Le Puy to St Jean

[John Volz]

in Response to Norman Bone's request for info from pilgrims who
included France in their Camino.

We started biking in Paris, got our passports from the French Camino
group there  and then went on to Chartres and  down to Bordeaux then
through Les Landes to St Jean Pied a Port and then followed the
traditional "Camino Frances" in Spain.

We found fewer traces of the Camino but have some great memories such
as our stop in St Jean d'Angely at an old monastery that is now the
Center for European Culture (a school for youth of  Europe on being
Europeans) where we were treated as guests to a nice room, dinner and
breakfast.

In Dax we met up with Dutch pilgrims who we had met four years before
on the road to Santiago.  We had planned to meet them later but our
paths crossed early two days before St Jean Pied a Port.  In Sorde de
Abbey we ran into a Dutch walking pilgrim who was walking as much in a
day as we were riding.  He was on his way from Holland to Santiago.

The outstanding memory of the trip in France is the great food
available everywhere.  This part of the trip was mostly at the tourist
level but we stopped and visited many historical pilgrim sites as
noted in our guide from the Confraternity of St James.
John and Marty Volz
Santa Rosa CA