Shell motif Camino de Santiago

Camino Francés
from St Jean-Pied-du-Port
to Santiago de Compostela

 Shell motif
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Stage 1 - From St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to Roncesvalles in Spain

View from the train from Bayonne

St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port

In July 2003, two Dutch pilgrims, Huberta and Arno, opened a new refugio called "L'Esprit du Chemin" just opposite the pilgrim's office.


Roofscape

The town gate

The dormitory in the Refugio

Dawn start

Looking back at St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Farmhouse

Huntto (the last accommodation before Roncesvalles)













Way mark

The "table d'orientation" telling you the names of everything you can see and showing the route of the original camino to the east









Way mark



Horse country

Another backward look





Virgen d'Orisson









Lunch stop - note the cross which marks where the Camino forks right on a grassy track

The Camino goes between the nearby small hill, and in front of the large hill beyond

....in fact, here





This old barbed wire fence is the frontier between France and Spain

Way mark

The last fountain in France

The frontier crossing at last

The author exhausted

Tony, a fellow pilgrim from England, on the first day of walking all the way through to Compostela

The stone to mark your entry to Navarre





The last of the winter snow



The first long view of Spain

The start of the steep descent through the woods to Roncesvalles



In these woods you can really feel the echoes of centuries of pilgrims on the same road

(There is an alternative route on a by-road which passes the stone where Roland broke his sword according to legend

Roncesvalles at last

The cloisters







View from the dormitory window

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