Day 9: Lourdes to Lestelle-Betharram After yesterdays marathon 12 hour effort, today was a short day, only 17km and 380m in elevation. I slept late, and the lady at breakfast took a pity on me, and gave me two of everything at the French breakfast (2 coffee, 2 croissant and 2 pieces of baguette). I spent the morning walking around…
Day 8: Bagneres-du-Bigore to Lourdes Today I experienced the great and worst of walking. Spectacular (an understatement) views, good walkable paths and clear signage. But also paths so overgrown and often muddy that one could discuss whether they can be considered paths at all, and worse, paths in the middle of nowhere that were closed – without warning and without…
Day 7: La-Barthe-du-Neste to Bagneres-du-Bigore It was a wet start to a long stage, 34km (of which 1km was following wrong paths) with almost 1000m of elevation and a highest point today at 850m. It had rained all night, and rained, albeit lightly, for a couple of hours after leaving the B&B. As La-Barthe-du-Neste isn’t on the official route, I…
Day 6: Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges to La-Barthe-de-Neste Van Morison sang “There will be days like this” and Paul Simon “Slip sliding away”. They pretty much sum up my day. Although a short day, 24km with 650m elevation, it was a day of challenges. It rained through the night with lightening every 5-10 seconds. Even the French had never seen anything quite like…
Day 5: Saint-Gaudens to Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges I am my own worst enemy. I was supposed to walk 22km, but ended up doing almost 30km, as I chose a different route that added 5km, and then walked a 3km diversion for lunch (which is the positive way of saying that I missed a turn and didn’t realise before I was close to…
Day 4: Boussens to Saint-Gaudens A longer walk than expected after I made a rookie error, but otherwise a pleasant day walking mostly along paths; 29km and 730m elevation. As I was staying on Boussens, I’m not on the official path that goes north of the town. Instead of tracking back to the path I took the main road out…
Day 2: Muret to Carbonne Today it was hot. 11C when I left at 8.00, 33C when I arrived at the hotel at 16.30 after 34km and over 1.000m elevation – before even reaching the Pyrenees. I left Muret without seeing a statue for Clement Ader, despite seeing several other statues of (very) historic people (men). Walking back towards the…
Day 3: Laghet to Menton Nostalgic in Menton, great views over the rich and famous in Monaco and Cap-Martin and rain. Today we said goodbye to Maggie and Göran and their fantastic hospitality over the past six days. Lene drove me to Laghet and the Sanctuaire Notre Dame de Laghet. Today’s destination was Menton, on the border between France and…
Day 1: Roquefort to Gattiers, La Manda We were staying with our Swedish friends, Maggie and Göran, from our time in France – our first return to the Cote d’Azur since 2014. After a good breakfast, Maggie, Göran, Lene and I drove to the La Manda bridge in Gattiers, walking this stage in reverse. It was a glorious day for walking. We…
