Appart'Hotel Victoria Garden Pau

Considered having one last night on the road, cracking our bottle or 9.99 Lidl champers (premier cru!). In the end, we opt to do the big dash & head for home. You reach that point where you just feel ready. Tedious... especially as the winds that blight SE France are blowing in full glory! However, the point has come, we decide, where there isn't much to be gained by staying out any longer. Feels good to be back on 'home' turf - but, as familiar ground ...

... the same statuettes and bottles in which to collect your holy water. It was difficult to feel any empathy with the people there when it seems to us to be little more than a huge sales opportunity for the church. Difficult to like but interesting to visit!

Mike could recognize very little of Pau as expected. It seemed a lot bigger, but it was interesting to revisit the were Mike spent a miserable and lonely month all those years ago

... down and back up the Col de

Soulor (1464m), which you will honestly hardly notice! The swoopy descent to Argeles-Gazost

is great and the pretty town provides a good opportunity to stop for some lunch. Unfortunately

from here we meet out first busy road which takes us up the gorge to Luz-St Sauveur. Next up

is the Col De Tourmalet (2115m), a mountain climb which ...

... 169m) and the Col De Pinodieta (176m) before lunch.

The walled town of St Jean Pied de Port offers a perfect lunch stop, and then we cycle on to our first proper climb over the Col D’ Osquich (500m). The sign of the small town of Arudy will no doubt be very welcome at the end of this 180km monster day! We get our Raid carnet stamped twice today – we are well on our way!

WHAT I EXPERIENCED:

So, nearly ready for the off! Thankfully, false alarm about arrival of guests to take over house in absence means we have one more day in which to prepare... much needed!
We will just about get there - I think.
Round about now it occurs to us we really ought to have assembled scooter on trailer and gone for little spin to test strapping arrangement, etc... just to make sure it all holds up. Oh well, the road will be a good test of all that... I guess.

... they decide in Toulouse within the next couple of days, and probably most cities after that. Fantastic. During the course of the following morning I learn something new about the Romanian, he is a serial snorer. Thankfully I had shot gunned the only spare bed in the house and therefore appeared to be the only one who got a decent nights sleep. I wouldn't want the group to be exposed to a grump, sleep deprived Sian so I guess it was lucky for them I had the bed! We were ...

After arriving in France, I've inevitably learned a lot of French. Every once in a while I'll run into a new word or expression that seems to open me up to a whole new world of communication. As in, from that point on, I can't imagine how I was able to live without knowing this particular French phrase. In my case, there are two petits morceaux de français that I ...

... every to leave the building, and the little political revolutionaries proceeded to barricade all entrances to the building with chairs and tables. En somme, it is uncertain whether the university will continue to function normally. Mais ne t'inquete pas, the French courses for the anglophones will simply be moved to a different building. The only thing I'm worried about is it that the cafeteria is going to get closed down.

... that I thought a horned pig was aggravating me in real life. My eyes shot open awake and I actually threw a fist, which of course hit nothing but air. Until next time, phantom boar. You'll be mine! I have a theory, which isn't really a theory. I call it the Three Week Theory. En somme, it states that anything at all is worth trying and experiencing for at least three weeks. C'est à dire, in my experience, three weeks is all you really need to get a good ...

... the more local social scene here. Despite the many activities and new people and beauty of France, I'm definately getting to that point of where, as Carrie Bradshaw would say, the lonliness is palpable. I miss everyone from home, my bed that doesn't crunch when I lay down on it, a shower that is actually relaxing, a kitchen that I want to cook in, a place that really feels like home, everything. This is still the beginning and feeling this way is normal I ...