Saint Jean de Luz to Toulouse to Vancouver

October 23, 2023 to October 24, 2023

heading home

As the title says, ¨I'll get on back home one of these days¨ and unfortunately that day has come.

It had rained overnight again and the morning air was clear, clean and crisp as we left our hotel and made our way to the train station. A beautiful day and Toulouse was a 4.5 hour train ride away. Most people touring with bikes find train travel in Europe to be a great way to get around but it does come with some obstacles and stress. We try to limit the stress by buying tickets in advance, knowing where the train station is located and arriving at the station early. We still need to find the right platform, prepare our bikes for travel and find the car that has our reserved seats. Having folding bikes and bike bags eliminates the need to know if the train will take our bikes as some trains will not accommodate bikes. We believe that this is the case for the train from Saint jean de Luz to Toulouse today, so we will put them in their travel bags.

Arriving well early, initially we mistakenly thought that platform two, where our train would depart from, would be the furthest from the station. Upon going around and down under the tracks we discovered that it was actually platform one on the far side. We restarted the process again by going back into the terminal and finding that platform two was just outside the back door. Thank goodness it was just a two platform station! Next, we had difficulty finding our car during the one minute train stop and in the end just loaded everything into the last car of the train and took a couple of seats. After a couple of short stops up the coast and with help from a train attendant, we managed to find our correct seats and we could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the ride. As a real bonus they were even facing in the direction the train was travelling - a must have for Pat. It is so much easier to just get on your bike and start pushing the pedals!

Sainte-Barbe on the Bay of Saint Jean de Luz.

On the other side of the bay is the Fort of Socoa.

A lone row boat in the entire bay with the breakwater in the background.

Leaving the waterfront at Saint Jean de Luz.

Saint Jean de Luz marina which is located in the Nivelle River that flows into the Bay of Biscay.

A very clear shot of Larruyn at 905 metres high and at the western end of the Pyrénées. It is also the first peak you encounter on the coast to coast high Pyrénées route.

Place Louis XIV is quiet now with a couple of groups starting to assemble for a morning tour.

I wish we could take one of these Basque cheese cakes home with us. They look so good!

Our bikes and bags are packed. We have one minute to find our car and get this stuff on board - no pressure.

Arriving at the Toulouse train station we re assembled the bike Fridays and followed the canal bike path back to our hotel. For old times sake, we had a brief stop at the Botanist pub where we had had a beer just over four weeks ago on the day we arrived. A month ago, the Botanist was hopping and full of students and it was hard finding a table. Today it was about ten degrees cooler and only one other table was occupied. We got the message. It must be time to leave as the party seems to be over. The rest of the day was filled putting the bikes into their suitcases and packing our bags.

Dinner was at a Chez Tonton Pastis Ô Maître where happy hour was happy day on Mondays. Tables were getting trays full of glasses of pastis (a aniseed ABV 40% spirit drink) which is sold by the metre or 17 glasses. We stuck with the beer and hamburgers!

We set our alarms for 6:30 the following morning and the taxi picked us up at 7:45 thinking that our flight was at 10:30 but it was actually at 11:30. Oh well, better early than late and the Toulouse airport is really quite a nice space. It was dark and rainy when the taxi dropped us off. We laughed because going from the airport parking lot to the terminal was the only time we got wet on our entire trip. On a very positive note, our airline redeemed itself with two perfect, on time flights from Toulouse to Vancouver via Montreal. It's always a long day coming home from Europe and it is so nice to crawl into your own bed when it's all over.

Running for a flight in the Toulouse airport!

Line up to clear French Customs on exit, the way you like to see them.

Our home for the next 8+ hours on route to Montreal.

That's it for our cycling tour of the Basque country and this blog as well. Except for a brief trip review, it is now complete. Thank you to everyone who has followed along and those that left comments. We wish that we were better at responding to more of them but trust us, we do love hearing from you when we are on road. Until we meet again...

Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 997 km (619 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	11

Rich FrasierA great trip - thanks for recording it in a journal. I really enjoyed following along!
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6 months ago

Jacquie GaudetWhich airline did you use?
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6 months ago

Scott FenwickTo Jacquie GaudetHi Jacquie - We flew with Air Canada. They started the new service from Montreal to Toulouse in June 2023. We will use this airport again I would think. It is close to the city and easy to use plus being central and quite far south has some geographical advantages. Thanks for following along.
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6 months ago

Jacquie GaudetHmmm. Flying to Toulouse and then a two-hour train ride to Montpellier for next fall's tour might be the way to go.
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6 months ago

Michael HutchingThanks so much for an interesting ride- given us some ideas for next trip! Michael & Ann Hutching
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6 months ago

Kelly IniguezI've enjoyed following along and hope to borrow some of your route for 2024.
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6 months ago

Anne MathersGosh, with a few hot laps of the St Jean de Luz harbour you could have added 3kms to make it a nice cool 1000k 😜. Seriously though, I really enjoyed reading your journal. Many thanks for all the work to write it up each day.
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6 months ago

Suzanne GibsonLoved following along, thanks!
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6 months ago

Betsy EvansWhat a great trip you had. It was fun to follow you!
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6 months ago

David MathersAnother great tour…thanks for the journal. It brought back some memories from the past and new routes to follow in the future. Looking forward to seeing where you go next!
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6 months ago

Barry DevlinGreat trip - thanks for sharing, especially the "rock formations". Pat - I also totally get the "I have to be facing forward on a train", or a car, or a plane, a helicopter etc. Good to know I am not suffering alone. Welcome home.
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6 months ago