Aire-sur-l'Adour

The church on the hilltop above the river is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Romanesque exterior is robust and the interior has a spacious nave with a beautiful apse. The highlight is the crypt, which contains a 4th-century marble sarcophagus carved with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The sarcophagus is one of the finest early Christian sculptures in France. The church is dedicated to Sainte Quitterie, a Visigothic princess who was martyred for refusing to renounce Christianity. The s

Aire-sur-l'Adour sits in the heart of France's foie gras country. The local markets and specialist shops sell duck and goose foie gras of exceptional quality, along with confits, rillettes, and other preserved duck products. If you have room in your pack, a small tin of foie gras makes an extraordinary trail lunch. The Saturday market is the best time to buy, with producers from the surrounding farms selling directly. The quality here is among the finest in France.

The Adour river runs through the town and the banks are pleasant for a stroll. The river is wide and slow here, lined with trees. The Cathedrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste sits near the river in the lower town. The walk from the lower town up to the Eglise Sainte-Quitterie on the hilltop gives good views over the river and the surrounding countryside. The Adour eventually reaches the Atlantic at Bayonne, and you are now tracing a path that converges with the river's trajectory towards the coast.

From Aire-sur-l'Adour, the Pyrenees are no longer a distant presence. On clear days, the mountain range is visible and growing larger with every stage. You have about 168 km remaining to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, which sits at the foot of the mountains. The terrain ahead changes again: the Bearn region, then the Basque Country, then the mountains themselves. The final section of Le Chemin du Puy builds to a dramatic crescendo. The quiet farmland of Gascony was the calm before the climb.