Getting to the start of the Camino de Santiago in St  Jean Pied de Port forced me to visit the beautiful French city of Bayonne. And I’m very glad it did.
The Basque city of Bayonne sits just north of Biarritz in the Southwest of France, and about six kilometres from the Bay of Biscay. Stretching along the banks of the Rivers Adour and Nive, the waterside city of Bayonne is one of the prettiest in southwest France.

Occupied by the Romans in the third century A.D, the vikings were the next to visit in the ninth. From 1151 to 1452 England occupied the city as the southern point of its lands and during the Franco years became an important refuge for Basques.

I arrived by train into the city from Paris and could easily walk to my hotel ‘Hotel de la Gare‘ which is conveniently located near the city station and offers extremely reasonably prices rooms.I didn’t have very long to explore the picturesque city but had the evening and following morning to stroll through the beautiful shady cobblestone streets and  magnificent waterfront.

I strolled, I photographed and I had a romantic waterfront dinner. This was the first before starting my pilgrimage and I enjoyed the luxurious of a night alone in a beautiful foreign city.