Pyrenees Motorbike Trip - June 2023

Day 9 - Ars-en-Ré (Ile de Ré) to Sainte-Mère-Église   Thursday 29/06/2023 --------------------------------- Crossing rural France and heading homewards Slept really well but struggled to get up. I think the long journey is catching up with us. Another long day of riding to take us within striking distance of tomorrow's boat home from Cherbourg. We covered over 300 miles today. Initially on smaller fun roads but later on dull motorways. To start with we crossed back over Ile de Re and went back across the bridge onto the mainland. We spent some time in traffic heading North on single lane express roads, having to filter due to lots of lorries and tractors holding up traffic. Following a brief stop in Luchon for fuel, we took some smaller B roads North,  enjoying some small villages before getting onto the dual carriageways to Nantes in the North. After joining motorways we passed by Rennes, then took a long stint to Sainte-Lo for fuel (interrupted by a quick pee break). We had a tin

Day 8 - Lourdes to Ars-en-Ré (Ile de Ré) Wednesday 28/06/2023 --------------------------------- Back to the lovely rural flat lands and an island! Slept OK but we stayed up late so ended-up having a late start this morning despite knowing that we had a long day ahead of us. We agreed that we would not use the peage roads but that we would endure a few motorways, just to get us around Bordeaux. The morning started off quite hot and muggy and I think we had some rain overnight. We made some morning porridge and dried our tents the best we could. It was sad to leave Lourdes and see the Pyrenees disappear in the rear view mirrors. You could explore the region for years and never see everything. I see the appeal of cycling, mountain biking, hiking and paragliding around the area. We first headed toward Pau which was meant to be our original stop before we decided to stay in Lourdes. From here we travelled on a very empty and very straight forest road for much of the way to Bordeaux. Lovely

Day 7 - Bagneres de Luchon to Lourdes  Tuesday 27/06/2023 --------------------------------- Best mountain views and sight seeing but time to leave Slept really well thanks to the cooler temperatures and we all had a sleep in seeing as we had a shorter day planned today despite aiming for all of the most famous Tour de France routes in the area. As an aside, why do most French campsite toilets have no seats? There must be a logical explanation. After a nutritious breakfast of chocolate pastries, we continued our journey West along the mountains.  We rode the Col de Aspin (~1500m) which was very misty as we reached the top, but we managed to sneak a couple of photos in and take a break. The road up whilst spectacular was pretty narrow and I had to duck under a large camper van's mirror who came over completely onto my side.... Our next pass was the col du Tourmalet. This was a completely superb road with just the best views. We went through the clouds and the ski resort and ascended