Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 14: A day off with good friends

Today was a rest day, and we took advantage of it to see some old friends who moved to northwestern Spain last year. They kindly agreed to drive the two-and-a-half hours from their home to Saint-Jean-de-Luz to meet us for the day. 

We hadn't seen Patti and Ueli since before Covid started, so when they pulled up outside our Airbnb at 9:30 am, big hugs were in order. After chatting for a spell, we went out for a walk along the Grand Plage of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, across the bridge over the Nivelle River and into the neighbouring town of Ciboure, then up the other side of the bay, where we thought to get to the Fort de Socoa. But the day quickly turned very hot, and we were starting to get hungry, so we entered a bakery, bought sandwiches and drinks, found a bench to picnic on, and then decided that dipping our toes in the water (or, in Sonia's case, her whole body) was a more appealing prospect than trudging on to some old fort. 

We wended our way back to the Airbnb, slowly melting in the heat, stopped at what was apparently the only open grocery story in town this Sunday afternoon, bought a few provisions for dinner, and headed back to the relatively coolness of the apartment, where we had drinks and continued catching up. 

Thunderstorms swept through at around 4, which cooled things down deliciously, and then we made a light dinner before our friends headed back to their home in Spain. It's always a delight to see them, and we hope it won't be so long before the next time. 

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 13: Saint-Jean-de-Luz

Today, we are at a beautiful Airbnb with The. Worst. Internet. (Basically, non-existant.) So no pictures again for a while. Check back again later. 

As the crow flies, and as the optimistic mind roves, today was meant to be an easy day—a mere 30 kilometres, the long way around, down to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Our legs will tell a different story. 

The first 8 kilometres out of Bayonne, along the Adour River, were easy enough, though not particularly picturesque, as is so often the case when leaving a city. Reaching the mouth of the Ardour, we hung a left and headed south down the coast—which is when things started to go sideways... or should I say, vertical. 

We stopped at almost the first beach we came to, and Sonia went down to the water while I watched the bikes and had a double espresso. Turns out that the waves were a little too violent for her to get right in, so after a spell (we had done about 8km by this point), we got back on our way. Which is when the up and down really started. The next big destination was Biarritz and from there, the views were basically as breathtaking as the climbs. Just constant up and down—much of it quite doable, but some of it pretty tough. All of it totally worth it for the views. It was hard to keep your eyes on the road sometimes. 

We had lunch at a lovely little park overlooking the Grand Plage at Biarritz and then pushed on. We stopped again for coffee and pastries at a perfectly placed patisserie at Bidart, and then we reached Guéthary and knew we only had 6 kilometres left... oof. It took us 45 minutes to cover those 6 kilometres. 

Sonia handled the hills really well, and only had to push her bike up two of them (the latter of which was a truly brutal rutted gravel path with probably an 18% grade that even I had trouble pushing my bike up. The Vélodyssée really can be quite an adventure at times. 

We arrived at the Airbnb at 3 pm on the dot and waited for our host to open it up. There is a lovely beach just a 5 minute walk down, and Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a 15 minute walk down the road. We have a lovely view, a comfortable bed, and, alas, terrible internet, which seems to be a theme on this trip. 

Cycle Tour 2022 – Days 11 & 12: Vers le pays Basques

The descent south down the Vélodyssée is lovely but, like the stretch down the Canal de Garonne, there's not a lot of variety—you're either riding through quite heavily managed pine forest, or you're riding through a dusty beach town that, depending on its size, may be lively and open for business or sleepy and mostly still boarded up for the winter. 

So I didn't really feel like writing another missive describing basically the same day. But as we ride south, we are decidedly heading toward Basque country, and in these latitudes, though it is early in tourist season, it is most definitely tourist season. There are more shops and cafés open, and the atmosphere is much livelier. 

While lovely, yesterday was much the same as the previous day. We rode through forests, stopped at a beach for lunch, stopped at what turned out to be a fantastic patisserie/boulangerie, and rolled into our digs for the night—a strange little guest house with shared bathrooms and kitchen. Not as as nice as our usual lodgings, but it was a roof over our heads for the evening. 

Today, we began to see some changes in landscape as we headed out of the coastal pine forest and into Basque country. But it was still very familiar country. We stopped for second breakfast at a roadside campsite, went to observe the beach and surfers at Plage du Penon, had lunch beside a river, negotiated a detour along a single-track forest path due to bridge repairs, and eventually rolled into Bayonne about 4 pm, a total of 60 kilometres that went by very quickly. 

One of the neat things about this part of our trip is that we keep bumping into the same groups of cycle tourists. As we were pedalling the ups and downs of the terrain around the Dune of Pilat a few days ago, we stopped and chatted (in our broken Spanish) with a Mexican couple who were riding from Paris to Madrid. Then yesterday, as we left Mimizan Plage, we encountered a pair of French women who were having tire troubles. We asked them if they were OK (they were) and chatted for a few minutes before moving on. Then later that day, as we were finishing up our lunch at Saint-Girons Plage, another couple, whom we had met at a grocery store in La Hume a few days previous, pulled up, and then shortly afterward, the two French women stopped as well. It was like a family reunion. We had another really lovely chat, exchanging stories and information about various trips, before moving on. Then a few hours later, we all happened to stop at the same grocery store in Léon at around the same time. More conversation and even some sharing of chocolate. It was a really lovely sense of camaraderie. Today, we ran into the Mexican couple again just before entering Bayonne. More conversation, though brief, because our Spanish is not great, but again, that sense of camaraderie. I really love this part of our trips. 

We checked into our hotel in Bayonne, overlooking the Nive River, went for a swim in the hotel pool, showered and went out to explore the town. This far south, the cities escaped the bombing of WWII, and Bayonne has retained much of its 17th-century charm; it's clearly a bustling, vibrant place. We had a nice dinner at a bistro alongside the Nive and wandered some more, the two tired (but content) cyclists heading generally back to the hotel just as the town was coming to life on this Friday night.

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 10: Riding the Vélodyssée

Today we woke up to overcast skies and deliciously cool temperatures. But, as predicted by the forecast, the cloud burned off in the late morning, and most of the rest of the day was lovely and sunny and a little cooler than the previous days. Perfect cycling weather, actually. 

We rode out of Biscarosse Plage at about 9:30 and were rudely treated to a fairly tough climb over several kilometres as we headed inland. But this totally doable route through a lovely pine forest was much preferable to the easier and shorter route along the busy highway; we will take that tradeoff most days. The glorious descent down the other side of what was, essentially, a big forest-covered dune, took us down to the Lac de Cazeaux et de Sanguinet (this is one lake, folks) then down through Biscarosse "ville" and south to a second lake with another weird doublet name, Lac de Biscarrosse et de Parentis. All of this was quite gorgeous. We stopped for a quick second breakfast along a canal between the two lakes and then continued on to Gastes, on the south shore of the southern lake, for our lunch and a tea ceremony. And of course Sonia could not resist getting in the water, which was significantly warmer than the Atlantic.

After a solid hour break, we pushed on. Though the whole day was on bike paths, much of this middle part of route was alongside roads, but most were not particularly busy. Just before the town of Mimizan, the Véodyssée hangs a sharp right and heads back up over the same glorified dune we crossed in the morning, though it is much lower at this latitude. The reason for this jog inland is that most of the coastline between Biscarosse Plage and Mimizan Plage (our destination for the day) is occupied by a military base. Tomorrow, there is no such obstruction, and we'll be heading straight down the coast. 

Mimizan Plage is also a surf town, but also much more touristy than Biscarosse Plage. One particularity of these towns is most of the Airbnbs don't offer bed linen and towels, which strikes them off the list for us. So we booked what turned out to be a cute little hotel within sound of the surf (which is quite high today) and treated ourselves to dinner at a restaurant in the town—only the second time Sonia and I have eaten out together since the pandemic started. What a treat!

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 9: The Atlantic coast

There's always a period on these tours where we get a little down; a time when, if we could choose so in that low moment, we might simply pack up and go home. We only recognized it in retrospect on the first few trips, but on our last trip, in 2019, we kind of knew what to expect. So feeling that little sag yesterday, and perhaps somewhat the day before, in Bordeaux, was not a surprise. Though we recognize the phenomenon, it's still hard to pin down the cause. Maybe it's just a bit of fatigue as our bodies habituate to the rigours of daily physical exertion. Or perhaps it's getting used to looking for a place to stay every evening. Or simply adapting to a different culture. Who knows, but today, I think we have turned the corner. 

It certainly helps to do a pretty spectacular day of cycling. We were on the road by 9:30, and headed lazily north toward the resort town of Arcachon—as gorgeous a beach resort as you'll ever see farther south. This Tuesday morning in early May, the beaches were pretty deserted, but I'm quite certain that in high season, these vast stretches of white sand must be packed with Beautiful People. 

The water sang its siren song to Sonia, and she, of course, was helpless to resist. Fortunately, there were ample well-shaded benches along the broad promenade where someone with a less sun-loving complexion could wait in comfort. 

We took our time riding around the Archacon bulge and then headed south toward the Dune of Pilat, which I had not heard of before researching this trip but which is one of those wild geological phenomena that are absolutely worth seeing. 

By now, we were back on the EV1 (Vélodyssée). This is a really beautiful bike path. It does do quite a bit of up and down, but nothing too dramatic. South of the Dune of Pilat, it follows the main road, and the dune is a looming presence for 6 or 7 kilometres as you head south. It really is quite surreal. Then the path turns inland from the road, and you ride through a long stretch of really lovely coastal pine forest. 

We arrived at our cozy little Airbnb in the little surfer town of Biscarosse-Plage at about 4 pm and settled in. The beach here is only a 5 minute walk away, but this evening, the offshore wind set in and it was a little too brisk for even the most intrepid Canadienne to dare the waters. Only the wetsuit-clad surfers were so brave. 

Also, a housekeeping note. I have been putting a bit of pressure on myself to post every day on this tour, and I'm not sure it's healthy. But I also know that I have a number of readers who follow the blog daily and who might be worried if I suddenly skip a day. So I just wanted to say that henceforth, I'm giving myself the option of skipping a day or two if the inspiration (or time) to blog does not inspire me. So don't panic if I miss a day here and there. :)

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 8: By train, bike, and foot.

This morning, we bid farewell to Bordeaux. We were out of the apartment by 9 am and heading toward Bordeaux's train station, Gare de Saint-Jean, less than 2 kilometres away, to catch the 10:04 train to Arcachon. We could have ridden out to the Bassin d'Arcachon, a wide, shallow bay southwest of Bordeaux formed by Cap Ferret, but, to stay on bike paths, it would have meant travelling quite far north and east before heading back south toward north end of the bay. That would have taken a whole day in itself, and then another to get around the bay, and by all accounts, that particular path is somewhat boring. So we decided to simply take the train and save ourselves two days. 

The whole of Baie d'Arcachon is a big-time beach area, and even in early May, the train to the town of Arcachon filled up pretty quickly before the train even left Bordeaux. But as is our habit, we were there early and so were among the first on the train and got a good spot for our bikes. But as the train approached its terminus, it got quite full. I can only imagine what it must be like on summer weekends!

We got off at La Hume, a few stops before Arcachon, shortly before 11 and went in search of a snack, coffee, and some information at the tourist office. These tasks accomplished, we cycled to the beach and waited a half an hour before our appointed noon rendezvous with our Airbnb host, who gave us a very warm welcome, that included four croissants, a baguette, and a beer in the fridge! 

After settling in, we hopped on our bikes, light as gossamer sans panniers, and headed back east toward La Teich, where there is a lovely bird sanctuary. It was nice to be able to lock up the bikes and take a walk. The sanctuary boasts six kilometres of trails among the bay's salt marshes, along with 20 hides, lots of shade and benches, and, well, birds. Though we were in the hottest part of the day, the tide was high, so many of the waders were fairly close in. We saw quite a few interesting birds on our walk, along with a foot-long bright green lizard. We rode back to our beach house via the EV1 (locally called the Vélodessée), a bit more relaxing than the trip east along some busy roads closer to the shore. On the way, we stopped for supper provisions. 

After supper, we took a walk on the beach to watch the sun go down. Tomorrow, we turn our wheels resolutely south as we head down the Vélodyssée toward the Spanish boarder. 

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 7: A day in the big city

Yesterday evening, we took in the Saint-Michel Basilica, a two-minute walk from our apartment, where there just happened to be free organ concert going on, so we sat and listened for a while to some Bach and Schumann for a time before deciding to continue our exploration. We always manage to find a little music by happenstance on these trips. We continued our wandering east for a time before heading back, picking up some groceries for dinner, and returning to the apartment. 

An organ concert in Bordeaux

Some lovely reflections

Today, we woke up at 7:30ish and had a fairly lazy breakfast, then set off to explore Bordeaux on foot. Sonia had found a walking tour online, which we more-or-less followed in a big circle, passing by the Porte Cailhau, the Place de la Bourse, with its huge Miroir d'eau reflecting pool (though with the dogs and toddlers joyfully running through it, the "mirror" part was lacking), the Opéra/Grand Théâtre, the Place des Quinconces (where we bought sandwiches from a stand), the Jardin public (where we ate said sandwiches), the Place des Grands Hommes (home to numerous upscale shops, which were all closed because May 8 is a holiday in France, VE Day), the Saint-André-de-Bordeaux Cathedral, where we stopped at a market to pick up some vegetables for dinner, and finally back down Cours Victor-Hugo past the Grosse Cloche, where we found a lovely little café in the shade and had coffee/tea and tasted the Bordelais speciality pastry canelé. We managed to pick up the rest of the ingredients for supper, plus a few other treats, on our way home. 

Place de la Bourse in the Miroir d'eau (actually less than half of it)

L'Opéra

Cathédrale Saint-André-de-Bordeaux

La Grosse Cloche (from our little café)

Whew!

Back in the apartment for a little rest, we took an hour or so to plan out the next leg of our journey and book tomorrow night's Airbnb. 

Bordeaux is certainly a very lovely city—but it's a city, and we're always happier to be on our bikes heading down the road. As I write this, Sonia has gone back out to seek out the very few shops that have opened today. I'm going to make supper and put the finishing touches on this entry before crashing for the night. We have a train to catch tomorrow morning... but more on that later. 

Cycle Tour 2022 – Day 6: In which we make it to Bordeaux

 After a glorious sleep and a copious breakfast, for which we had only to walk down the hall, we said goodbye to our hostess at Domaine de Gaïa (and if you're in the area, I don't think you'll be disappointed) and headed back down to the Piste Roger Lapébie and toward Bordeaux. As we were riding away, I remarked to Sonia that, for me, the mornings are truly what make these trips special. I can take or leave the afternoons. But the mornings—the fresh air, singing birds, awakening landscape, the sense of renewed adventure—are magical. 

The PRL is a wonderful rail trail that reminds me a little of the Petit train du nord in Quebec, but also of some of the rail trails in the Eastern Townships. It's beautifully paved and cuts through vineyards, farmland, and small towns—all picturesque in the extreme. 

A cool tunnel on the PRL

At Sauve, we headed into town to have a look at the old Abbey, but both it and the town's only patisserie were closed (the latter permanently, alas), so we had a short look around and headed back to the bike path.

Grand-Sauve Abbey

We arrived in Créon, where we bought lunch provisions and a pastry but also stopped for second breakfast. From there, the trail was mostly, gloriously, downhill all the way to Bordeaux, so we made great time. We had hoped to have lunch beside the river, but most of the shoreline appears to be privately owned, so we forked inland at a promising green space and had lunch in a quiet spot away from the noise of the road that runs parallel to the river. 

Basilic Saint-Michel and the Pont de Pierre

From there it was a very short shot down the river, across the Pont de Pierre—which allows only trams, busses, cyclists, and pedestrians, imagine that—and over to our Airbnb for the next two nights, a cute little apartment right in the old part of town. We may well need earplugs to sleep, but that's the price to pay to be where we are. 

Tomorrow, the bikes will stay in the apartment (after being lugged up to flights of stairs) while we take a "rest" day and explore this ancient city. 

I have updated the previous two days' posts, if you want to go back and look at some pictures.