JOUR 1- 22 août: Départ de Saint Jean Pied de Port, France

Cette journée est dédié à mon cher défunt Papa, Thaddée (Ted) Duguay.  Il aurait tant voulu faire ce pèlerinage, et je sais qu'il est très fier de moi, son aînée, d'autant plus que Papa était fier de tous ses enfants. I carry him in my heart, with me, on this important journey of self-reflection, discovery and renewal.

We left St. Jean Pied de Port at 8:10 am, cloudy with showers.  We climbed 900 metres and did 7.9 km in less than 3.5 hours to arrive at Orisson, our hostel for the night. This is my first time in the Pyrenees. Absolutely incredible! Indescribable beauty. I can't post pics for some reason, but I am having better success with pics in my email. This picture I put in my draft before leaving Canada.

A Liz from Seattle, Sari from Aruba and Katherine from Sweden are all in our room of six beds, and Mark from Ohio. Poor man. Stuck with six women. Weather was overcast and it rained
during the climb but nothing major. It had stopped by time we got to the Albergue. Ours bags we had sent on ahead for 8 €,  were here when we got here. It is so much easier to hike with a smaller backpack. The scenery is out of this world. We had a nap, and supper with 40 other "peregrinos" from 15 different countries!

It is interesting that although Canadians represent only 3% of "peregrinos", that 3% is all here now. A group of nine from Edmonton, (there is a Bishop in that bunch!), Normand from Montreal, and Cam and Marie from Calgary with whom we hiked.  There is an an awesome sense of "bonhomie", and camaraderie on The Camino. We sang Happy Birthday in Basque to the owner of the hostel, over our Basque cake for dessert.

I have had my adventures, but I will have to stick to facts for now and save the stories for when I have more time and better WiFi.

Signing off of Day 1 with love and gratitude for being where I am, in Orisson, France.

Bonne nuit mon Cher Papa au ciel.