Transit to Bordeaux from Canada, and a note about the St. André Cathedral in Bordeaux

[Perambulating Griffin]

I took the risk leaving YYZ yesterday that the security personnel would allow my trekking poles as carry-on and that I would not get hung-up in the layover at Frankfurt. There was some lengthy inspection of my poles (collapsed FLZ Black Diamonds) and it was a little nerve-wracking but in the end it was fine. Frankfurt did not even have security clearance for baggage… just port-of-entry/passport stuff. I was very grateful to be able to hop into the EU passport line — not at all sure I would have made my tight connection otherwise.
Final destination today was Bordeaux, and I trotted off to the Cathedral St. André to get my first stamp… However, the first person who was going to give me a stamp balked when he saw that my Pilgrim Passport had not been signed by my parish priest. The cathedral was closing and so I was told to return at re-opening to speak to someone at 2pm. Jet-lagged, this was not really how I wanted to spend my time, but I went and had some lunch, avoided the rain, hit the Monoprix and returned as instructed.
The new person at 2pm was not at all bothered and happily stamped my first square and sent me on my way. I made a donation of a few euros to the Cathedral, but could not stay as I was becoming woozy from the jet lag.
Sadly, the timing threw off any hope I had had to go to the 6pm mass as I needed to go catch up on sleep.
Anyway… be aware that in Bordeaux attitudes can be very personal about the pilgrimage. One person may start you off and another not… so if you have a priest at home who will do it for you, have them fill out the information and put your home parish stamp in the first spot.
My home parish has done this for me only once, on the only time I requested it, but is generally busier with pragmatic and pressing community work than allows for things like pilgrimage keepsakes, so I don’t like to ask. They have enough to do without getting into the stamp business.
Tomorrow — the train to Bayonne, and from thence I start the walk as soon as I disembark from the train.

 

[Bradypus]

However, the first person who was going to give me a stamp balked when he saw that my Pilgrim Passport had not been signed by my parish priest.

On my first Camino I was refused a credencial in SJPDP. The reasons given for refusing were that I was not a member of a confraternity (which would have issued me one anyway) and I did not have a letter of introduction from a Catholic priest. I thought that level of scrutiny had gone out of fashion.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

On my first Camino I was refused a credencial in SJPDP. The reasons given for refusing were that I was not a member of a confraternity (which would have issued me one anyway) and I did not have a letter of introduction from a Catholic priest. I thought that level of scrutiny had gone out of fashion.

I would have thought so too! And clearly my second person today (who issued the stamp) was of the same mind.
I have a rather interesting paper that I was reading on the flight over… detailing the tensions informing the trends in these credentialing requirements… a constant dance of aggravation of church and state almost from the outset…
Davidson, Linda K. ND. Reformulations of the Pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.
It is a chapter in a collection, but I do not have the book title. Sorry.

 

[mspath]

Perambulating Griffin,

Linda Kay Davidson whom you cite in your post is one of the authors of a very useful book re the richess and richness found along the Camino Frances.

The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago by David M Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson is a great resource. This is available on Amazon in both paperback and as a Kindle ebook.

Wherever you go while walking be sure to stop periodically to look behind you.Those personal pleasures of seeing how far you have come will stay in your memory forever!

Stay safe and Buen camino!

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

Thank you for that @mspath! I am travelling without my full bibliography… just sketch notes… but now I see why I have a pile of things citing Gitlitz as well. I did a lot of things in the last few months of getting ready for this trip that just didn’t go quite as well as usual because: trigeminal nerve headache for 7 weeks… shot my cognition, and I *gained* 12 pounds while doing almost nothing except lying on my stomach in the “recovery position”.
I do not recommend it!
May the camino heal me…
I’ve already been delighted many times today by falling upon the very things I meant to look for but was too jet-lagged to purposefully navigate to.
Stuff about pilgrim hospitals mostly….

 

[dfox]

... I trotted off to the Cathedral St. André to get my first stamp…

My I have a "side question" in this thread! I am pleasantly surprised to learn that one can collect stamp in the Cathedral St. Andre in Bordeaux. Would some Cathedrals in Paris, Lourdes, Marseilles and Lyon also stamp credentials? Many thanks!

 

[Pafayac]

Would some Cathedrals in Paris, Lourdes, Marseilles and Lyon also stamp credentials?

Yes they would, provided that you find some people to stamp your credential.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

Passed a lovely night, as planned, in Ustaritz, chez Natalia (see Gronze). I recommend her place, though if you are not find of cats as I happen to be you might not appreciate the charming companion calico greeter.
Leaving this morning and getting to Souraide was reasonably easy but the wooded path to Souraide looked very overgrown and was not signed, so I stuck to the D88 roadway. Unlike the roads in Spain, it was quite busy and a bit addling as a result.
Therefore, when I left Souraide and followed the camino signs, I did as I was instructed both by a local farmer (stay to the ascents and do not go down!) and the Chemin St, Jacques signs… and the YELLOW X “NO” indicators but ended up on the road to Hendaye, not the Baztan at all. There are no freaking signs for the Baztan… so I made my own route, 21K from start to finish, but not at Urdax as planned and rather only as far as Ainhoa.
People keep saying “oh, it’s well signed” but the Baztan to Pamplona is *not* well-signed. Perhaps if I had taken the Esplette detour it would have been better? But I did not want the extra KM on my day.
Many of the camino signs indicate a nearby town, but are not indicating a route (eg: in the direction of Hendaye!!). If you are trying to navigate on a phone, that nearby town might not show up until you are so magnified that it’s unclear if it’s anywhere near to where you are hoping to get next.
Gronze maps are very very general, and my paper guidebook is so chatty as to be *annoying* (it’s 9 years old now and who *knows* if there’s a sign between two branches in an old oak tree somewhere. The author seems to have a very different understanding of what the phrase “to the right of the chapel” might mean also as I had to cross the road and make a hard left to arrive at the putative entry to the wooded path. I even walked back to the chapel to look for a path to the right. I guess the path is to the right *IF* you have your back to the entry of the chapel… But oy…. My mother, who was famous for getting lost, gave better directions.
I managed to get myself to a safe bed… but if I were unable to stretch my budget I would be in trouble. There is no pilgrim accommodation in Ainhoa, and the charming hotels here are not cheap. It’s fine for me, but it could leave another person really pummeled.