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!