Day 11 Aroue to Saint Palais, 19 kms

A brief update tonight here in Saint Palais. We came across a lovely American couple we’d met about 4 or 5 days ago, so we enjoyed an aperitif with them before dinner, so signing off a little later than usual.

Last night - a wonderful stay at the farm gite, as expected. Simone and Manu, themselves pilgrims, created this gite on their family farm 10 years ago. The French and I stayed here at the start of their second season, in April 2014. Such a pleasure to be here again and to enjoy a sumptuous dinner with some of our pilgrim friends we’ve met along The Way.

From Aroue, it’s about 48 kms to Saint Jean Pied de Port - typically just two walking days. We need to arrive in SJPP on Friday 13th as we have a dinner date with our friends Pierre and Nadia. So, even though we have walked quite short stages in recent days, we still have an extra day up our sleeve. We thought about spending the extra day in SJPP. It’s a lovely town - but we have been there many times, so instead we took the alternative path to Saint Palais. And tomorrow we will rejoin the usual path again. I’ve included a map which shows the detour.

Due to our diversion, we will have a very short walk tomorrow - just 15 kms. We could go further but there is a particular gite we’d like to stay at, so we will make a late start and take our time enjoying the countryside and the still fine weather. We are in Pays Basque now so it’s sure to be picturesque. ♥️Read more