[Gocamino] Travel-Madrid to St Jean Pied

[Charles O'Brien]

*"There is absolutely nothing magical about beginning at St. Jean. Spaniards 
who walk from Roncesvalles or Pamplona consider themselves to have walked 
the entire Camino Frances, and it is only Anglophones who have the peculiar 
notion that somehow the Camino begins at St. Jean, an idea probably 
introduced by the American journalist Jack Hitt who happened to start his 
1990s walk there, is unique to English speakers. Aside from being the place 
at which several, but by no means all, of the traditional routes from 
elsewhere in Europe join to cross the Pyrenees, St. Jean has no special 
qualities which recommend it as a starting point."*
** 
Nothing to add except, "Amen." Pamplona's an excellent place to begin. If 
one wants to get really authentic (and more than a little anal," I suppose 
one would have to go to the eglise saint Jacques in Paris.