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.