St. Jean Pied de Port

Saint Jean Pied de Port is the traditional starting point for the Camino de Santiago. It is a quaint old town about 8 kilometers from the Spanish border. Saint Jean Pied de Port means “Saint John at the foot of the mountain pass” in French.

And so, The Way of St. James begins.
The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. The most popular route (which gets very crowded in mid-summer) is the Camino Francés which stretches 780 km. (nearly 500 miles) from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port near Biarritz in France to Santiago.