Basque Country

A gentle morning exploring more of Bayonne eating croissants and drinking coffee before catching the bus to St Jean Pied de Port the ancient capital of the Basque region. The bus replaced the train due to a small landslide half way along the route, the road followed the railway line through verdant hilly terrain, the foothills of the Pyrenees.
I feel I may have already done the most challenging bit, hoofing my case for a mile up a steep hill to the Refuge where I am spending my first night on the Camino, Le Coquille de Napoleon. The bonus is that I will save myself a mile in the morning and a very steep section. I repeated it without baggage to walk back into the town for an early supper, confit canard, a local specialty with a glass of whatever the local red is. The Coquille de Napoleon is a delight, run by an English woman and her French partner, a small boy, several dogs that might be dachshunds and something else, and a lot of ducks, hens and a cockerel. The Napoleon route across the mountains is open, and has been for a few weeks, extreme weather in spring and summer can make it tricky, the forecast for tomorrow is OK although the visibility looks poor.
I think connectivity is likely to be an issue after today so I may need to make some retrospective entries from time to time.