directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Plage des Casernes to Biarritz

Made my departure from the campsite at Plage des Casernes just before midday, and knew the journey to Biarritz would be a relatively short one. I passed through Capbreton, which had a nice harbour area, and stopped briefly at the tranquil Plage du Metro, then crossed the Adour river at the most westerly possible point at Pont Henri Grenet, and went through the industrialised outskirts of western Bayonne.

As I had been forewarned, the approach to Biarritz was relatively steep, with the whole town seemingly built on a hillside. It was nice to reach the town at last. The first campsite that I tried was full but luckily the one further out of town towards Bidart had availability.

I went in to the town centre in the early evening, visited the busy seafront at the Grande Plage where the surf looked particularly good, and explored some backstreets.

Distance: 32 miles

Maximum temperature: 22 degrees C

It was nice to see this sign at the outskirts of Biarritz

Port de Capbreton

directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Biarritz to Urt

The journey so far down the west coast of France had been fairly straightforward as it followed the excellent Eurovelo 1 cycle route. The planning and implementation of this route really impressed me and made me think how much effort must have gone in to developing this infrastructure and maintaining it. Especially in the busier southerly sections, it was good to see that it was getting such good use.

So far I had just followed this path south, now that I was turning east the route would be less obvious and more subject to change. According to my map there was a dedicated route almost to Lourdes and some more routes further east but not one that stretched directly to the Mediterranean coast. There was an easterly route further south from San Sebastián but it looked very mountainous. I was keen to see the mountains, and had already seen some peaks in the distance from Biarritz, but wasn’t sure how challenging the Pyrenees would be and wanted to keep my options open for the route depending on the terrain, traffic, and weather conditions.

I left the campsite and proceeded through Biarritz and through the centre of Bayonne which had an attractive historic centre with large city walls surrounding it. The city dates back to Roman times.

There was a very quiet cycle path running eastward from Bayonne running alongside the Adour river, this took me to a bridge which I crossed to reach Urt. Was pleased to find a very peaceful and rural campsite there with plenty of space, which I didn’t hesitate to check in to. The place was incredibly tranquil backing on to fields yet along with birdsong and the smell of neighbour’s barbecues I could hear the sounds of live Rhythym and Blues music coming from the annual town party nearby.

Distance: 20 miles

Maximum temperature: 24 degrees C

Grande Plage, Biarritz

Biarritz

Château Vieux, Bayonne

Bayonne

Camping at Urt