Argeles-Gazost to Arette

July 16, 2016

Col d'Aubisque plus two more

I had an early breakfast, toasted baguette with butter and homemade jam made with kiwis from the vine in the back yard, plus coffee and hot milk. I note that everybody seems to warm their milk in a microwave these days.

My hosts are lovely people. An older French couple, they are what those of us who didn't really know their grandparents would have liked. In fact, I think it was a grandson who was visiting yesterday, chatting with his grand-père and playing with the dog.

The house where I stayed in Argèles-Gazost. This is from the courtyard; the wall facing the street is essentially blank, with just a small "Chambres d'Hôte de France" sign.

I managed the get the border collie to be still for a few seconds!

Speaking of the dog, they have a very active border collie, always wanting to play with his toys. Unless, of course, it's time to go and feed the chickens, which he and the old fellow do every morning. Apparently he's obsessed with the chickens. I'm not sure where the chickens are, but they drove off just after I left and beeped as I crawled up the hill. I had a very short block of warm-up, from the house to the Rue d'Aubisque, also known as D 918, and then it was up all the way.

What's a "passage canadien"? According to Wikipedia, it's like a cattle guard but these (I saw several) seem far less hazardous to ride across than the ones I've seen in BC and, unlike those in BC, none of the ones I noticed in France had fences on either side--nothing to prevent animals from simply going around them.

Approaching from the east, Col du Soulor comes first. It's pretty nice in itself, but it's the giant Cirque du Litor between it and Col d'Aubisque that make the entire route so spectacular. I had to keep stopping, even on the downhill coasts, just to look.

On the way up Col du Soulor, I was passed by another loaded tourer (euro-style, with everything piled on the back), a young man who greeted me as he passed. I saw him again at the top, but he started onward before I did.

Along the section of road that curves along the cirque between the cols, there was another loaded tourer going to other way. He too was stopping to admire and take pictures. We chatted for a bit; he was from St-Malo and doing a 3-week loop. We admired each other's gear: he had only seen Co-Motion bikes on the Internet and I the same with Gilles Berthoud panniers. When I told him that I always had trouble with my rear derailleur, one of the gears was uncooperative, he said he had quite a bit of experience with such things and offered to try and adjust it. I accepted, and after his tuning, it's the best it's ever been.

I had to keep stopping to look at the view.

The road leading north (see here across the valley) is also indicated as scenic on my Michelin map. A group of British roadies was heading that way to get to Col de Spandelles (which I know because they used my map to verify their route).

At the top of Col d'Aubisque, I had a sandwich and bought another souvenir jersey. I just had to; it was so beautiful up there I didn't want to leave.

But I did, and descended down, down, down to Eaux-Bonne. Just below Eaux-Bonne, I noticed some roadies coming up along a smaller road. I checked my map and turned onto the quiet route through Béost and then switched to the D 934. It's red on the map and there's a parallel road on the other side of the river, the D 240, but the fellow from St-Malo had said it was preferable to take the main road since it had a good shoulder and the minor road had a lot of unnecessary hills.

I thought this was the building housing the thermal baths, but no, it's a casino!

At Bielle I stopped for a cold drink. Decision time: Col de Marie-Blanque or Bois du Bager. I chose Marie-Blanque and the Plateau de Bénou was interesting, but given the high temperatures, I probably should have chosen the Bois.

Interesting flowers on the Plateau de Bénou made a good reason to stop and take a photo.

These prickly things were a good excuse to stop too.

At Escot I turned onto the N 134 for 5 km then escaped onto D 918 again. The last few kilometres seemed very long! I finally arrived at the tourist office in Arette and who should be there but the young man who'd passed me in Arrens this morning. He is Basque, and had not come over Col de Marie-Blanque, probably a wise choice. He was continuing on to Tardets, where he knew a place to camp for free. I, however, was done.

And having descended, I was now on the Route du Fromage!

The municipal campground at Arette is quite nice, the first one I've seen with cooking facilities, and the operator gave me both a discounted rate and a dinner recommendation. There are two restaurants in Arette, but "on ne mange pas bien" at the one in the hotel. The other, called Gouiallardeu, was better. Of course, I took his advice.

As usual, I chose the menu. This one was different, though. It had a course before the entrée, garbure. I wondered what that might be and it turned out to be a vegetable soup brought to my table in a personal tureen. For dessert I chose gâteau basque, of course.

Distance 90 km; ascent 2132 m; descent 2282 m

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Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 1,067 km (663 miles)

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