Estaing to Rabastens-de-Bigorre

Awoke to the coldest morning yet – the altitude was just under 1000 metres and there was a heavy dew. The mountains looked beautiful illuminated by the dawn sunlight.

I was aiming to reach a campsite roughly halfway to Toulouse, and went back the way I came down to Lourdes, which involved around 7 miles of continuous descent, and then headed towards Tarbes.

As the mountains became smaller and more distant behind me and the terrain flattened out, the temperature quickly warmed up, and I ended up checking in to a municipal campsite at Rabastens-de-Bigorre. It was by far the emptiest campsite that I had visited so far and there was plenty of space.

Distance: 47 miles

Maximum temperature: 31 degrees C

Estaing

St-Savin

Looking back towards the mountains near Lanne

Having been inspired by reading other cyclist's stories about travelling around Europe by bike along the "Eurovelo" cycling network, and following Mark Beaumont's record breaking cycling journey around the world, in early summer 2018 I decided to cycle down the west coast of France towards Spain. This blog aims to document the trip.