SW France & The Pyrenees
 

Hi all, hope you are enjoying the UK biking weather!!

I'm off to France 1st-12th August. I have friends near Bordeaux where I will base myself. I've never ridden the Pyrenees so I fancy having a go this year.

Can anybody recommend good roads & places to stay? I'm not into camping so any decent biker friendly hotels would be great!!

Thanks for reading,

JC

Hi JC,
I've just came back from the Pyrenees a couple weeks ago. I can recommend you the N-260, good road. I stayed at Hotel Sanchez in Ainsa, nice hotel.
Hotel Sanchez de AÃ*nsa, su hotel en el Pirineo Aragonés | Hotel Sánchez AÃ*nsa
There is a little slide show on youtube about my trip.
YouTube - Postcards from France & Spain, June 2009

Thanks for the tip, I checked out you photo's. Looked like you had a terrific time. How long where you away?

JC

only for 2 weeks. Have fun and enjoy your trip!

Gavarnie!
 

Gavarnie is well worth a look, there is a small campsite if you carry on through the almost pedestrianised little town centre. a walk uphill from there takes you to the hugely impressive natural ampitheatre, where they annually have a festival, classical music usually but in this setting it must be awesome whatever your musical taste! starts on the 16th tho i think so you will just miss it :( Gavarnie.com for info. pizza restaurant is good too

I was down that way a couple of months ago, I went from bordeaux region, over the Aragnouet/Bielsa tunnel and down to Ainsa, then south to the Costa del Sol. Ainsa is a fine place to stay. I used the Los Arcos which is in the heart of the old village. Parking is not really allowed in the 'historic' square but the owner said it would be fine as it was not the peak season or a weekend. And so it was, I didn't even bother to fully unload the bike 'cos it felt safe and I was tired!

The southern side of the Pyrenees is a stunning area, very tranquil in April when I was first there, I returned a month later against a constant flow of traffic heading south, and by now it's prolly crawling with tourists. But still well worth seeing. - beautiful pristine scenery and tons of wildlife including massive birds of prey.

In the travellors stories section I have written up my outward trip , but still not got round to documenting the return trip..really must get round to it.

Anyway... enjoy!

Hi JC,

Am heading down that way for a couple weeks in the last week of July. Can't speak for places to stay (we'll be doing a mixture of camping and staying in Gites) but as regards roads, I'd recommend you get a folding michelin map (number 722 for france) as they very nicely mark all the best/most scenic roads. We've been able to plan what would appear to be a great route the whole way down. Also, ceck how old your maps are. I just replaced my old map as the french recently changed all/most of the road numbers. I'm sure others here will have specific roads but michelin map's cheap, doesn't take up any space and will allow you to pick the best roads between any 2 points.

Have a great trip!