Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port - 1st June

As we didn’t need to be out of either the hotel or the car park until 12.00pm, the joys of Spanish time, we visited more of Pamplona on foot while the weather was still bearable. However sightseeing is limited to visiting places like the old citadel because very little is open; even McDonalds doesn’t open until 11:30am [Ed: I can't think why we would know this].

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.16 - Camino de Santiago Our return journey to France was via Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, specifically chosen because the road runs parallel with the Camino de Santiago or, for the French, 'The Way of Saint James’.

The walk crosses from France into Spain at Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port, however some people choose to start their pilgrimage here rather than one of the many options in France. I have read a few books about The Way of Saint James, mainly written by New Zealanders, and got the impression Saint Jean Pied-de-Port was a small town; it may well be, but it has a lot to offer in terms of history, cafes, tourist shops and generally nice scenery.

However you do have to put up with smelly hikers, bikers of the push-bike and motor-bike variety, tourist bus loads of many English speaking nationalities and, unfortunately for us, drizzle. It will be well worth a return visit on a sunny day.

For those starting the walk here it is normally their hardest day as it goes up and over the mountain. The route we followed today is for walkers from November to May in the colder months. In summer they follow a trail through the woods.

We first discovered the Way of Saint James on a previous trip to France when we came upon the trademark Scallop shell on road signs, buildings, hiker’s packs and on badges on the ground as per the header photo. The walkers can’t get lost and the driving tourists are pre-warned that at any moment hoards of pilgrims could pop out of the bush into the path of the traffic. If you are not familiar with the Camino de Santiago, find a website, or just know it was a medieval pilgrimage that began in the 9th century when some remarkable (spiritual) event occurred.

350,000 people walk it every year, possibly not all for spiritual reasons, however based on the amount of food being consumed at the cafes the pilgrims were certainly behaving like this could be their Last Supper although it's unlikely they will be immortalised in an oil-painting.

A quote from French writer Jean Giono “the sun is never as beautiful as the day when you set out on the road”; we're not sure the pilgrims in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port quite saw it that way today, as they had donned their parkas.

Breakfast options in Pamplona were pretty slim this morning so we hit the road with a plan to stop at the first town that had a bakery or café. Unfortunately, most walkers are catered for by the hostels they stay at, so we proceeded on like true pilgrims, all the way to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on a glass of water. After a trip around town sussing out the menus of the day we settled on a place with the dish that sounded most Spanish; ironic because we are actually in France.

Yes, we went from one country to another and never saw a border control booth, just one police car in each country checking number plates; even our red plates didn’t get a reaction.
Our two course lunch with bread was - local trout from Iraty on Israeli couscous, cooked paella style with mussels, in a chilli-pepper sauce. That’s an English chilli sauce made with the local peppers, sweet with no heat; in fact the sauce tasted like butter chicken. For dessert we had strawberry mousse, blackcurrant sorbet and crumbled lemon biscuit.

Cheese Experience No.41 - Ossau Iraty This cheese is from the French Pyrenees near the Spanish border. Made from sheep’s milk it is a savoury cheese best served with fruit on a cracker, or so the guide said, I ate it on a sweet cracker, who needs fruit. Its slice of history; in the 14th century it was used as an item of trade such as tenants' cropping contracts.