Today has been a special day on this adventure. After a good night in Ostabat the group of ten or so pilgrims who had stayed together, shared breakfast and left at about eight. My plan had been to go to Mongelos, eleven kms away. But it was a perfect walking day, and my foot seemed fine, and the kilometres went by quickly.

Having started early, I was at Mongelos by just after eleven. As my foot felt fine, I decided to go on to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the end of the Vézelay road, and the start of the Camino Francés, the principal pilgrim route across Spain. It was beautiful walking today; here are some pictures –

Around a corner in one village was a farm shop, which very kindly put out jugs of coffee for passing pilgrims. I had been walking with François, my roommate from the night before, and we both decided to stop. There was an English girl there, and, having established where I was from, she called two other pilgrims over to meet me.

My immediate reaction was, “here are the hippies”, but when Simon said he knew of Southwell (the first person I have ever met on the Camino who had) I re-evaluated.  We had a nice chat and agreed to meet up later.

The period over lunchtime rolled by nicely. I stopped for a drink in Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, but otherwise kept going. Approaching  my destination I saw two beautiful things: the first was four storks in a field

And the othe was the diminutive church at La Madeleine, by the riverside. It was built in a beautiful pink sandstone, with an intact 18th C interior.

At this point Simon and Jackie caught me up, and we agreed to walk into SJPdP together. It really was a moving moment to walk through the St John’s gate after 918 kms of the Via Lemovicensis, or the Voie de Vézelay.

SJPdP is a very charming, and very small fortified town, with almost all its ancient walls still standing. It thrives because it is the end of one series of pilgrimage routes, and the start of another. So it is heaving with people of all ages, with backpacks and suitcases (for pilgrims who want to walk unencumbered), with all the services they need: quantities of pilgrim accommodation of all types, and places of diverse refreshments.

I had no accommodation booked, as I wasn’t expecting be here, but after some celebratory beers I went to Jackie and Simon’s nearby digs and found myself a billet. A shower and washing of clothes done, I ventured out for a stroll. Jackie and I went to the Pilgrim Mass at the parish church at 7pm.

After Mass there was special blessing for pilgrims, and the thirty or forty who gathered at the front told the priest where they came from – very international! It reminded me of the blessing we received at La Madeleine in Vézelay two and a half years ago, and moved me greatly. I thought of all that happened since then, not just on the pilgrim way, but also in life, and put me in mind of what I hoped for as I continue.

The evening ended with dinner with Jackie and Simon, David, an Australian from Melbourne who is staying at our accommodation, and Ruth, a Kiwi we met when we arrived. Convivial, but it didn’t go late. Tomorrow is an early start!