Help with the French camino

[pgras]

I will be doing the French Camino on October 27th. We are afraid it may be real cold. Does anyone have any idea how cold it will be? If the hostals are open at that time. I also would love advise on the kind of clothing I should take with me. anything you can tell me abou te first portion from St. Pied to Rocenvalles would be appreciated

[Covey]

It will be cold and windy, so you need to think about how you are going to "layer" your clothing because it will be chilly/cold when you start at dawn, warm up during the day and then get chilly/cold in the evenings.

You will need a sleeping bag, so ignore all the comments here about just using sleeping bag liners. You will need a woolly hat and gloves!. You will need boots rather than shoes. You will need good rain gear and a poncho as you will run into far more wet weather than say in June/July.

All the official albergues will be open, but a number of the private albergues will be closed in November. All the bars we use for rest stops will probably be open, but there will be far fewer Pilgrims on the trail, which is good.

The first day from St Jean to Roncesvalles is 27kms. There are two routes to Roncesvalles. The "usual" route is the Route Napoleon which goes up over the peaks so you have 20kms continuous climb up the road to the top, followed by 8kms downhill mostly on a road which is tough on the knees!!

Depending on the weather, the Pilgrim Office in St Jean might tell you to take the Winter Route which follows the pass through the hills via Valcarlos. This is an easier route and has numerous places to stop for food and drink.

Starting at the end of October, you might be lucky and have a clear day in which case the view from the top of the peaks is spectacular. Unless the weather is excellent, I would opt for the lower Winter Route.