Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (literally "Saint John [at the] Foot of [the] Pass"; ; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France close to Ostabat in the Pyrenean foothills. The town is also the old capital of the traditional Basque province of Lower Navarre. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is also a starting point for the French Way "Camino Francés", the most popular option for travelling the "Camino de Santiago". The town lies on the river Nive, from the Spanish border, and is the head town of the region of Cize (Garazi in Basque). The town's layout is essentially one main street with
Pied raven Had the black and pied ravens mated preferentially with their own morph, in time the pied part of the population might have prevailed, as its coloration probably would have provided better camouflage when preying on seabirds (most of which are also black-and-white). The first record of the pied raven seems to be in the pre-1500 "kvæði" "Fuglakvæði eldra" ("The elder ballad of birds") which mentions 40 local species, including the great auk. Later, the pied raven is mentioned in the reports of Lucas Debes (1673) and Jens Christian Svabo (1781/82). Carl Julian von Graba in 1828 speaks of ten individuals