The Pilgrim Returns: Beginning the Camino Francés Again

The Camino begins again, though in truth, it never really ended. Today I stand in Saint Jean Pied de Port, the traditional starting point of the Camino Francés, with the Pyrenees rising before me—ancient sentinels, slumbering yet watchful, their weathered peaks washing over the landscape like waves frozen in time.

As I joined the flow of pilgrims gathering their credentials and last-minute supplies, conversations bloomed easily among strangers soon to be companions. Yet I found myself speechless at a question that came repeatedly: “Why walk the same Camino twice?” How strange to be asked this, as if one journey along these ancient stones could possibly reveal all their secrets! The Camino is not a checklist to complete but a living conversation between path and pilgrim. I am not the same woman who walked here in 2019, so how could this possibly be the same Camino?

French Holidays and Pilgrim Mishaps: The Journey to Saint Jean

My journey here was marked by beautiful chaos—a wrong bus that turned into the right mistake, learning of train strikes and French holidays, claiming the very last bed in the municipal albergue. Already the Camino teaches its lessons of surrender and providence.

I notice the difference immediately in how I see my fellow pilgrims. No longer walking as a single woman but as a wife, with my husband far away disarming unexploded ordnance rather than at his expected deconstruction job. Each step I take will carry prayers for his safety, a new weight and purpose to my walking meditation.

To Book or Not to Book: The Pilgrim’s Dilemma in May

The pilgrim office suggests booking ahead—May is apparently more crowded than the June path I walked before. But something in me resists. Isn’t the essence of pilgrimage found partly in that surrender of control? In trusting that what you need will appear when you need it? To book ahead feels like clutching too tightly to certainty on a path meant to teach us to open our hands.

Hiking vs. Pilgrimage: Walking with Sacred Intention

What truly separates pilgrimage from hiking? Both traverse the same earth, both challenge the body. Perhaps it’s intention that transforms simple walking into something sacred—the willingness to be changed by the journey rather than simply passing through it.

The Way Provides: Preparing for Tomorrow’s First Steps

Tomorrow I begin walking again toward Santiago. My pack is lighter than last time (wisdom gained from sore shoulders and swollen feet), but my heart carries new complexities. I wonder what this ancient path will reveal to me this time, what conversations will unfold between my steps and these stones that have held millions of searching feet before mine.

The Camino provides. El Camino provee. All I need do is walk, and trust.