Our Trip Begins in Paris

(Post by Sara)

Ahhhh Paris, it exceeded every expectation I had. We arrived to find the an abundance of spring flowers in bloom. The monuments were incredible, Notre Dame brought me to tears, it was truly a breathtaking experience for me. We were like 2 energizer bunnies, minmal sleep and tons of walking. Our bodies were exhausted but our minds were incredibly excited to be there. When you´re in love and in the most romantic city in the world, nothing can stop you. Until next time Paris, I love you.

After our rendezvous in Paris we rented a car and headed up to the Medoc and Bordeaux region which is considered some of the finest wine regions in France. We stayed in a small B&B in the countyside and explored 16th century churches, drove to see the Atlantic ocean on the West side and saw beautiful vineyards along the way.

Before heading to Saint Jean to start our 500 mile trek we took a small detour to a tiny town that comfortably snuggles near the Pyrenees mountains called La Barth Neste to visit my Grandmare's sisters niece, making us second cousins. Jacquiline is the coolest 86 yr old I've ever met. She lives in a 200 yr old stone house and she's got the mind of a 30 yr old. She cooked us a traditional French dinner consisiting of four courses and it was absolutely divine. She told me stories of my Grandmare, shared photos and gave us some free French lessons. Spending time with my French cousin was an amazing experience and I can't wait to go back.

After La Barth we dropped off our rental car and took a train to Saint Jean Pied De Port which is the starting point of our 500 mile journey. The weather the first day was very cold and rainy. We looked like two donkeys schlepping our overly stuffed back packs up the foothills of the Pyrenees. The first day was tough. I carried a bottle of wine in my pack. We hadn't drank it so I decided to carry it up the mountain to our first destination. Exhausted mid-day after climbing one of the many vertical inclines, I decided to pop it open to get rid of the extra weight and shared it with some fellow first day Caminoers. Word spreads thru the Camino like wild fire bc we are now the called "Californians with the wine".

Fast forward eight days later we are taking a rest day. We felt really strong the first few days passing everyone on the trail telling each other we are soooo crushing this! Well the fourth day set in with extreme exhaustion, massive blisters and for lack of a better word horrible constipation. On the plus side we are walking thru quaint Spanish towns seeing beautiful landscape and have met some wonderful folks from all sorts of different countries. Unfortunately we are so tired at the end of every day it's pretty tough to muster up the energy to write in the blog.

We definitely underestimated how hard this would be. Josh's blisters are so horrible that he can hardly walk and now instead of the Californian with the wine, Josh is known as "the one with the feet". We stopped to take a break yesterday and were approached by a woman who had a healing pen which looks exactly like a ball point pen. Apparently the pen resets the energy to zero point/nuetral when you use it in a circular motion. She worked on his feet for about 20 min circling each blister (he has probably 10). We will try anything at this point. Onward and upward we are heading out tomorrow and will try to bust out at 25 mile day. We hope that the full day of rest today gives us the strength to make Najera tomorrow.

Love to everyone.