Pilgrims’ progress
SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT sits pretty at the French base of the Pyrenees. With its white chalet-style houses, precision-stacked cords of wood under their long eaves, it is typical of mountain towns in Continental Europe.
Less usually, Saint-Jean has a passport office. At No 39, on the cobbled rue de la Citadelle, those undertaking the historic Camino Francés pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain collect their ‘carnet de pèlerin’. Reputedly, the remains of St James the Apostle are buried in Santiago.
The staff of the passport office keep late hours. My son, Tris, and I arrived at nearly 8pm,, I should write ‘prompted’—by such a tragedy, called , released in 2010.
