What to expect when you stop at Orisson in the Pyrenees

MOST PILGRIMS WALK STRAIGHT PAST THIS CAMINO GEM NESTLED IN THE MOUNTAINS

Not everyone knows about this little refuge nestled above the clouds on the French side of the Pyrenees.

Most people spend day one of theCamino Francés walking out of St Jean Pied de Port, all the way up to the windy mountain pass at Col de Lepoeder, and then steeply down into Roncesvalles for an incredibly hard-earned rest.

It's a 25km leg with almost 1400m of elevation gain, should you choose to do it in one go. But it's not the only option.

Just eight (steep!) kilometres after leaving St Jean, you come to Orisson. It gives you the chance to fold that first day in two, and lets your body adjust to its new requirements.

More importantly, it provides a heart-warming preface to pilgrim life. Let me explain.

My Dad and I took this option in 2019, and it laid the perfect foundation for our Camino. For starters it kept our first day to (just) 650m of elevation gain, and maximised our recovery time for the next when we would put paid to passing the Pyrenees.

But it was the community dinner we had in Orisson that fuelled my Camino, and stays with me to this day.

Before eating, each pilgrim stood up in turn, introduced themselves and described why they were doing the Camino.

Our answers were simple enough. I'd done it in 2014, and had spent five years badgering Dad to come along with me so we could experience it together. Dad was there because he'd endured five years of my badgering and we'd finally managed to organise it (this wouldn't be our first, as it turns out).

Ours was one small story woven into the rich fabric of the Orisson pilgrim cohort of August 17, 2019.

One lady was doing the Camino because her husband had drowned off the south coast of England barely three weeks earlier.

An American woman was there with her daughter. She'd tragically lost her son recently, but said he would be walking with them every step of the way to Santiago.

A hearty mountain meal then forged a powerful bond between every pilgrim in that dining room. Some people we didn't see again. Others, we'd bump into regularly in the ensuing days and weeks, always with a smile and sometimes even a hug.

After 800km, there was even an opportunity to catch up with some of our Orisson graduating class in Santiago de Compostela.

We were old friends by then, and felt as if we'd known each other since our pilgrim school days.

Because we had.