Toward Euskadi

We haven't had any internet connection but now have a chance to catch up.

From Pau we rode directly west across the (very flat) plains heading for Bayonne.  It was a nice ride through more idyllic rural areas, and it was good to just ride without big hills.  Because we diverted from the Col D'Aubisque, we will be heading down France's southwest coast and getting into Spain that way.  It also gave us an extra day, maybe two.

So we headed north from Bayonne to a fishing village called Capbreton, about 30 km north.  And we passed the Black Pearl moored at the sea wall in Bayonne -- Jonny Depp was not around.

The Black Pearl

Where's the prirates?

We found a campground near the beach and set up our stuff. 

We always laugh when camping in Europe - we have a bike and a tent and are always put between big camper vans (RVs) with all sorts of awnings and tables and chairs, etc.  They really go all out.  But we're comfy and need nothing more.

Our home for the night

We went to the harbor and wandered around the fish monger stalls (there weren't very many, unfortunately) and then rode down to the beach.  The town might have been a fishing town back in the day, but now it is given over to folks on vacation.

Fish mongers in Capbreton

It looked like a good surfing spot

We had a nice sleep at the campground and broke camp fairly early -- but first we rode to a nearby bakery for bread and croissant and coffee.  Much needed.  The bakery was very cool and I watched the baker as he was making dozens of baguettes in his fancy oven with all the slide trays and steam injectors, etc.  I want an oven like that!  He was pulling out enormous boules, and countless other treats.  Too fun!

We now headed south down the Eurovelo 1 -- one of a series of dedicated cycling routes through Europe.  EV1 has about 50% dedicated path, the rest on fairly quiet roads.  But this appears to be a holiday weekend and so there were tons of families riding on the path.  That doesn't work out so good with our big bike with its wide berth, and the fact that on the flat we travel fairly fast, a lot faster than kids on balance bikes.  So we headed out to the roads and enjoyed them.

We rode back through Bayonne and then to the coast at the fancy resort town of Biarritz.  Wow, it is really swanky.  We looked all kinds of out of place there with its huge hotels, fancy restaurants and swarms of visitors.  The town is beautiful but not really to our liking, except the views are stunning and the coastline gorgeous.  And there is the counterpoint added by all the surfer dudes hanging around.  This is apparently a big surf area.

The Atlantic coast at Biarritz

Lots of surfers and hotels

We continued down EV1 to Saint-Jean, which is a charming town a few km north of the Spanish border.  We were going to camp just outside of town, but the beach drew us near and we found a (relatively) inexpensive hotel just off the beach.  We went to the beach and had a swim.  And then we had a really nice afternoon wandering around the narrow streets and getting lost.  We capped the day off with a great dinner at a Basque place.  Lorie had paella and I went for the fish soup.  Fantastic.

Basque fish soup

Paella

More paella

We ate too much!

The restaurant also has this fantastic air conditioning system: periodically the louvers that hang from the ceiling are simultaneously activated to swing back and forth.  Ingenious.  I'm not sure that this video will upload, but hopefully

Tomorrow we're off to Donastia and are looking forward to pintxos and tkokola!

Cheers!

Recalculating, Re-routing, and on being a bit nimble

Big changes today, occasioned by a convergence of factors, but let's start with last night.

Saint-Savin: location, Hotel Le Viscos.  Dinner.  We chose to sit inside since it was very pretty and the weather was a bit threatening.  Nobody else thought so, but we did.

White table cloths, and short pants and flip flops for us

The chef is this French guy who is just simply charming.  His English is pretty good and he has a funny, wry sense of humor.  He greets every guest at every table.  He has spent a lot of time in America and loves it (no talk of politics here).  He would not hear of us having anything for dinner except what he instructed, so it was the fish selection. Every meal is my favorite one, and this being dinner, it was my favorite.  We started with a crab laced macaroni thing that was actually the highlight of dinner.

The first course

Main course

Very rich desert

But about 1/2 way through dinner all hell broke loose outside with lightening and thunder crashing all around, wind blowing torrential rain and the parapljoui flipping over and causing general havoc.  We were having a wonderful time inside, watching the outside diners who thought they were so smart!  Everyone eventually got re-seated inside, but it made the staff into nervous wrecks!

Next, the cod plate with loads of butter-based sauce that was great but which was over the top for rich.  Yikes!

Then, on to a traditional French dessert of chocolate, raspberries and more chocolate.  After all of that and a nice bottle of local wine we were done in.  We took a walk around the village (the rain, which fell in monsoon-like torrents, had abated)

Switch to Wednesday morning.  The plan was to ride the Col du Soulor and then the Col D'Aubisqe.  But the forecast was for severe weather on the D'Aubisque.  That worried us in view of last night's torrents.  So we thought "what the heck, let's divert north to Pau after the Soulor, if things are bad on the D'Aubisque."  If truth be told, we also were listening to our legs, which told us that these murderous climbs are taking a toll.  Maybe there is another way to Spain.

We rode on narrow roads up the valley through beautiful country side and along a rushing river.  It
was a steady climb but not steep.

No traffic on these roads.  Approaching the Col du Sulour

The Soulor is about 15 miles from Saint Savin and it was a great climb -- never less than 8 % gradient, up to 16%.  It is relatively short at 8 km, but we were proverbial toast at the top.  No applause at the top but lots of time for coffee.

The lower slopes weren't too bad.

It is a very pretty climb

At the summit

From the top we could see across to the D'Aubisque and the weather forecasts looked to be proving accurate; huge thunderheads were building.  Decision made.  We divert north to Pau and then head west to the coast (the bay of Brittany) and get to Donastia that way.

Our way down: the northwest side of the Soulor

After a great coffee (the temperature at the top of the Soulour was about 8 degrees... cold) we headed down the northwest side of the Soulour.  This is a fairy unknown route (in 50 km we saw maybe 2 cars) and it is surprising steep downhill.  Plus, the first 20 km had fresh chip seal.  It is tough to keep the speed reasonable on slippery gravel when it is that steep.  There is absolutely nothing around, just animals on the road.  At one point we came around a blind corner and there was one of those huge sheep dogs in the road, minding his herd.  We scared the crap out of him, and he us.  But he knew his job and it wasn't to main us, so we got along OK.

We eventually reached the bottom of the new chip seal, never hitting a critter and (only once) sliding the front wheel out (don't tell Lorie) and then had a super fast spin with a big tail wind into Pau.

We are totally off script at this point and loving it.  We'll explore Pau tonight, then figure tomorrow out tomorrow. We hope to camp on the Atlantic coast somewhere, probably without WiFi, so it may be a day before we update you on what's next.

We love the flexibility of being able to change plans on the fly.

Cheers!

Ride Day 3: La Mongie to Saint-Savin

Tuesday: La Mongie to Saint-Savin

We have a short ride today, only about 25 miles, so this morning we decided to take the tram from La Mongie up to the observatory atop Pic du Midi.  We wanted to go last night, but we were too tired and it took us about 2 hours to finally get into our AirBnB owing to the lockbox being broken.

We slept well and headed to the village by foot to get some coffee.  At this early hour the town was given over to the many critters around the hillsides, cows, sheep, llamas.  We found one open place and met the town burro – he wanted coffee, too.  He was sweet and came into the café – they were very familiar with him and coaxed him out with a day-old baguette.  He seemed to expect their courtesies.

Our mon ami, the town burro

Watch out for llamas

The village was sleepy at this hour

But our friend the burro beat us to the cafe

A cute and friendly fellow

We got on the first tram, which left at 9:30.  I don’t like trams much, and this one is (in my estimation) far sketchier than the Peak to Peak at Whistler.  But it was fine – we had to switch to a second tram ½ of the way up.

What a view!  There is a bit of haze, but it is beautiful.  The observatory is a working facility with lots of astronomical and particle research going on.  The money that tourists pay to go to the top helps to fund research.

That's the top of the Tourmalet up there

Our ride goes over the top, which is only about 10 m wide 

Le Pic du Midi

What a mug...

The view from the top is incredible

In all directions

Looking back up the Pic du Midi

But we had to ride so we headed down and got ready to ride the final 4 km to the top of the Tourmalet.  The last 4 km average 9.5%, not bad compared to yesterday.  The ride was fairly nice and our legs woke up after about a km.  "Every moment, every meter, every minute, has been for this moment."  OK, that's not from me but was written on the road in big letters as we reached the summit and it had a famous Dutch rider's name under it.  Inspiration, I expect, for the guys who rode over this route in the Tour a few weeks ago.  

Looking west, where we'll be descending in a few minute

Happy to be at the summit

When we got to the top there were dozens and dozens of campers and people milling around the monuments.  There were lots of cyclists, but we got a huge round of applause when we got to the top (which is very small).  We had huge smiles and it was super fun.  I guess that the people on the top figured that we are a league apart from most of the cyclists.  They got that right!

We met some German cyclotourists who were heading the opposite direction.  We had a nice talk – they were headed for Toulouse.  And we had a sandwich just for fun.

Then it was 20 miles downhill to Saint-Savin.  As usual, we took it pretty easy heading down.  It was steep, our gps said 16% in places, but the brakes work great and we kept it civilized.  

Heading down the west side of the Tourmale

The village of Saint-Savin

In no time at all we arrived in Saint-Savin, which is a tiny village that Lorie had found a 4 star hotel to stay in.  It is a great place (Le Viscos), very small, and they really took care of us.  Coffee immediately upon arrival.  Then they took all of our laundry (I think we stunk…) and did it without charge.  Tonight we eat at their restaurant, which is said to be superb (Lorie was chatting up the chef and convinced him to make an early breakfast for us because we need to leave early tomorrow.  He wrung his hands a bit about not wanting to rush the croissants and bread, but eventually we compromised).  This place is great and it isn’t very expensive at all.

Tomorrow it is over the Col d'Aubisque toward Spain.  Maybe some rain, thundershowers, but it should be great.

A demain if we have WiFi.

Ride Day 2: Galan to La Mongie

We have a short day today, only 68 km.  But we are going up the western side of the Tourmalet.  This is an epic climb that the Tour will have been over a few weeks ahead of us (they'll go faster than us, I think).  Short on distance but not lacking for vertical; 3000 m up to the ski station at La Mongie, which is actually about 5 km from the top of the Tourmalet.  But we want to ride the tram to Le Pic du Midi -- an observatory about the village -- that looks fun.  And besides, going up 3000 m with a fully loaded tandem is enough for a day.

This is a double day entry since we had no WiFi last night.

Monday: Galan to La Mongie

After a nice breakfast at the farm house we were anxious to get rolling and headed out at about 8:30.  Another day with great weather – not too hot, but all sunshine.  It was up and down from the start with us riding from valley to valley through beautiful countryside,  We passed  few small villages and decided to not stop for coffee since we’d had plenty back at the farm.  Off in the distance we could see our destination, the Pic du Midi (the peak that towers over the small ski town of La Mongie, where we will stop for the night).

Breakfast at the old farmhouse

Our destination on the day, Pic du Midi

Rolling along

Italian flagged hay rolls

Pic du Midi

We got super lost in one little valley – my gps route differed from Lorie’s.  After some debate we decided that her’s was right, even though it had us going through a barn and corn field!  We eventually found our route and were back on track.

We finally made it to the Campan area, where the Col du Tourmalet starts.  In the village of Campan it seems like every house has stuffed figures of people doing something; farming, fishing, whatever.  I’m sure that there is a story but have no idea what it is.  About 5 km past Campan is the tiny village of St, Marie de Campan, famous because it is the start of the Tourmalet.

A stuffed person in Campan; I am sure that there is a great story there...

Every house has one or two,,,

Onward

We had already gone through 5 bottles of water and needed to fill up, and get some food.  There is a tiny grocery and bar and we filled our bottles and got sandwiches, and took a good break.  There were tons of riders, many with organized groups.  Some were heading up the hill, others arriving back at the base.  We were the only bike with a load of any kind, and we decided that we’d better get going.

Finding our way

There it is, La Mongie and the Col du Tourmalet

Getting ready to head up

There's a sign post each km along the way

The lower slopes were civil and even though we are slow, it wasn’t bad.  There are signs every km that indicate where you are in the climb, and the average gradient for the next km.  The first 4 km were about 4.5 to 5%.  After that, things got a bit more serious with a few km of 8 and 9%.  Then it kicked up to an average of 10 to 11% for the last 6 km.  Ouch.  We had to stop every 30 minutes to take a break.  Quite a few riders passed us and were very encouraging to us – we were going so slowly and obviously working hard.  Riding up on a 7 kg bike is a lot different from riding up on a bike that with all its gear weight over 50 kg.  Ouch again.

One guy was riding down (fast!), saw us lumbering up, and turned around.  He rode up next to us and with a huge grin and some encouragement (I think) he was shooting video of us.  We all laughed and he headed back down the hill.  I guess that he’ll show the video to his bike club gang and they’ll all have a great laugh at the nuts riding up the Tourmalet on a fully loaded tandem, almost tipping over!  Glad we can provide some entertainment!

On the Col.  We stopped every 30 minutes for a rest.

The photo doesn't show how steep it is, about 13% right here

Th road on the left in the valley is the lower slopes

An homage to the Tour de France, which has gone up the Tourmalet about 80 times.  That's our bike resting on the sign.

Looking back toward St. Marie de Campan

A relatively mild final km into La Mongie -- just 9%

The view from our room -- ski hills all around

The village of La Mongie

  

The final 2 km to La Mongie were pure misery.  But we made it finally and nearly tipped over when we stopped at the tourist information center.  While we’re grinding up these climbs I think a lot about a lot of stuff – it keeps my mind off the misery.  How in the world was I lucky enough to marry a woman who will follow me on these trips on the bike up stupid-difficult climbs?  These are rides that I have wanted to do since I was a teenager.  I am thrilled to do them now, and more so, because Lorie enjoys it too. We talk a lot, too, when we can, and we both feel that the best part of anywhere we’ve ridden are the country side and the small villages and the people we meet.  We go to big cities, too, but it is the rides outside of the city that are the best.

We were a bit too late to catch the tram up to Pic du Midi (there is an observatory on top – tomorrow) and we wanted to get into our AirBnB and kick back a bit.  After some hassles with the key box we finally called the owner and we got a spare key and got into the room.  It is funky and small and was already dated back in the 1970s, but it will work fine.

After some much needed rest and about 1 gallon each of water we strolled down to the village to get something for dinner at Carrefour.  Mostly we wanted to get some rest.  Tomorrow we ride the first tram up to the Pic du Midi, then we ride the last 4 km to the top of the Tourmalet and down the other side to a nice hotel that we’re staying in St. Savin.