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April 9, 2003
Some of you have asked why we are in Paris when you thought we were going to
Sevilla…that’s a good question. We aren’t scheduled to move into our apartment
until the 17th of April. In hindsight, maybe we should have waited in Paris
until the last minute then blast our way south, but I’ll talk about that later.
We wanted to give ourselves some time to have a nice, leisurely trip to southern
Spain and to visit some new places on the way, so we bought a ticket on the
Auto-train which would carry us and the motorcycle to the south of France
overnight. The weather in France was really too cold to enjoy and the weather in
Spain should surely be nicer.... Hoping to get somewhere close to the border of
France and Spain, we tried getting a ticket to Biarritz or Narbonne but the
trains were already full of French people going to the south of France for their
Easter holidays. We finally settled on the train to Toulouse on Monday, the 7th.
On Monday, after dropping the bike off at the train station, supervising the
strapping down of the bike, and a very nice dinner with some ex-pat friends of
ours, we went back to the station to catch our 11pm train. On the train, we
shared a 6 bunk sleeping compartment with 4 French women and their backpacks,
who were off to walk the pilgrimage for their holidays. People have been making
the pilgrimage to Santiago de la Compostela in the northwest corner of Spain as
an act of faith or endurance ever since the Middle Ages.
The train arrived in Toulouse 6:30 in the morning and after showering at the
train station and having a quick breakfast (part of the train ticket price), we
were ready to hit the road. Of course, it’s freezing cold and we can see our
breath as puffs of steam. Overnight, my cold has settled into my chest and I
would really rather go back to bed. We are committed at this point though, so we
head off to find the highway. Finally out of town, the countryside is beautiful
and the sun seems to be trying to break through the clouds. The Pyrenees are off
to our left as we parallel them heading for the coast. The auto-train is a really
nice concept, great for getting from one place to another quickly with your
vehicle while you sleep, but in reality you don’t sleep real well, so when we
stopped at a rest area for some gas, Mike lay down on a bench and was soon fast
asleep in the weak sun. I went wandering around and visited a small museum on
the site which was devoted to the pilgrimage of Santiago. Tradition says that a
tomb was discovered in Santiago de la Compostela in the year 830 after St. James
appeared to Charlemagne in a vision commanding him to find his tomb which could
be found by following the star. Whether this was a special star a la the star
the Three Wise Men followed to find the Christ Child or whether he was to follow
the Milky Way, I am not sure, but ever since then people with faith have walked
the routes leading to Santiago. The pilgrimage took 4 main routes through
France, funneling into two main roads that led across the north of Spain to the
beautiful cathedral at Santiago where St. James’ remain are still said to be.
Some of the more devout would continue on to the lands end at Finisterre or A
Coruna where they would collect cockle shells to adorn their staff or hat to
show they had made the journey but nowadays one only needs to visit the souvenir
shop in the plaza. To this day the cockle shell is a symbol of the pilgrimage
and can be seen in places that might have sheltered a pilgrim, carved into walls
or laid as a mosaic floor. One such place is in Paris, the medieval Hopital de
Cluny which today houses a museum of medieval art. The outside of the building
has magnificent carvings which include the shells I spoke of.
So anyway, we ended up for the night in a cute French beach town called St. Jean
de Luz about 30 miles south of Biarritz. After a few tries we got a room in a
hotel by the sea with a view of a vast green lawn that looked like a golf course
rolling down towards the water. Duh, it was a golf course, with holes set in
amongst large sculptures and benches for sitting and admiring the view. Mike
wanted to go into town but I was feeling too sick to care so I laid down and
napped while he took the bike to find a patisserie for a birthday cake for me.
He came back with a small confection of pear and chocolate mousse which we
shared as dessert at dinner and a bouquet of hand-made chocolates,
The next morning started out cloudy and went downhill from there. As we crossed
the border into Spain and through the very industrial towns of Basque country,
it began to rain. It was a shame, because we were passing through an interesting
area of mountain passes, striated sedimentary rock twisted and tilted, and tidy
Basque villages. Instead of watching where we were going I just hunched down
behind Mike in an effort to keep the cold wind from going down the collar of my
jacket. My legs and thighs were getting colder and colder and I tried in vain to
keep my poor nose from running by stuffing Kleenex into my helmet. Thank heavens
we have heated clothing or I would have frozen altogether!