Pilgrims

Today it is official. We are now pilgrims or as the Spanish say peregrinos. According to local definition a pilgrim is a believer who travels to a holy place where God may seem especially close, to ask for pardon, or beg a favor, or, as in our case, to give thanks for blessings received. We are in St Jean de Pied Port and we are enjoying this beautiful French village. We are staying at a little bed and breakfast called Tartasenia and it is run by Arnaud and his wife Alice. When we arrived last night close to midnight, Arnaud was at the door waiting for us to welcome us home. We are happy to be here.

St Jean is the meeting place for pilgrims from all over the world. It is the official beginning point for the Chemin de France aka The French Way. While their are many roads that lead to Santiago de Compostela, most of them from Europe will pass this way.

We walked into town this morning where we officially signed in as pilgrims. Here we had our credential filled out and stamped with the official stamp of St Jean de Pied Port. We also picked up a conch shell which we will display upon our backpacks. Having the credential and the shell will allow us pilgrim status. We can stay at alburgues (hostels) and we are entitled to peregrino status which gives us a small discount on meals. In this area the pilgrim is well known and the pilgrimage is respected. In fact, we met a man at the bus station last night who drove us to our lodging because we were pilgrims. He took no payment for his troubles. Only wished us Buen Camino...