roadside in the sun. We cycled to the campsite with the intention to set up first and then come back into town later. The campsite was empty. We set up the tent in our usual routine, had showers, paid for the camping and headed back into town for some food.

We ended up having dinner in a – not sure how to call it – pilgrims diner/restaurant. They offered a “menu de jour” (starter, main, pudding and a glass of wine or cider) for 12.80EUR. We got sat between a lot of other walkers (squeezed on the same table) – on our left a Dutch couple who chatted away to an American woman, on our right a young shy Korean couple. This felt like a hotspot for walkers and we found out that most people start from Jean Pied-de-Port as it is very close to the Spanish border and as there are two or three routes from different origins running through the town.

Dinner was simple but nice. After a nightcap of red wine sitting outside in the sun in another bar, we cycled back to our tent and fell asleep quickly. Tomorrow – Espagne!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1339523