Ibis Pau Centre

... nothing much new awaits. Meanwhile, the prospect of your own bed begins to appeal...
So, there we are: mission accomplished. Above all, I have to say that I for one am mighty relieved that we have managed without any mishaps. Always a worry, whenever you leave home. There were moments - say, in the hills of deepest Albania - where I did wonder what the hell we would do if we broke down. Fortunately, this wasn't a problem.
Overall highs: without a ...

A brief stop over so that Mike could revisit Pau where he spent a month on a French exchange more than 50 years ago!
First we thought we should have a look at Lourdes as it was very near. It was difficult for us as dedicated athiests to understand the place. It is full of pilgrims but there did not seem to be any sense of joy. The buildings were magnificent and impressive,but the surrounding streets were full of very tacky souvenir shops all ...

... 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 ...

WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID: After a group dipping of our toes in the Atlantic, we depart at 09.00am and head up the coast road for a while before turning inland on a selection of beautifully quiet roads.

Today we pass through the Basque heartland with distinctive burgundy and white buildings, bullrings and pelot courts. Unfortunately we will not have much time for sightseeing as we undulate our way over the Col De St ...

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.

... 10-15 minutes before we found a Frenchman who spoke very good English who was happy to take us the rest of the way to Toulouse. Great, this was going very well! The next part however is the slight hick up; the guy giving us a ride wasn't going into Toulouse so decided to drop us at one of the off ramps from the highway - but he assured us it was roughly 2km to the centre of the city. After over a hour of walking Andy and I made it to the city centre and ...

... of the valley below before climbing again to the ski resort of Hautacam (1250m). Our four days in the Pau area are a packaged tour organised by Cyclomundo. Pau Office de Tourisme (map)

... My Spanish classmate told me that there are in fact two very specific varieties of cows in Spain, neither of which goes by the generic moniker of "Spanish Cow." Mais quand meme, it's likely that neither ever attended the Sorbonne. " à la vache! " Ca veut dire, " to heck with it! ". A harmless colloquialism used to express frustration (much less crude than others that I've been privileged to learn while ...

... year. Cursed Chinese work ethic making me look bad! What makes it so much easier to connect with these fellow non-native French speakers is a common MO. We have all presumably come to France pour apprendre le francais. Therefore, whereas native French students who are here for their own studies (l'histoire, la chimie, les lettres) ultimately find it burdensome to talk to un débutant tel que moi, the other foreignors practically view it as ...

Bonjour et Bonjour mes amis, Je vous présente mon travel blog. The blog is for anyone who has any desire to hear about how my semester here in France is going. I normally love exchanging emails with people, but the truth is that I didn't come to France to spend three hours a day in front of a computer screen. Donc, this journal is ...