St. Jean Pied de Port: A Beautiful Meander

We reached home in the wee hours on Thursday morning. Our last day was fraught with a bit of stress due to an Air France labour dispute that caused many internal flights to be cancelled. Fortunately we made it home as planned despite the strike. I am now getting ready to teach my "Dye Another Day" class tomorrow at the Country Quilter in Richmond, Ontario. It will be an outdoor class on the very same day and site as the annual Richmond outdoor quilt show.

I have a few more blog posts about our trip that I will publish in the next week. For today I am going to talk about possibly my absolute favorite village on the trip: St. Jean Pied de Port. The name literally means "St. John at the foot of the mountain pass". This town is the last stop before taking the arduous mountain crossing on the pilgramage to Santiago de Compostela, along the Camino Trail. It is believed that the remains of St. James lie at the Compestela in northern Spain. Today both religious pilgrims and extreme sport pilgrims walk the 800 km Camino Trail to reach the Compostela. The gate of the town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I was in love the moment I walked through the gates of St. Jean Pied de Port. Steep narrow streets, well preserved ancient buildings, and a medieval wall surrounding the town charmed me.

In several locations there are stairs to ascend to a walkway that encircles the entire town and provides a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. 

This photo looks like a ladder to the heavens.

Here's the walkway around the wall, that allows unobstructed views into the backyards and gardens of town residents.

The Nive River runs through the town, and there are several beautiful bridges crossing it. The Nive River is the same river that also ran past our hotel property in St. Ettienne de Baigorry (see my last blog post).

Another walkway runs along the river.

A beautiful location to meander for a day.