26 September 2023
Espelette, France, to Urdax, Spain - 14 km
Au revoir France, merci pour tout.
Today we walked from France to Spain. We left our accommodation around 7.30 am and made our way directly to the boulangerie to get our daily fix of pain aux raisins. They are so good, there's nothing better than one straight from the oven.
Just as we did when walking into Espelette, we found our own way to rejoin the camino. Once back on the camino the path took us up into the hills on dirt tracks then steeply down to Ainhoa - which is listed as one of France's most beautiful villages. It is beautiful but, like Espelette, it was bustling with tourists.
It wasn't long after leaving Ainhoa that we were at the border of France and Spain. Unlike crossing into Spain on the Camino Frances, which is up in the mountains with nothing around for miles, this crossing was an absolute nightmare of massive shopping centres, service stations and restaurants. It was a real assault to the senses! I had read that the French cross the border to take advantage of the cheaper prices in Spain, hence all the businesses and service stations etc.
We were pleased to leave it all behind and take the path through the trees to Urdax. Where we're staying in the albergue. The albergue is in the top floor of the 9th century San Salvador Monastery - a former pilgrims' hospital. Initially it looked as though we would be the only ones here tonight but another couple has just checked in. The family has grown to 12 of us here for the night.
The hospitalero is going to provide our dinner and will leave breakfast things for us for the morning. Urdax is a very peaceful old village, perfect after the busyness in both Espelette and Ainhoa, and the shocking mess of buildings, shops and traffic that stretched several kilometres from the border.
The weather was good for walking as, although it was still in the mid 20°s there was a lot of cloud cover so we didn't have the sun baking down on us.
We encountered several snakes on the Chemin du Piémont Pyrénéen and today Jeff had the first encounter with a snake on the Camino Baztan when he nearly stood one. Fortunately, so far, they have moved away quickly.
It seems so strange to be in Spain now. France was wonderful and I was just getting used to speaking in French, suddenly I have had to switch to Spanish. My French was limited enough but my Spanish is more so.
