GR 10 Here we come (June 26-29)

We caught the train out of Santiago to Hendaye, France, without incident, Monday morning. It was an all day ride across Northern Spain to make it back to France by 9:30p. I’m glad it took so long–it legitimizes how far we walked.

Like last time we got to France, we had no plans of where to stay and absolutely no understanding of the language. We ended up meeting Aziz from Spain who was also in need of a place to stay. With his help, we ended up in a hotel near the train station. Aziz spoke a little English, fluent in Spanish, and no French. We only speak English. The hotel operator spoke Spanish and French but no English. I learned to appreciate Google Translate in a hurry.

Aziz had to get up at 4a to catch another train (we never could quite figure our where to). We did gather that he is only 18 and is traveling to find a job (possible to Brazil–but my ears are not attuned to Spanglish). He was a very respectful and a brave young man. I’m sure he makes his parents proud.

When we got up, we headed down to the beach area because that is where the GR10 starts. We walked about a mile to get down there and were hungry. We stopped in at a crepe restaurant for some breakfast/lunch–it was already noon. The waitress spoke no English, but did speak Spanish and French. After we tried some very bad French, she tried to rack her memory for English. Between her broken English and our broken Spanish, we managed to get enough to eat and get some good ideas where to stay.

We headed to the tourist information center on the beach. On the way, we saw a nice looking hotel on a side street so we decided to drop in and check prices. It was more than we wanted to spend, but less than we thought the area would command since we are on a beach in a resort town. We said we’d think about it.

At the tourist office, we met a very nice young lady that spoke French, Spanish, and English. Nahia (Basque for “desire”) was very helpful to us. She showed us where the GR10 starts, gave us some highlights to see in Hendaye, and offered to set us up in pilgrim housing since we were returning from the Camino. We really considered it, but decided with the language barrier we create by only speaking English, we should just get a hotel. We went back to Bergeret Sport Hotel.

One of the reasons we chose to spend a few days in Hendaye (other that the 5 days of rain in the forecast) was to get caught up on all of our blogging. We checked before we registered that there was wifi in the hotel. They knew this was very important to us. After we got settled in, we discovered the wifi wasn’t compatible with US electronics. The owners were very accommodating to us and offered use of their laptops and called in the provider to come out and work on the wifi for us. We were going to check out after the first night, but they are such a nice family and so kind that we couldn’t do it.

We ended up back at the Tourist Information office where Nahia set us up with internet to use. We also found a very nice tea/coffee shop with fast wifi where we spent several hours over the last couple of days. Evelyne was very kind to us as well. We have found that most people know a little English but are afraid to try until you show an effort to try a little French. Once the effort is made, communication becomes more of a game than a barrier.

I will say that I am embarrassed by our lack of language skills. Most Europeans speak at least 3 languages where most English speaking people only speak 1. I do plan to work on my language skills, but in the mean time, we are thankful for google. I know we are butchering the language, but at least we are trying. The local people appreciate the effort. It is scary as hell to be in a foreign country and not speak any of the language.

The entire Bergeret family have been so generous and patient with us these last few days. If it weren’t for their generosity and patience, I would probably have sat up in the room afraid to go out. We had a wonderful multi-course meal with them tonight. We purposely went down early to avoid interrupting their normal clientele. They explained everything to us on the menu because it is only in French. Even so, I was afraid of etiquette breaches in front of the French diners. The food was fantastic.

Tomorrow, we will begin the GR10 (as soon as the rain of the day stops). There is only a 90% chance of rain tomorrow, but it gets serious over the weekend with 100% both days. Maybe we can outwalk the rain.