Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port grounds. The town has traditionally been an important point on the Way of St. James, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, as it stands at the base of the Roncevaux Pass across the Pyrenees. "Pied-de-Port" means 'foot of the pass' in Pyrenean French. The routes from Paris, Vézelay and Le Puy-en-Velay meet at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and it was the pilgrims' last stop before the arduous mountain crossing. In 1998, the "Porte St-Jacques" (city gate) was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the sites along the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. The cobbled rue de la
Pied-winged swallow Pied-winged swallow The pied-winged swallow ("Hirundo leucosoma") is a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae. It has distinctive steel-blue upperparts with white wing patches. It is native to parts of West Africa. The pied-winged swallow was described by the English ornithologist William Swainson in 1837 who introduced its current binomial name "Hirundo leucosoma". The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek words "leukos", "white" and "sōma, sōmatos", "body". The species is monotypic. Evolutionarily, the pied-winged swallow occupies a basal position within the clade of "Hirundo" swallows and is most closely related to the pearl-breasted swallow ("Hirundo dimidiata"). The pied-winged swallow