annhig

Closer to the time, you can find more detailed maps and details of the route, right down to the minute they will pass through each village and major intersection>>


crystal balls optional, presumably.

Stu - your attention to detail and generosity with your time is phenomenal. Bravo.

RT2015

Yes annhig I couldn't agree more. Stu you are super helpful so thank you so much.

I now feel terrible to have to point out my plans, which I should have earlier. I have booked flights from Australia, arriving into Barcelona on Saturday, July 4 2015. I will spend a week in Spain, leaving San Sebastian on Sunday July 12, by bus over to France before picking up a car (if I can get a car in Biarritz on a Sunday ...) and driving to the Pyrenees.

I anticipate we will stay only four nights in the region (three if I have to wait til Monday to get the car). So preferably we stay in one spot and can hire bikes and explore the surrounding area for a few days on foot and wheels. I am hoping we will watch the TdF stage on Wednesday, July 15, before leaving on Thursday, July 16.

We will then drive to Bordeaux and drop the car off before getting the TGV to Paris. Unfortunately we won't have time to use Bordeaux as more than a stopover. Taking into account the Thursday will be a travel day, we will then have about nine days left in France (will leave on Sunday July 26 to head over to Italy for two weeks, where I want to go to Cinque Terre,Tuscany and Rome. I will then fly to London for five nights and then home on August 14.)

I am thinking of keeping the time from July 16 open ended at the moment. I would love to spend four or five days in Paris and then to to Chamanoix and Zermatt but it really depends on the logistics of all of this. I think we could get the TGV to Lyon and then a bus, or again hire a car for four days or so, drop it off and somehow get to Italy - haven't worked that bit out yet!

Thanks again Stu!

StuDudley

The Biarritz train station car rental office is open Sundays 9:00-18:00.

Stu Dudley

RT2015

Great, thanks Stu, you are an absolute wealth of helpful information

RT2015

Hi guys,
So I looked into hiring a car for this trip and am keen to book, but then my travelling buddy expressed concern about driving in the mountains. Coming from Australia - and a city at that - neither of us have experience driving mountains (my skiing experience has been as a passenger in a car while my partner drove up NZ mountains so that's not much use) and so my friend is worried we won't enjoy it, or will find it tricky. We are both girls - not that I ever think gender should limit us, but cars are my exception here!

Opinions? How tough is the terrain from Biarritz to the Pyrrenees?

annhig

IMO the terrain isn't tough, and in July you shouldn't have any snow to worry about, though you might get some rain, I suppose, but dealing with the curves in the road can be a strain for the driver - in order to deal with the changes in height, the roads tend to bend round the mountain rather than going straight over the top, which can lead to some wonderful views but also some interesting hairpin bends.

if you decide to do it, don't do what we did many years ago which was to leave DH's jacket in a cafe on one side of the mountains, and only discover it when we got to what was then the necessary passport control on the other side. Driving over those mountain passes 3 times in quick succession does not make for a happy holiday atmosphere.

StuDudley

If you expect to visit & experience some wonderful mountain settings & views in your life - you're going to have to start driving in the mountains sometime. The Pyrenees are a good place to start. I can think of about 4-5 drives that scared me a little - but none of them were in the Pyrenees.

Stu Dudley

kerouac

The mountain roads are rarely difficult in France. The only challenge is to never forget what side of the road you are supposed to be on, because anybody who has done mountain driving knows very well that in the seemingly empty sections, most cars tend to spread themselves all over the road to go around curves -- just make sure you end up on the correct side coming out of the curves. Being a Continental driver, I scared myself a few times in places like Mauritius and South Africa by forgetting that I didn't have the road all to myself.

RT2015

Thanks everyone. I will pass your feedback on to my friend. Do you know if there many hairpin bends or tough climbs from Biarritz to Arreau or from Arreau to Bordeaux that we should be prepared for?

eigasuki

If I can do it, you can do it! Though I felt sorry for the people behind me, and it probably didn't do wonders for the clutch.

These aren't tracks, they're actual roads albeit narrow in places and lacking in places to pull over and let the cars behind pass! And what <B>kerouac</B> said. The only time I was seriously on the wrong side was when I did a three point turn to reverse direction, set off on a deserted road only to be confronted with motorbikes coming right at me!

Do learn the etiquette of using pull-outs and those arrows that tell who has priority. Worth it for the views, especially the passenger who can enjoy the actual views. I met lovely French couple at the top of the Col d"Aspin when everyone stopped as there were cows all over the road. Everyone took the opportunity to take photos and take a breather until some impatient driver ina huge car came roaring up, tooting and scattering our bovine companions.

eigasuki

Oh, <B>annhig</B>, that would have had to be a very much-loved and valuable jacket for me to go back. Coming back from Saint-Lary, I detoured quite some Kms to get back to Lourdes via the autoroute because I was too scared to attempt the Col d'Aspin in the dark. (Yes that's how long it took for for the traffic to flow after everyone came down from the summit after the race finished, official buses and cars to clear and us mortals to fire our engines.

In Bordeaux I stayed at Mama Shelter, a fun and funky place near the cathedral. I got a taxi there after I dropped the rental car at the station but used the trams to get back to the station next day. Great area for shopping and eating.

Don't miss the Grotte du Mas d'Azil that Stu
mentioned - amazing.

RT2015

Thanks everyone! I think the stories sound priceless even if a little scary at the time for some of them! Such experiences I think are what makes a trip and sre always easier to do when there is someone else in the car with you

annhig

Oh, annhig, that would have had to be a very much-loved and valuable jacket for me to go back.>>

it wasn't so much the jacket, eigasuki, as the passport and money that were in it.

actually it was lucky that there was a passport control in those days as otherwise we might have driven much further before we discovered "our" mistake. The jacket, BTW, was exactly where DH had left it, over the back of the chair where he'd been sitting, complete with all its contents. Phew.

RT - you're right that it is those sorts of things that make a trip, but sometimes not in a good way!