Lots of people ask for suggestions on routes and hotels down to the Pyrenees.
In this thread and the posts following I will try to suggest some that work reasonably well, running from Calais to Argeles Gazost, in the French Haute Pyrenees, south of Lourdes. With a bit of imagination they could all be adapted to suite anyone crossing via Caen, Cherbourg or St Malo or, of course, arriving from elsewhere else.
Are all the routes perfect? No, of course not. That being said, they should work well enough to get you from Calais to Argeles and back, avoiding many motorways and bringing in some very good country roads. Should I do it again, the only really significant change I would make would be to miss out Mantes on the last leg home. It is full of traffic lights, all apparently on red. A bit of time with a half decent map would solve the problem. There are some slight routing glitches that I have not edited out but nothing that will ruin anyone's day.
The hotels are all Logis de France, all of a good enough standard and friendly. OK, you can find cheaper (and certainly more expensive) and the whole journey is littered with camp sites, for the ‘Night under the stars and canvas’ merchants. For once I also added up how much the nine days away cost, too. Room prices are for single occupation.
Is Argeles a good base? Probably yes, if you want to be in France, in a reasonably large town, with a good choice of cheapish touristy type restaurants. It has good access to all the ‘must does’ in the central Pyrenees and is OK for jumping off into Spain, too. We stayed for four nights riding many of the local colls, along with a ride-out further north and a drop into Spain. We had planned to stay for three nights but extended to four as we lost most of one day when the weather clamped down. It’s the only trouble with mountains; One minute it’s +30c with views for miles, the next it is down to 11c above 1000 meters and visibility of three meters or less.
As the routes are all held on one file, I will break up each into the separate days, ending up at the evening’s hotel, along with some notes etc. It will be a work in progress, so I will lock the thread up just until it’s all finished.
Richard
PS As a slight aside. I tried my British credit card in each of the fuel stations I visited that had automatic pumps. 100% success, except for one. That one would not work with my French card either, nor for Mr Gauloise who followed me.... so the card reader was fecked.
In this thread and the posts following I will try to suggest some that work reasonably well, running from Calais to Argeles Gazost, in the French Haute Pyrenees, south of Lourdes. With a bit of imagination they could all be adapted to suite anyone crossing via Caen, Cherbourg or St Malo or, of course, arriving from elsewhere else.
Are all the routes perfect? No, of course not. That being said, they should work well enough to get you from Calais to Argeles and back, avoiding many motorways and bringing in some very good country roads. Should I do it again, the only really significant change I would make would be to miss out Mantes on the last leg home. It is full of traffic lights, all apparently on red. A bit of time with a half decent map would solve the problem. There are some slight routing glitches that I have not edited out but nothing that will ruin anyone's day.
The hotels are all Logis de France, all of a good enough standard and friendly. OK, you can find cheaper (and certainly more expensive) and the whole journey is littered with camp sites, for the ‘Night under the stars and canvas’ merchants. For once I also added up how much the nine days away cost, too. Room prices are for single occupation.
Is Argeles a good base? Probably yes, if you want to be in France, in a reasonably large town, with a good choice of cheapish touristy type restaurants. It has good access to all the ‘must does’ in the central Pyrenees and is OK for jumping off into Spain, too. We stayed for four nights riding many of the local colls, along with a ride-out further north and a drop into Spain. We had planned to stay for three nights but extended to four as we lost most of one day when the weather clamped down. It’s the only trouble with mountains; One minute it’s +30c with views for miles, the next it is down to 11c above 1000 meters and visibility of three meters or less.
As the routes are all held on one file, I will break up each into the separate days, ending up at the evening’s hotel, along with some notes etc. It will be a work in progress, so I will lock the thread up just until it’s all finished.
Richard
PS As a slight aside. I tried my British credit card in each of the fuel stations I visited that had automatic pumps. 100% success, except for one. That one would not work with my French card either, nor for Mr Gauloise who followed me.... so the card reader was fecked.
