France Road Trip – week 5 – Arreau

Sunday 8 May. Day 31. VE Day – Victory in Europe ceremonies in all towns and villages – two ceremonies in Arreau population 800 from where about 40 young men were killed in WWI. When Germany decided to ‘bleed France white’, it was surely felt in these small villages – which did not recover from the loss.

Sunday in France is a difficult time to buy fuel for a car. Small, local fuel stations switch to automatic – which is ok for locals but ordinary for us. Our chip/pin cards do not work in any of the automatic machines – toll booths, service stations. We were going to drive over the Col de Tormalet but being low on fuel, we tried to fill up first. We drove about 80 km following suggestions to fuel stations that were closed or automatic. We even tried an autoroute. No fuel. We came back to Arreau to wait for Monday when we hope the fuel stations will be open again. Spent some time watching a herd of goats and the goat dog.

Monday 9 May. Day 32. Half-way. There is no doubt that we made a good choice to come to stay at Arreau because of the Tour de France. Arreau is in the middle of TdF Pyrenees country. Today, we drove a few of the spectacular roads that the Tour frequently takes around here. (Tomorrow we will do more of the same.) Today, we drove east over the Col de Peyresourde, that appears to get a turn most years, to Luchon (where we stayed last trip).

Peyresourde is a deceptive saddle in that the road runs along long valleys without many switchbacks – but the elevation gain is about 1,000 metres over a long slow grind. From Luchon, we drove to Superbagneres (a ski hill just south of Luchon with a cable-car from Luchon centre). This is a brute of a climb that has been used several times as a TdF stage finish.

Lunch at Le Glacier at Luchon. A good formula meal. Quite full. Then we drove back over the Peyresourde on the D618 and turned off at Avajan onto the D25 and up an astounding road to Azet. (They will come down this road this year after slogging up to 1480m at Azet, they descend 900m? to Avajan then climb up to 1475m on Peyresourde.) Below us in the u-shaped valley of Loudenville we could count 13 villages and 2 ski resorts – 1 with a private landing strip. A spectacular valley. Then, on to St Lary Soulan in another spectacular valley. A bit spectaculared out today.

This is the 3rd time we’ve stayed in the High Pyrenees. The first time 2005 we were camping and stayed at Lescun (3 valleys west of here) which had poor access to all the TdF routes. In 2013, we stayed at Luchon, which had access to Peyresourde but long drives to any others. Arreau is ideal for the TdF route hunter – right in the centre of everything.

Tuesday 10 May. Day 33. A huge day. We drove for about 6 hours in order to drive a few parts that the TdF does or has taken. First, a big loop on the autoroute to Tarbes and then down to Lourdes (with its multi-gallon containers of holy water, and packs of tourists) and on to Hautacam. A ski hill that has been used often (though not this year). This is a gruelling grind up about a 1,000m in places at 11%. Not much of a view from the top (and we could not work out where the race stage would finish).

Then, on to try to get up the Col de Tourmalet – route barre with snow. I would have to say that what we saw of Col de Tourmalet explains why they use it so often. First, it is one of the few passes that run east-west across the Pyrenees; second, it is another punishing climb that appears to go on forever at about 10% The Route Barre was at the base of a ski resort that went up to the Col. Even coming down from where we got to appeared to go on forever. From there, we went on to Cirque de Gavarnie, a famous French tourist spot.

We had a picnic lunch and walked about 30mins along the cirque trail. A popular walking spot.The cirque is spectacular – but the Canadian Rockies leave it for dead. A long 2 hour drive back to Arreau as we retraced our outward path via Lourdes and Tarbes.

The wifi here is playing up. This is the only apartment this trip without wifi, so I am running everything through my iPhone hotspot. Not very satisfactory.

Wednesday 11 May. Day 34. Truncated. Thunderstorms forecast for 11am arrived on time. Quite wet for a while there. We drove up Col d’Aspin to Payolle (which is the end of this year’s stage 7). Then, on to climb up Col du Tourmalet from the east (They will come down here on stage 8 this year.) Route barre at La Mongie ski resort. (A huge resort that covered all the area of the Tourmalet – maybe 10 km long with many many chairs and cable lifts.) Back down the road to Peyolle and up the D113 road they will take over the Col de Ancizan down to St Lary.

This D113 road is a doozy. Usually ridden the reverse to this year’s ride. This year’s descent down from the Col to the valley will be extremely difficult – very narrow, winding and steep. Heavy rain at the bottom. Back to Arreau for lunch at the Creperie Bretonne – gallettes. An excellent meal of a savoury crepe for the main and a buttery crepe for the dessert.

Roads and drivers. How to cope. French drivers are very patient with lost drivers and cars doing very strange things. At Arreau we over look a busy-ish intersection – just over the river is a main road via tunnel to Spain, a narrow bridge delivers cars into the village where they are faced with an unsignposted intersection. In the morning, when large school buses are negotiation the bridge and intersection and cars are trying to park, drop off & pick up people, it all gets complicated with the very narrow streets -just wide enough for one car let alone buses and stopped cars. It is all done with curtesy and patience. Roundabouts – it is perfectly OK to pause and read the signs to workout where you want to go. Speed signs. Most road are 90 as the default. Village/town boundaries (marked by the name of the town/village) speed drops to 70 as the default. Busier parts are 50 and very busy/difficult parts are 30. Locals are impatient with long sections of 70 but certainly stick to the 50 & 30.

Motorways. Entry & exit to payed motorways – look for booths with downward pointing green arrows. These are ready for cash. Only French credit cards work in the credit card marked booths. Signs for ‘t’ are for electronic tags. Carry a collection of cash to pay with. Notes are accepted and change given at the green arrow booths. Driving. Keep right unless passing. When passing don’t hang around in the left lane for longer than absolutely necessary. Only pass on the left. Beware of cars bobbing in from your right as they pull out to pass slower vehicles often without indicating. Use you indicator to show intent. Be very watchful. Try to drive close to the speed limit – slow cars can be dangerous and other cars don’t know what to do about them.

 

Thursday 12 May. Day 35. Sunny morning and rain in afternoon. We took advantage of the sun and drove another part of this year’s TdF stage 8 from near St-Lary-Sourlan to Azet and up over the Col Azet-Louron. This is going to be another great climb and descent that together with the other 3 climbs/descents will make stage 8 a punishing one. The descents will probably see the peloton regroup after the climbs but the sprinters will be dropped off in the climbs. Possibly a break-away will succeed.

But the day itself will be tough enough to exhaust many. It will be a good stage to stay up and watch. (They have clearly used this Col before and it is a more punishing climb when done the other way. This time, the descent will be difficult with narrow winding roads.) Great views from the top.

Arreau had its weekly market today. Much more relaxed than the efficient stalls-installed-by-7-no-chat Paris markets. Very friendly and laid back. Arreau is an excellent thriving village and has been a great choice for us to stay in. For lunch, we went back to the Ar Menez Creperie Bretonne where we ate yesterday. Excellent. No wifi here is proving a bit of a disaster. Even editing this blog is proving difficult.