Saint Jean de luz

Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a fishing town at the mouth of the Nivelle river, in southwest France’s Basque Country.  The bay and beach are amazing, a large section of the ocean is buoyed off for swimming and there are three raised platforms that you can climb and jump off.  Outside of that area it seems you can bring boats but I have only seen a couple and on the eastern corner is a surf break. 

I spent quite a few hours walking around and at one point stumbled across a large gathering of people outside Saint Jean-Baptiste Church, it was clear a funeral ceremony was about to take place.  At least 200 people gathered with lots of double kissing and it was clear the person who died was very loved.  Eventually the Priest came out with a big gold cross and everyone entered the church.  During this time I really wanted to take a picture, the whole visual was weirdly beautiful but I quickly realized nobody else had their phone out.  How refreshing it was to see everyone living in the moment so I happily kept my phone in my pack.  

The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church is rather impressive, it is where King Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse of Spain in 1660 and has a gilded baroque altarpiece and wooden galleries

Foodies would love it here, the market is amazing and if I could have understood any of the food descriptions I would have likely purchased some grub but sadly I was too intimidated!  I am not a foodie whatsoever but if I lived here I would undoubtedly turn into one! 

Alburgee:  Accueil Ste Elisabeth

Cost: 12 euros (including breakfast)

No reservations 

I started walking between Biarritz and Saint Jean De Luz at 6am and it was dark for the first 40 mins of my walk. At first I was bummed because I could hear the ocean but could not see it.  Then the sun started to rise and it was truly amazing, everything started coming to life and I treated myself to a coffee in a cute little cafe.  It was perfect, the scenery (once it was light) was beautiful, what a great way to start my Camino! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/VZJNR4WF6i4?si=yypwIppyBm8uXi5-