October 3, 2022
Laruns to Pau
No major climb today, in fact it was all downhill, well almost. It felt great to luxuriate in bed knowing there wasn't a col to climb. We roused ourselves to get dressed and head out looking for croissants and coffees before cruising on to Pau, a 45km ride under full sunshine, again. We feel very lucky with the weather. We met another cyclist at our hotel, Jules from Australia, who has been looking for the sun for days. He's come down the French coast from England all the way to San Sebastian and yesterday was his first full day of sunshine.
It was a delightful ride on quiet D roads which at first was in the shade of steep rock walls before opening up to rolling hills of pastures, small farms and woods. The only climb was half way. With an incline of at least 15%, we spent half an hour pushing our bikes up hill. More pushing than all of the previous four days. We were feeling pretty good with our col climbs, however a serious hill in the Midi-Pyrenees brought us down to earth in a hurry.
After that it was a well-appreciated downhill roll into Pau. Steve remarked how, up until a week ago, he'd never heard of the place, but what a lovely city it is. Between a delicious lunch in a pedestrian square and a walk about before supper, everything we've seen so far we've been impressed with. Pau was a popular resort town at the turn of the last century and while it hasn't the international recognition of Bordeaux or Toulouse, it still retains much of its grandeur. There's the beautifully restored chateau and ramparts, the free funicular to the gardens and train station in the lower town, a nice little beaux-arts museum, the splendid buildings- renaissance and Art Deco, fancy regional wine and cheese stores, lots of elegant decor and clothing boutiques and best of all there's the eye-popping walk along the terrace of the Boulevard des Pyrenees. To the north are the classic buildings and to the south is a panoramic view of the peaks of the Pyrenees, 50km away. Among the many peaks we could pick out the Pic de Bigorre, Pic d'Anie and the very evident Pic du Midi d'Ossau. What a vantage point to view the mountains that we spent the last week riding through.
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Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 916 km (569 miles)
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