directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Urt to Pau

Etche Zahar, the campsite at Urt, had a lot of character, was excellent value and one of the best so far. The well looked after site was very spacious, set in nice countryside, and definitely felt like a relaxing place in the evening sunshine.

The route east from Urt started off alongside the Adour river and during the morning the temperature was perfect for cycling with little wind and a blue sky. The scenery was extremely varied and included pontoons and boats on the river, period riverfront properties, small villages with few signs of their inhabitants, and many fields containing lots of kiwi fruit, and later orchards and some vineyards.

Early on there were some small hills in the distance to the right, and there was little traffic on the roads. The roads were shared with some fast moving cyclists, many of whom overtook me, and I only saw 2 other cyclists that had panniers, this was a big contrast to the coast where there were many.

I stopped for lunch at Orthez, then continued southeast towards Pau. It wasn’t until reaching Sarpourenx that the large faint grey outline of the Pyrenees would become visible on the horizon. This was a very encouraging sight, which appeared and disappeared from sight on the horizon as I cycled through some of the lower lying hills.

The cycle route that I was following was called the V81 and was much less well defined than the Eurovelo route, with very little signage. Some of the roads and paths indicated on my navigation app didn’t exist, this resulted in some backtracking. Generally the landscape was a lush green colour and there were donkeys, horses and cows in the fields adjacent to the road, sometimes with their offspring, and at one point after the ascent in to the hills the sound of cowbells could be heard.

The style of the houses changed as the altitude increased, with dark, steeply sloping roofs. These alpine looking dwellings were in stark contrast to the surprisingly numerous amount of palm trees in the gardens or in the vicinity. The temperature was now in the high twenties and I wondered how common snow was in the area in the winter.

The approach to Pau went alongside the fast flowing and clear Gave de Pau. The river looked incredibly clean considering it’s proximity to a city and some people were swimming in it.

Distance: 69 miles

Maximum temperature: 28 degrees C

Pont Vieux, Orthez

Bellocq

Urt

directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Pau to Lourdes

Once I had checked out of the hotel in the north of Pau I visited the attractive, historic city centre to find wide pedestrian areas, many nice shops and cafes, the Château de Pau, and distant views of the mountains from the Boulevard des Pyrénées.

The mountains slowly became taller and more vividly coloured as I approached Lourdes from the northwest. The sky was mostly blue but the peaks attracted some clouds. After passing the Hautes – Pyrénées sign, which marked the border of a new departement, the mountains looked impressive and deeply blue / green.

Lourdes is an important pilgrimage site and felt very busy compared to Pau. Once I had reached the hotel, I headed for the funicular railway at the other end of the town to ascend towards the summit of Pic du Jer. There was a steep railway journey then a brief walk up to the summit with panoramic views of the neighbouring mountains in the Central Pyrénées, as well as the town below.

Distance: 28 miles

Maximum temperature: 27 degrees C

Pau

Pau

Hautes-Pyrénées

View from the summit of Pic du Jer

directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Lourdes to Estaing

Keen to get up in to the fresh air of the Pyrenees, I left Lourdes at 8am and cycled southwest directly towards the Spanish border. It was a very clear morning which enabled an improved view of the distant peaks and fortunately there was a dedicated cycle route out of Lourdes which ran alongside the river. It started off fairly flat and then the gradient rapidly increased as the road wound it’s way up through the valley.

Some of the mountains in the distance now had shear rock faces rather than the mainly green, vegetation covered ones that I had seen so far. This gave them a more dramatic appearance.

On the peaceful ride up to Estaing I passed the sign for the Pyrenees National Park, it was still early and cool which made for pleasant cycling and the views were excellent.

Was pleased to find that the campsite I planned to stay at had space available and gave a generous discount to hikers, which they also applied to cyclists. It’s location in the valley provided good views of the surrounding mountains and it’s construction was in keeping with the local style.

After locking up the bicycle and enjoying lunch at the campsite, I joined the GR10 path (which stretches from the Atlantic to Mediterranean coasts) and walked up to the 1461m summit of Pic de Pan. I had just seen this path on my map and had no idea what the terrain or difficulty would be like and in places it was hard to follow because the route was unclear. At the top the views were epic in all directions, and the vertical drop looking down was staggering.

On the descent back towards Estaing I passed an Auberge where I hoped to be able to get a drink, they were closed but kindly refilled my water bottle.

Distance: 16 miles

Maximum temperature: 24 degrees C

Estaing, Hautes-Pyrénées

18th century church on the way to Pic de Pan

Views of the neighbouring mountains

View from Pic de Pan

View from Pic de Pan

directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Banyuls-sur-Mer to Llançà

Setting off fairly early from the campsite, which was situated on a steep hillside, I went through the centre of Banyuls-sur-Mer then took the coast road to Cerbère. The road provided excellent views of the coastline.

There was a climb up to the border where there was some derelict border infrastructure which was unmanned as expected.

Immediately after crossing the border the road descended in to Portbou, and after going around the edge of Colera I reached Llançà. It didn’t surprise me to see some political graffiti and flags related to Catalan independence.

It was nice to arrive in Spain and I was looking forward to seeing more of the Costa Brava.

Distance: 18 miles

Maximum temperature: 28 degrees C

French / Spanish border