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-Noir I had a religion, and I thought I had a country.” Messud noted that the novelist Albert Camus, himself a "pied-noir", had often written of his love for the sea-shores and mountains of Algeria, declaring Algeria was a place that was a part of his soul, feelings that she noted that mirrored those of other "pied-noirs" for whom Algeria was the only home they had ever known. The "Pied-Noir" community has adopted, as both an unofficial anthem and as a symbol of its identity, Captain Félix Boyer's 1943 version of "Le Chant des Africains" (lit. "The Song of the Africans").