All along the watch tower...

And so I arrive at my final point for this trip.

Here I am at the Porte De St Jaques. This is the traditional medieval door way that all pilgrims travelling through France would have entered.

But I have a big question, if this is my end how come it feels like just the beginning. I now have my Carnet de Pelerin de Saint Jaques. (chemin passport) and my first stamp!!

My last thoughts were given voice as a young waiter ambled happily across the road singing Bobs (Jimi??) classic. "There must be someway out of here....said the joker to the thief, there's too much confusion, I can't get no relief..."

Alors! Until next time...

S

Finis.....

Well I have done it. I'm here and yes I took the wiggly road but no I missed the big hill. Strange that I took a wrong turn that happened to by pass the hill. Actually I went to have a look and said to myself yes I can do that but no I'm not going down just to come back up to prove a point.

However, I have not quite finished as tomorrow morning I am going to go to the official St Jean de Vieux and I will post a picture of celebration so bear with me on this one.

But for now here is where I will lay my very weary head for the night. It's a few miles further on (another wiggly road) from St Jean de Pied in the hamlet of Esterencuby. There was no room in the hotel so I have my very own Chalet sleeping six!! And to top it all it has it's own small church.(the village not my chalet!!) I missed sitting inside so sat happily contemplating my trip on the church steps.

I won't mention the horror of two coach parties being entertained with a accordion music! Thankfully they departed but I did have a great conversation with one of the inmates on the fantastic results by Wiggins! All. In all a good, hard day..... And the Garmin lied, it was only 4500 feet all told in 65 miles. Simples.

Three pilgrims on bikes...

I have met with my first pilgrims. I spied two unlikely looking figures perched atop of two much too small beaten up bicycles. As I drew closer I saw they were carrying their belongings on their backs in misshapen old rucksacks. A little closer and I saw the two or three spare tyres strapped to the front alongside a glass bottle or two of water. I kid you not they even had children's fluorescent sparkly cycle streamers to warn the oncoming traffic.

Now what I write should bring a smile as I'm not mocking merely bemused.

As I draw alongside to say hello I am greated by the father. His son (mid 20s) appears a little too taciturn but then he was carrying the bigger load! The simplicity of our conversation as to where from and where to brought a glow to my heart. They were indeed on their way to Compostella. They were just doing it bit by bit and slowly slowly. 30km a day. Bon Courage I say... As we parted I smiled at the joy of having dispelled all images of hessian sack staff bearing pilgrims. Fantastique!

What lies ahead

Oh my goodness. I have just come up over a hill south of Dax and the Pyrenees lie before me. I was going to put in a photo but they just wouldn't do it justice. I am hoping that I am going to the foothills not all the way up and over. Not yet. Need a bit more practise and a little less pannier to get over them !!! Awesome

Oh the dilemma

So here it is in the image below you will see a long straight red line heading into St Jean de Pied. Right to left across the map. Just above it you will see the alternative wiggly road. The later has more hills and a Col to take on too. So what shall I do? Hmm now let me think!!!

Weather is perfect and it's only 1.30 pm and it's 18 miles to climb an apparent 4,000 feet???

Ok Wistful let's see what we can see.

Les Landes

They were remarkable. From my guide I had been warned about the monotony of this landscape but I was unprepared.

The roads stretched out way in front as far a the eye could see. Zero percent gradient and little wind. Perfect for the first 20 miles but then what do you do? I sang, had full conversations with myself and spent hours inside my head. Then came the revelation. This was exactly what the wilderness was meant to be. No Thing. So I tried as hard as I might to stay in the moment and savour everything around.



Another mad ramble.... Time is really only measured in your head. The journey started and finished and where I went in between was up to me. I could see it as minutes or think of it as hours. As it was I fell in love with this area The smell of sun bleached pine trees does it for me every time.

I have a video which I'll try to upload so watch this space. Literally!!!!

Well it appears that I neglected to notice that I have to climb 7000 feet with my panniers etc tomorrow. So of today was flat? I hope they didn't smooth out all the hills to the end of France jut for me! Gulp.

What on earth?

This was the cafe I stopped at for lunch. I had to share this as its just surreal! And I thought I was off my head?

After Bordeaux

This was always going to be a hard day. Because I had decided this would be a hard day it was going to be! However after struggling out of Bordeaux I fell into the way of the Roman roads through Les Landes. Now I haven't quite worked out what this means but I do know it's flat and the landscape is pine trees. The noise is terrific. The cri cri insects are out in force. So head down I put on some miles as today is 105 miles. This is why today is going to be hard because for the first half I have to just peddle

At one point I thought my day was up as the road stopped short of forcing me to take the A10 motor way. They were rebuilding the road I wanted to take. But as luck(yeah right) would have it a farmer was stood by the Barrier. He saw my dilemma and waved me through onto the new road. Ok so there were no niceties to the sides of the road but it stretched for miles and it was all mine!

At the end of the stretch I was greated by this signpost.