Col and Pams Travels: The Pyrenees

29.08

Well we did it! We finally extradited ourselves from the

evil clutches of Simorre and it’s temptations of food and drink! Had a last coffee with Richard and Ingrid and drove the 115k to the Pyrenees passing through Tarbes, Lourdes, and Pierrefitte-Nestalas to the little ski town of Luz-St-Sauveur. Despite a slight hangover we didn’t stop at Lourdes for a quick fix.

We are 8k into the famous “Col du Tourmalet” the highest road pass in the Pyrenees that will take us through to Spain. It is the famous route used in the “Tour de France” races. We’ve found a nice little camp called “International Camp” with a pool about 1k before the Luz village. We’re now back to having the camps mostly to ourselves as school has restarted and most everyone is back at work.

30.08

Got our walking shoes on today and hiked a three hour circular route around the foothills of Luz-St-Sauveur in the Hautes-Pyrenees A delightful ski town with hillside villages and ski stations on each side of the valley.

31.08

Frank and Bron

An hours walk this morning along the hillside to Sazos before Frank and Bron (who we met in Paris) arrived for lunch in a small cafe in Luz-St-Sauveur. Frank is in training for his ‘Raid Pyreneen’ which has him riding from Hendaye on the Atlantic coast to Cerbere on the Med along the backbone of the Pyrenees. The distance is 810kms in 9 days, climbing over 28 Cols the highest being Col du Tourmalet at 2115m. An incredible achievment as it’s 16000m of constant climbing!

01.09

A beautiful day so we decided to continue on and have our own assault on the mountains!

We crossed the Col du Tourmalet (2115m) passing the statue of the 'Geant du Tourmalet', who recognises the feats of ‘all giants’ who make it to the top.

Fantastic views over the mountain range and the winding road we had climbed but rather chilly, watched several groups of cyclists celebrate their arrival at the top.

Had our first encounter with a marmot on the downward side, like a large cuddly guinea pig. Down through the ski village of ‘La Mongie’ with it’s huge cable car taking passengers to the ‘Pic du Midi’, the highest peak around at 2872m. It has an observatory and lookout platform. We passed Frank at this point on his training ride heading over ‘Tourmalet’ (he’s mad), most people would be happy to do it once!!!

The alpine scenery is like a scene out of ‘The Sound of Music’ for those old enough to remember, with endless green fields, pine trees, pale cows, goats,
horses and marmots all with a magnificent backdrop of distant bare peaks.

Fantastic, we love it up here!

The next Col was ‘Col d’Aspin’(1489m) equally majestic with fantastic views all around.

We stopped for a late lunch at the beautiful small ski village of ‘Arreau’, a river runs through it’s center and many small ponds have been created throughout the village planted with colourful flowers.

Onward through Borderes Louron and the third Col, the ‘Col de Peyresourde’(1569m) into our camp at Bagneres-de-Luchon, another 19^th Century ski town.

Lefty performed well over all the mountain ranges and we are not too leg tired!!

A quick orientation before dinner and bed.

02.09

Had a bike ride to the local tourist office to gather information about the sights and spied the ‘telecabine’ working and taking people and bikes up the 1800m ascent to ‘Superbagneres’. Thought we needed a workout first so biked the first 7k uphill towards the mountain and then had a fun descent back to the telecabine for our trip to the skifields.

Paid 9 euros each for return ticket and had an exciting trip up the mountain arriving at the skifields and a hotel that was used in a ‘Bond Movie’ (trying to establish which one!)